November 2014 Bob Seagren Issue of Vaulter Magazine

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November 2014 issue

contents

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FROM THE EDITOR

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Mental Heights: Pole Vaulting — Practiced Courage

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College Recruiting

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Bob Seagren: From Bamboo to Gold

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The Grip

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Preseason Form

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FROM THE EDITOR With half of the fall semester over, preseason training is underway. For high school seniors, this is the perfect time to start looking at schools and contacting coaches. This month, Penny Hanson has interviewed Wisconsin University, Madison coach Kyle Ellis to help high school students know what to look for in a school, how to start looking, and what to expect. Coach Ellis is a very insightful coach and his advice about how to pick a school and coach is worth your time.

The one and only Bubba Sparks has done it again by providing helpful tips to help make everyone’s vaulting the best it can be. This month, Bubba suggests specific drills and ways to practice in the preseason to prepare you for spring season and all your meets. His suggestions are great ideas because when you are in season competing every weekend, it can be hard to take the time to go back to perfect the little things. So take a look!

Anyone having trouble with their pole carry or how to grip the pole? This month coach Ellis has written an article just on grip to help you out. His

article will teach you what to do and the benefits of gripping this way. It will also tell you what not to do and why some grips can actually hurt your vault rather than help you. Sometimes it is the little things in your vault that can make a world of difference and coach Ellis’s article on grip could make a huge difference.

To all the vaulters who have hit a mental barrier at practice, Dolf Berle has written the perfect article for you. Every vaulter has hit that mental wall, has been a head case, and has psyched themselves out at practice. We know what you are going through.

Mr. Berle’s article is full of encouragement and gives suggestions on how to get out of that mental rut. His help and advice is much appreciated and we know you will find his article very beneficial.

Our featured article this month is on the legendary Bob Seagren. From his childhood stories to his 1968 Olympic victory, Seagren tells us everything about his vaulting career. This man’s story is one you don’t want to miss.

Last but certainly not least, we would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest writer Sadie Lovett. Sadie is currently a collegiate level pole vaulter at Eastern Illinois University and fits right in with our team. Welcome aboard Sadie and we look forward to reading your future articles.

Please enjoy all the articles we have this month. Thank you again for staying with us. We look forward to bringing you new and exciting things in our next issue! Until then, take care.

2014 Vaulter Club pole vault gymnastics

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Editor Doug Bouma editor@thevaultermag.com

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75 SC STATE CHAMPIONS, 10 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS, AND 3 “TEAM USA” (WORLD TEAM) SINCE 1998.

www.ShealyAthletics.com Rusty@ShealyAthletics.com

803-315-5998

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Mental Heights:

Pole Vaulting — Practiced Courage

By Dolf Berle I believe that courage can be practiced and that pole vaulting is practiced courage. Running fast towards something that could be dangerous, turning upside down in mid-air, getting on that bigger pole, holding two fingers higher, giving it your all on the last attempt when you are weary—these are acts of courage. They require overcoming self-preservation instincts and pushing past previous limits. If you are a vaulter, you become better and better at summoning the courage to do this most amazing of athletic accomplishments.

With practice, such acts of bravery become more routine.

With more practice, the courage inspired by vaulting carries over into all aspects of our lives.

So why are there days when we feel more brave than others? Why do some people muster courage routinely where others fail to do so? I am

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not a psychologist, but after vaulting for over 30 years I do have a few observations. At the root of courage in pole vaulting is confidence. Ultimate and consistent confidence is not easy to come by as a vaulter.

Confidence comes from that place where you know your body, your equipment, the weather, the facility, and your coach is all lined up for a good day. As a vaulter, you want to be the person who maximizes that opportunity, which means the internal workings of your mind need to be right so that you don’t squander the opportunity of all those great conditions. Even better, and even more frequently, you need to be able to maximize the situation when one or all of these conditions fail.

Over the years I have received some great advice from coaches such as Bubba Sparks, Brooks Morris, Buzz

and Chad Andrews as well as from my friend Gary Miller, the great Masters decathlete. This advice all supports bravery.

Here are some keys to being brave: 1) Don’t expect things to go perfectly, focus on being the best you can under the circumstances.

2) Practice under adverse conditions. If you have a chance to safely practice, once in a while, on unfamiliar poles when it is sleeting and there is a headwind, you will learn how to make the adjustments required to be brave under adversity as a vaulter.

3) Keep learning.

I remember watching Bubba practice vault drills left handed (he is a righty) so that he could keep exploring the proprioceptive frontier that is the vault.

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4) Create success routines and stick to them. We need to limit the number of variables in play so we can focus.

Watch what professional baseball players do as they get ready to face a pitcher throwing heat. We need ritual to prepare ourselves for the passionate, precise, and explosive moments that

are planting, takeoff, and swinging skyward.

5) Be inspired by others. Try to derive positive energy from both the exploits and failures of your fellow competitors.

You can learn something from everyone, even if they are not as proficient as you. If they are not as technically accomplished

as you are, perhaps they have character or zeal, which can inspire you to greatness.

It is important not to confuse bravery with stupid risk taking. These may be cousins, but they are distant cousins. Courage in the vault is attempting something new or challenging, which feels scary,

Dolf Medal Stand

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but which intellectually you most inspirational people and your coach know is within in the world. As a category, the capability of your body and women over the age of fifty the equipment you are using. who vault are doing something Pushing your boundaries is sensational. When I was an what requires courage, not undergraduate at Harvard in attempting something that the late seventies, we were is technically or physically told that women would never impossible or that has a high pole vault because they have likelihood of injury. Tim Mack, the inherent disadvantage of Athens Olympic PV Gold both a lower center of gravity Medalist, famously said that and proportionately weaker when he made his PR and winning Ryan Jerothe jump he knew he should be able to do it because all the numbers (speed, pole size, grip, take-off point) lined up.

The fact was that while this was true, he had never before attempted what he was about to do and it took a lot of nerve to win!

Who are the bravest vaulters?

We have astonishing examples of vaulters who are blind, or overcoming severe illnesses and still vault. These people are heroes among us. I have known world class Masters levels vaulters who competed until only weeks before they died. These are some of the

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arms. This was a statement made by a certified staff, including a Phd. in physics.

This was entirely wrong, and a disservice to women and to all of us. Women obviously can vault. They can obviously do

the decathlon well. In a number of cases they can out-perform most men. Grandmothers who vault are growing in numbers and are especially brave as they are casting off the shackles of hundreds of years of low expectations and scientific prejudice.

If you ever leave our sport (and I hope you don’t) I encourage you to remember the great lesson of pole-vaulting, which is that you are a brave person. You can do extraordinary things with practice. There will be times when the world will need you to be brave. There will be times when something needs to be done, which is hard, uncomfortable, or unpopular. There are situations, gatherings, and places that require at least one brave person who can make the difference for many. It may be at work, at school, in your community, or with your family. If you are a vaulter, if you are a person who has practiced the courage required in our event, you will be stronger in those moments. I am convinced of this having witnessed it all around me in our vaulting community for these many years.

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Brian Batliner

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Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About College Recruiting It was my pleasure to interview Kyle Ellis for this month’s College Connections article. Kyle is currently coaching at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also a club coach and an elite coach.

Kyle has had a lot of experience with the college pole vault recruiting environment and I asked him to give an overview of the process. I appreciate him taking the time to thoughtfully answer all of my questions. Here is my interview with Kyle: What is your pole vaulting background, both personally and professionally? Are you currently vaulting?

I vaulted from the age of 10 until I was 27 years old. I was fortunate to meet a lot of great vaulters and coaches during that time. I am retired from vaulting, but I am coaching at the collegiate level (University of Wisconsin), club level, and

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training one professional post collegiate vaulter.

What is the most efficient way for high school vaulters to research college vault programs?

I would say the most efficient way for high school kids to research a program is through the school’s website, look at the coach’s stats and

team stats. http://tfrrs.org/ is also good. On this site, you can see how the University pole vaulters did at their bigger meets (conference, regional, and national). It will also show you the top performers in each event on the team page.

Also, take a look at how their athletes are supported (poles, equipment, facilities, etc.)

What characteristics and statistics are present in a successful college program?

The depth of their pole vaulters is an indication of a good program. This usually shows support from the program and a good standing tradition.

Consistency is another. Are they consistently scoring at conference, making it to regionals, making it to nationals, etc?

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Kyle Ellis

How should high school athletes research college pole vault coaches?

Look at the top 10 list and look at how many of those marks are from the current coach. Read their bio on the school’s website. Look at what the kids are coming in jumping and how much they have been developed in that program.

Google the coach and see what other information you can find on them.

What is the recruitment timeline?

Understanding that students may not speak to coaches until after their junior year, how can juniors and sophomores prepare to vault in college?

This has changed recently with the addition of the early signing period. This is new to all of us coaches, so we will see first-hand how this affects recruiting. As a junior, you can start researching programs

and schools that fit what you are looking for. Also, if you are looking locally, see if the University offers any summer camps where you can interact and work with the coach.

What is the minimum height (male and female) required to be considered for a D1, D2 or D3 program?

This is a hard question because of the different levels of programs. Generally, for most

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D1 programs it would take 15’ for guys and 11’ for girls to get looked at as a walk on. This will also be affected by how good the vault program is at that university, the conference they are in, etc. For D2 and D3 schools I would guess 13’6+ for guys and 10ft+ for girls.

Again, these are not concrete numbers, just estimates.

What are college coaches looking for in prospective vaulters?

College coaches are looking for pole vaulters who can perform on the big level. They also want to see athleticism, consistency, mental toughness, and love for the sport. If I see a kid who is pretty good but has very sloppy technique, I will take him over the polished kid who is jumping the same height. Technique is easier to improve than athleticism. This can be a gamble sometimes as well.

What is the best way to market yourself as a high school vaulter? Do you recommend using a video application like Ubersense or Coach’s Eye?

Definitely the best way to market yourself is to have videos. It is very hard for track

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coaches to make it to many high school meets to actually recruit. Any video that you can e-mail a coach and that is easy to view would be best. ***As a coach I’d rather not have to make an account on some website to watch the videos being sent.

When should vaulters reach out to coaches? Not just timing, but maybe if they have never spoken to a coach and they are a senior?

If you are entering your senior year, you should start contacting coaches at the beginning of the school year.

So much of the recruiting gets done early in the year now. It would be to the athlete’s and coach’s advantage to start off early in the school year. I would even recommend making contact with coaches and universities you are interested in that summer. Most coaches spend the summer answering emails.

Is scholarship money available to college vaulters?

Scholarship is a tricky answer. And to give everyone the cold hard truth, it all depends. It depends on if the head coach wants to invest a lot of money in a one-event

athlete. Generally, most head coaches are nervous to put a bunch of money into an event like the pole vault where noheights can happen. It also depends on how good the vault program is. You will probably get better offers from lesser programs and less of an offer at schools with prestigious vault programs. It is pure supply and demand. Good programs with good coaches probably get e-mails all day long from 12ft+ girls and 16ft+ guys, with some of those kids even willing to be a recruited walk on. I would say to get a good scholarship at a good program with a good coach is tough! You have to be one of the best in the nation. It seems to me that a lot of high school and club coaches fill pole vaulters’ heads with the idea that they will get full ride offers to the top schools, but it’s not the truth of the matter.

Do all colleges hold tryouts? Once a vaulter has been recruited for a team, do they need to maintain their level of vaulting to remain there?

No, not all colleges hold tryouts. If you are a recruited walk on, and you are on a competitive team, then yes, you have to get better or

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maintain your level of vaulting to remain on the team. At most D1 programs, you have to show the potential of helping the team out in the future. If you are on scholarship, most schools can’t take away your scholarship based on athletic performance.

You can only lose that scholarship by rendering yourself ineligible with your grades or getting into trouble with the law or university.

Penny Hanson

What is the best way to walk on to a team if you do not have a scholarship?

If you are a “recruited walk on,” usually that guarantees your spot for the time being. Most likely, you have to do something to lose your spot as a “recruited walk on.” The best way to walk onto a team is to show interest in a University and have the coach invite you to be on the team. Sometimes if you’re a borderline kid between walk on and scholarship, the coach most likely wants you to join the team and develop that potential before they invest the money in you.

Kyle says “My advice is: do not get hung up so much on the scholarship aspect of recruiting.

Rather, look at schools you think you can thrive at in all areas. The main thing is to find a program where you can accomplish all of your goals and

be happy. It doesn’t do any good to get a big scholarship to a school you may be miserable at. Find a school that fits your academic needs, has a good coach, and can support you as an athlete.”

I could not have said it better myself! Thank you for your wisdom, Kyle!

Penny Hanson Hanson College Consultants penny@hansoncollegeaccess.com 720-883-6800

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MAGAZINE Heather Markovic, Justin Tobin, Bo Haddock, Beth Krasuski.

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Bob Seagren: From Bamboo to Gold

By Sadie Lovett Relaxed and laid back, pole vault legend Bob Seagren recalls during his interview that he did not jump over a bar until he was in 7th grade.

Seagren grew up playing with pole vault poles in his back yard with his older brother.

What first started out as vaulting over the neighbor’s fence, Seagren and his brother turned their backyard fun into vaulting for distance and swinging from roof to roof.

Using piles of grass clippings as a makeshift mat, the boys would vault for distance by swinging on the pole and climbing it higher and higher in order to go farther. “Everything was a competition” Seagren says.

Seagren describes another game they would play where they would start in their backyard and go down the center of the block using a pole and never touching the

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ground. They would swing on the pole to a tree, to a fence, to a roof, to a shed, and sometimes they would have to land on a clothesline. Seagren says, “we had a ball, we’d go all the way down and come back all on a bamboo pole.”

After vaulting for height for the first time in 7th grade, Seagren soon became “the guy” in high school. Seagren used the bamboo pole up until his junior year of high school when he switched to the Browning’s Siloflex Pole, because until then, all other poles but bamboo were too heavy for him. Seagren calls his junior year the “Big Transition Year” because his PR went from 12’4 to 14’4 and he got 3rd place at high school state. “Senior year I did a lot of experimenting and a lot of things that weren’t the greatest” says Seagren.

He improved only to 15 feet his senior year of high school.

“Vaulters in high school were really self-taught. My coach would tell me ‘run faster and hold higher!’” Seagren laughs at the memory. At the time, it was hard to find a coach who knew how to coach pole vault.

Generally, the coaches were vaulters themselves, but even then they did not know how to coach on the fiberglass poles because “they used the old ridged pole technique.”

Seagren was very lucky when he went to Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. Sac) in Walnut, California. There, Seagren had a coach who was smart enough to see that Seagren could get into better shape, even though this coach did not know very much about pole vault. “He really taught me what working out was. I

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www.thevaultermag.com Bob Seagren with Sugar Ray Leonard

did only a little weight lifting in high school and hardly any running” Seagren tells us. Getting in much better shape, Seagren had a huge breakthrough in 1965 in his first year of college at Mt. Sac going from 15’ to 16’6. That October, he jumped 16’9 at an indoor meet in Brazil, which broke the world record at the time, but it was never ratified as a world record because that meet consisted of only pole vault and high jump. But that next year, 1966, he made the impossible possible and broke the world record: “then I was hooked.”

After he became more successful in college, Seagren started to be invited to meets.

Every time he was invited to a meet, Seagren says would say “’yes’ at the drop of a hat and fly off somewhere,” which would cause issues because he would miss a lot of school. Giving himself more leeway, Seagren transferred second semester to Glendale Community College where he did not compete for the school and took night classes at Cal State LA. Once his grades were up, Seagren then transferred to the University of Southern California (USC) where he had three years of eligibility. “It’s a progression. It really changed that first year at

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Bob Seagren Record Breaking Vault

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Mt. Sac and was the first time I really competed in international competitions” he says. At USC Seagren learned what it was like to compete with the pole vaulters who he looked up to. “Ron Morris was my idol at the time. He was the only world class on the ridged pole and the fiberglass pole. He never got the recognition he deserved” Seagren says. When Seagren competed at these meets, he decided that this is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life: “I felt like a rock star.”

People would invite him to meets, pick him up from the airports, put him in a hotel, and they would pay the bill. Seagren says, “all I had to do was show up and pole vault!”

We ask Seagren about him being left handed, but vaulting right handed. Is that the cause of his leg-hand drag? “I do pretty much everything other than write, right handed” he says. “Everyone has a little different technique, a different release. When I vaulted, I would try Bob Seagren Olympic Gold Medal

Bob Seagren Jumping

to time that when the pole would just about get tight, I’d try to drive my right knee up as if I was going to be high jumping and that’s the last thing in my mind I would focus on.” Seagren tells us.

As for his left-hand drag, he was only trying to clear the bar and I doesn’t know what it’s from.

“It was nothing stylistic” he says.

For the 1968 Olympics, Seagren comes out on top with the gold medal with John Pennel coming in at a close second. Pennel did clear 17’8 on his first attempt, but his pole fell under the bar rather than falling back on the runway, which at the time was considered a miss. “He actually would not have won because he jumped at a lower height where I had passed. I didn’t jump 17’6. I think in the rules I would have been awarded first place over that because I didn’t jump at 17’6, but I’m not sure” Seagren recaps.

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Bob Pole Vaulter of the Century Award

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Seagren’s transition to TV came after the 1968 Olympics.

When Seagren got home, many people wanted to represent him. Seagren started to get more and more known on TV and that is when the AAU called him. They told him that he could not do things for money because that made his pole vault career more known, which made him a professional.

They told him that he must get their approval before he did something to be sure that he did not jeopardize his amateur status. Seagren was able to do things as long as he was not pole vaulting. He even did a commercial for Kicks Cereal where they want him to hurdle, but that was not pole vaulting so he was ok, right? The AAU did not agree and restricted him from doing any track or field event. Because TV was Seagren’s chosen career for his acting ability, he hired a lawyer to fight the AAU and he was cleared to do anything except pole vault.

One of Seagren’s TV memories was the funny incident with Joe Frazier in the Superstar Competition: “hysterical” he says. Frazier decided to swim the length of a pool when he did not know how to swim. “He almost made it the length of the pool, but kept going lower and lower” says Seagren. Lucky for Frazier,

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when he almost reached the end, he was at the shallow end of the pool. “Why did you pick swimming when you admitted you didn’t know how to swim?”

Howard Cosell asked Frazier in an interview. He replied, “well, I watched the other guys warming up and it looked like they were just throwing a series of lefts and rights!”

Seagren laughs: “It was a funny interview. Howard was a funny guy. I really enjoyed him.”

Seagren is known for being the first to clear 17 feet indoor.

One of his biggest goals during his career was to be the first to clear 18 feet. Coming close so many times, Seagren’s desire to be the first only got stronger with each close attempt. At a meet in Knoxville, Seagren cleared the bar completely, but brushed it as he pulled his arm away. One week later at the AAU Outdoors in Miami, he did the same thing. It happened again in Europe, but this time Seagren had already stood up on the mat yelling in excitement when the bar fell off and hit him in the head. In his head, he had cleared those three times, but sadly his biggest competitor, Chris Pappanicolou of Greece, cleared it first.

In the weeks leading up to the 1972 Olympics, a new and slightly lighter pole was created. Between the Olympic

trials and the Olympics, Seagren had purchased three of these new poles. During this time period, Seagren was in Europe for a few meets and received word that the new poles were banned from competition. However, when

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Bob Famous Jump

he got home the ban was lifted, but then reinstated right before he left for Munich. The day before preliminary competition, officials were checking all poles. What they were doing was literally weighing each pole on a bathroom scale determining which poles were

legal based on weight. What these officials were not taking into consideration was that higher rated poles weighed more than others whether they were the new poles or old.

Seagren tells us that he was not worried because he had six

of the old poles that he could use for the competition.

When Seagren arrives for competition the next day, he walks along the wall of poles underneath the stadium.

When he gets to the masking

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tape labeled “Seagren”, there were no poles. There must be a mistake, right? Six of his pole were legal. Well, not according to the official. “How do you expect me to pole vault?”

Seagren asked him. Having to pick and choose out of a pile of small, short-run poles, Seagren finds the biggest pole he can: a short-run 170 pole that he could maybe clear 16 feet on.

Being forced to compete both the preliminaries and the finals on this one pole, Seagren pushes through a horrible head-wind and a drizzly day and clears 17’8 taking the silver medal under Wolfgang Nordwig of East Germany. It is not very often that a vaulter has that much determination and perseverance to compete in a situation like that, but Seagren did it!

After retiring in 1976, Seagren did some acting and tried owning a restaurant.

But nothing compared to the excitement of pole vaulting.

Finally, Seagren found his job that is similar to competing.

He is the CEO of International City Racing where he organizes and manages eight major road racing and fitness events per year like the Long Beach International City Marathon. “It’s fun” he says, “like throwing a party.” When he is invited to participate in

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the masters group of pole vault competitions, he says “I think my vaulting days are over, but I enjoy watching.” The last time Seagren vaulted was for United Bank of Denver commercials in 1978. Commenting on how

hard pole vault is to follow, Seagren was set up with a Vaulter Magazine subscription where he will always be able to keep up with the sport and remember the good old days as an Olympian.

Bob Seagren USC Uniform

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Jenn Suhr

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The Grip Credentials - 2014 at EIU coached 2 men over 18ft and 1 female over 14ft

In my 7 years of coaching at the club and college ranks, I have noticed that most pole vaulters (at least half) don’t hold the pole correctly. This is the very first thing I look for since this can dismiss many of the issues the vaulter may be dealing with. An incorrect grip can cause issues like calluses, tightness of the arms and shoulders at takeoff, and tightness in the arms during the pole carry to name a few.

1. Calluses- Here is a simple test: stand your pole up vertically next to you and with your top hand reach up and grab as high as you can.

Without moving your hand look at how your hand is positioned on the pole. You should see all your fingers slanted downward. This is the correct way to grip the pole and it will give you the greatest amount of surface area (stronger grip). Many vaulters try to hold the pole very tightly with their hand, which puts their hand more to the side of the pole so that the fingers angle straight across perpendicular to the pole. If you hold the pole this way (fingers across) your hand will slide to where the fingers are angled slightly anyways, this is what causes movement and friction in the hand, which produces calluses and rips in the top hand.

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2. Tightness in the arms during the pole carryVaulters who hold the pole with fingers across do so most likely because it feels strong, since they can engage the muscles in the forearm and wrist. What this does though, is it causes all of the movement to go into the hands and pole. Gripping the pole correctly allows slight movement of the arms, trunk, and shoulders similar to that of sprinting without a pole. This only possible if the arms are relaxed and not tense during the approach. With the incorrect grip, the trunk and shoulders remain pretty stiff while the arms and poles pump up and down or forward and back. The correct way is to let the pole and hands remain steady and let the movement go into the shoulders and trunk much like when sprinting without a pole.

a. Tightness in the wrist- Many vaulters choose to go with an open grip because it’s uncomfortable or even painful to keep the hand closed. If you let your fingers angle, and trust that your grip strength lies in your fingers, then you will free up your wrist where you can carry the pole with all the fingers still intact (spacing between pole and palm). I think this is the best way to carry the pole, since when you use and open grip most of the weight is put on the

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bottom hand in front of you. Also you have to re-grab the pole at takeoff and your instinct in that moment will to be to grab tight with fingers across. With a closed grip, you can support most of the weight of the pole with your top hand. This makes it much easier to control the pole drop in the last few strides before takeoff.

3. Tight shoulder girdle at takeoff- Holding the pole this way pre-tenses the arms, preventing the vaulter from being able to fully extend the top arm at takeoff. My club coach in high school termed it “monkey wrist.� If the palm is not under the pole at takeoff, you are losing inches of extension, as opposed to the wrist more to the side. This causes tightness down the entire top arm down to the shoulder. It Correct (angled grip), Incorrect (Fingers across)

is impossible to have an elastic takeoff with the arm pre-tensed. No matter how hard the vaulter tries to extend, it will be to no avail. Sadly I have seen this occur many times while observing vaulters at meets.

This is significant because the hips will start swinging forward as soon as the top hand stops moving back at takeoff. Basically it can cause your hips to punch forward right away at takeoff.

4. All sports- Apply this in the athletic world.

This grip is similar to that of a grip on any racquet, a disc golf disc, javelin, golf club, football (fingers are angled differently due to the shape). Anything where you want your arm to serve as a long lever, and not a short tight lever.

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Preseason Form I’ve been posting videos on Facebook for the past couple of months of some of the top vaulters in the world practicing from 1 stride/2 steps, 2/4 and 3/6 to drive home the point to the younger vaulters that this is how you refine your technique for later in the season. During these early phase jump sessions, you’re likely too beat up to be effective with a much longer run anyway. Let’s not forget that you can take 30-40 jumps from a closer run and maybe 1520 good quality jumps from a longer run. This gives you many more jumps to dial things in.

Now it’s becoming preseason and you may be running from 4/8, 5/10 or even 6/12. I remember many times seeing elites jump at Reno in January from 6/12. Not surprisingly their height dramatically improved when they moved back to their full runs and were able to have their new physical and technical skills magni-

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fied by speed. In any case, I hope you have been getting this work in.

As you get closer to meets, it’s time to follow meet protocols. If you’re using bungees, this is a good time to take them down after your warm up and get used to finding your “bar awareness.” “Meet protocols” for me, means no more than three jumps at any height on a given pole or run. If you miss three times, you have to change your pole, run, or both. This creates a sense of urgency and conditions you to make critical adjustments within three jumps like you will have to in a real meet.

This time of year, even if I don’t think I can make the next height from my present pole/ run, I will take the three attempts anyway in an effort to polish my technique when I get out of my comfort zone. You will be shocked how easy

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Bubba Sparks

that bar becomes after three jumps of attempting a height you can’t make, and now you move up a pole or back a stride. BTW – rule of thumb for back a stride is 10-12 heel to toe steps down the runway.

This time of year is also a good time to start to bump your weights a little and add some speed endurance. Most elites think in terms of 2-4 “peaks” per year. Practice for

peaking periods can come if you have a meet or simulated competition once or twice a month. This helps you to refine what the proper amount of work/rest is needed so that you always feel good at meets.

As always, try a lot of things and make notes of what works and what doesn’t. Ask other vaulters what works for them.

That’s why it called “practice”: you get to try things and they

don’t all have to be perfect.

Have fun and learn from your mistakes. As always, feel free to reach out to me at any time at polevaulter@msn.com. All the best!

Bubba

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Jacob Flores