by Sean Brown, CSCS, Neo Vault Founder
Introduction
This past summer my friend Alan Launder mentioned to me that an American pole vault coach by the name of Phill Erickson had made his way down to Australia to seek out coaching knowledge. Phill had stayed with Alan for most of his trip, and Alan suggested I contact Phill to learn about his experiences. I did just that and the following is how our conversation unfolded.
What was your motivation for the trip?
I met Alan Launder in the summer of 2009 when Roman Botcharnikov and him were doing a clinic together in Boone, NC. About a year later I expressed to Alan my interest in coming to Australia to study the vault. Alan put me in contact with the best coaches in Australia. From there I had plans to go study for over five weeks with Zsuzsa Szabo in Sydney, Alan Launder and John Gormley in Adelaide, Mark Stewart in Melbourne and Alex Parnov in Perth. As a serious coach, I knew this would be an opportunity that was too good to pass up.
What were you hoping to learn about pole vaulting?
The coaches down there are amazing. Mark Stewart coached Emma George to multiple world records as well coaching Steve Hooker from nothing to 5.90. Alex Parnov is one of the best coaches in the world. He coached Steve Hooker to be the second best vaulter in history. He also has a fifteen-year old that vaulted 4.40. His resume speaks for itself. These coaches all teach the same Russian technical model. I was hoping to go down there and learn more about this model that the coaches there were using, their methods for teaching that model, as well as their methods of conditioning.
Did you have any preconceptions about pole vaulting before the trip that were changed/confirmed as a result of going?
Yes, but they were little things here and there. No major paradigm shifts or anything. I did a considerable amount of research before leaving which gave me a good grasp of the model prior to working with the coaches. The difference was they had a better understanding of the model and far more experience teaching it then me. A lot of my experience was seeing how the best coaches in the world go about doing things in their program and finding out what their thoughts were on coaching.
What were the most insightful or a-ha moments from your experiences and interactions with the pole vault experts there?
Parnov gave me good advice. He said now that I have been around and seen what all the coaches think about technique I need to develop my own technical model. From there I will have to draw from my experience as well as incorporate aspects of their methodologies to develop my own method of teaching my technical model. As far as technique, I realized even more so how important the run, plant, and take-off are. After these key steps it almost doesn’t matter how you do things.
Did you observe any major differences in pole vault coaching styles or methodologies?
Well yes because all the coaches there are different people. But I did notice that with all the coaches that I was with, all of them were on the same page. They all agreed on what the model they are striving for was. However, they each had their own methodology for teaching this model.
Because of their different personalities, their coaching styles varied a bit. Training sessions would have a different feel when you went from one squad to the next. Some were more laid back than others.
What is Parnov like as a pole vault coach?
Parnov is serious. That is the best way to put it. Everything they do in their training sessions is done with purpose. He wants no distractions during training, especially when they are in vaulting sessions. Parnov is an incredibly innovative coach and arguably knows more about the event than anyone else. In addition to being an amazing coach he is a really helpful, open, approachable, and all around nice guy.
PART 2
Are you currently coaching the pole vault? If so at what level?
Yes, I am coaching at both the collegiate and high school level.
As a pole vault coach what are you most excited to implement into your coaching program that you had learned from the trip? How will you go about implementing it and how will you measure its success?
There were a number of things that I was excited about implementing in my coaching. As time progressed my emphasis shifted from one aspect to another. While I was in Australia, I was thinking through how I could implement the technique I was learning. Then, on my way home and when I resumed coaching, I started to think more about training methods. At this point, I am anxious to measure the success of my athletes. Mark and Alex both keep diligent records of all of their athletes’ progress. Mark spent a lot of time showing me how he keeps track of their progress and specifically what he records. Right now, I am in the process of deciding how I want to keep track of the same kind of information. Overall, it’s difficult to take what works so well for them and apply it to me because our contexts are so different. I am learning by trial and error, developing my own methodology and seeing what works for my athletes and me, like Parnov advised.
You mentioned you went down there interested in the methods of conditioning. Did you in fact discuss strength and conditioning concepts? Gymnastics? Speed development? Or did most of the interaction revolve around pole vault technique? If you did discuss strength/speed/gymnastics please elaborate.
We spent a lot of time talking about both technique and conditioning. I was able to be with each squad for a while, which allowed me see what they were doing from day to day. I learned how they plan out their training for the whole year as well as for each training phase. Each squad would do gymnastics training at least once a week. Two days a week they had vaulting sessions. They would implement speed development on a regular basis, which was about two or three days a week. Generally, they would do short sprints that focused on speed. From what I could tell, they put more emphasis on fitness and technique than strength training. The younger athletes would generally not lift weights. Instead, they would do body weight lifts as well as gymnastics.
