 |
Sean Brown Says:
During the high school track season Scott coaches young pole vaulters almost daily, with clinics just about every weekend.
Over and above his first hand experience with the vault, Scott has a tremendous amount of coaching experience as well.
He is without a doubt one of the top young coaches in the nation and he truly enjoys giving back to the sport. And so I encourage you to email him. |
|
|
 |
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 8:43 AM
I coach girls in the 12-13 foot range. Normally they grip between 11-6 to 12-10. Using a pole 12 or 13 feet long – how important is driving through the pole? A few have a picture perfect plant but then they look like they are sitting in the middle. Their swing is slow and they do not seem to get a whole lot of energy out of the pole. They want to raise their grips and get longer poles but I think this will make the problems worse. Do you know of any women who hold @ 12 for drills maybe and how high they jump over their hand? Do you think they should punch their left arm up or not worry about it so much and just try to create a better swing?
I’m sure your over loaded with emails but if you find the time to answer this that would be great.
Kevin McGorty
|
 |
Kevin,
These issues are very common for most high school vaulters. Both for men and women alike. Most vaulters over grip. All the symptoms that you are referring to, such as a slow swing, not getting a whole lot of energy out of the pole, are symptoms that point directly to the problem of over griping. Over griping will make it very hard to swing fast and time up the jump well. Your other question was regarding a big pole plant. Never get away from coach a prefect plant and take off. However, there are certain things a vaulter must think about after he/she executes a perfect take off.
First lets talk about what a perfect take off is. When younger vaulters first focus on their take off, they have the problem of blocking with their bottom arm rather than reaching and pressing up. The main reason for this is very simple. The lower one holds the steeper their pole angles are. This makes them want to block rather than reach and press up. This means that the coach must focus even more on reaching and pressing up rather than blocking. A few things that you can have your vaulters cue on in practice; feeling the reach coming from their shoulders and feeling the stomach stretch as the reach.
Secondly, If a vaulter blocks at take off, they will block through their swing. Assuming that the vaulter is now reaching at take off, they then need to think about what to due after the take off. The first thing to think about is what we call "getting on the top arm". Another way to think about this is keeping the pressure on the top arm, move the top arm forward, and keep the pole down the middle through the swing. These concepts keeps the vaulter from falling back at take off or just after take off.
Finally, in order for a vaulter to improve their swing and the top of their vault, the vault has to be fast and snappy. Start off with a drill that I feel is the most effective drill that teaches young vaulter how to swing well off of a good take off. It is a 4 stride drill that focuses on the take off and swing. It is a hold low on a small pole drill. The object of the drill is to get your right leg over the top of the pole and land on your feet with the pole laying on the pit in between your legs. The trick to this drill is a big take off and then thinking about laying the pole on the pit. Laying the pole on the pit makes the vaulters think about keeping the pole moving forward as they swing. The drill has three parts; big take off, lay the pole on the pit, and get the right leg over the top of the pole. The vaulter must think about the drill in that order. The vaulter will not be able to execute this drill if they are holding too high. The pole has to move fast. When you see this drill executed correctly, you will see the vaulter stay upright at take off, their arms moving the pole forward as their tail leg comes through, and their drive knee will initiates the turn as their right leg goes over the top of the pole. Once a vaulter can execute this drill perfectly, you will see big changes in their technique from longer runs.
I now call this drill the Tracy O'Hara drill. I had a tough time getting Tracy to turn up the pole in what we call "getting behind the pole". This drill taught her how to tune around the top arm. Tracy's best push off is 2' 6".
I hope this all makes sense and you can picture all of this in you head. The bottom line is that a vaulter must learn how to vault before they worry about how high they hold. Teach your vaulters to focus more on how much they can push off rather than how high they can hold.
I hope this helps. Feel free to e-mail me any time. I will do my best to help.
Jump high,
Scott Slover
MORE CORRESPONDENCE:
Scott – Thank you very much for your comments and insight. Your willingness to email anyone who contacts you and your caring to take the time to teach the event shows your love for the sport and your very high character as an athlete, coach, and person.
Best wishes,
Kevin McGorty
Visa Decathlon Team 88’-92’
Soon to be Masters Competitor!
Kevin,
Thank you for the kind words!
Sean Brown, founder of NeoVault.com and a very good friend of mine, has put endless amounts of time and effort into NeoVault.com. He is an inspiration to the young vaulters, coaches, and parents in this small pole vault community. He has given back so much to the sport and I am glad I got the opportunity to help him with this question answers segment of NeoVault.com. It has been fun for me.
Thanks again,
Scott Slover
|
|
|
Sent:Wednesday, January 26, 2005 2:30 PM
Scott,
I am a senior at William and Mary and I have jumped 13 feet. I seem to be in a kind of rut though. In the fall I worked on my plant a lot - getting a high plant with good arms. We have had a few meets now and now I feel stuck in the middle of my swing and I know my shoulders are too high and my butt is too low. Do you have any suggestions on why this might be happening and what I can do about it? I have also not been able to get on some of the bigger poles I used last year. Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Charlotte LaRoche |
|
| Charlotte,
This time of year is tough. Try not to worry about what size poles you are on right now. The big poles will come. Use this time to work on your technique and working out hard on the track to get faster.
Also, sometimes if you lower you grip a bit you will start blowing through your poles. This will make it easier to move up poles. It will also make it easier to swing. Signs of holding to high are; a slow jump, a slow swing, and lack of penetration. From what you have told me, it sounds like you are hold a bit too high.
I hope this helps. Feel free to email me any time. I will do my best to help.
Vault high & have fun,
Scott Slover
|
|
|
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 11:12 AM
Hi Scott,
I would like to ask you a few quick questions. I coach a lot of vaulter and would like some basic input from some top vaulters.
What is you speed like? 40yd dash? 100meter? or flying 15 meter or yd time?
If you train on a high speed tread mill? If so what MPH can you reach? Also for power, Vertical Jump? BenchPress? Squat? Clean? and finally, how high can you vault from 3 lefts 4 lefts and 5 lefts and on what poles would you use for short and progressively long run vaulting? what are your marks from
3,4,5 and so on? do you stick to a magic number kinda thing?
Thanks in advance! any input you can provide would be great!
Sincerely,
Nick Green of Jupiter Florida.
Syracuse U, 1983 16'
Masters 45 13'6" |
|
Nick,
I am happy to answer any questions.
Your questions tells me that you are emphasizing the right kind of thinking that helps college athletes to improve. Speed is almost everything. Like every world class vaulter, I also focused most of my training around getting faster.
However, I was never a speed demon. I was a proficient technical vaulter who jumped well for the speed I had. Here are some of my stats that might give you an idea of where I am coming from. I ran a 4.4 40yd. Fly 10m in .989 through a electric speed trap. Fly 30m in 2.94. 100m 10.9ht and 11.11e in meets.
Vertical jump 32in standing and 38in 3 step one foot. Bench 300lbs. Squat 355lbs. Clean 286lbs. 3 Stride 16'. 4 Stride 17'. 5 Stride 17'6. 6 Stride 18'. 7 Stride 18'2". 8 Stride 18'5" in a meet. 9 Stride 18'10.5" and 18'9" officially.
3 stride pole 15' 185lbs, 4 stride pole 490m 17.2, 5 stride 4.90m 15.8, 6 stride 5.00m 15.4, 7 stride 500m 15.0, 8 stride 510m 14.6, 9 stride 510m 14.2 and 13.8.
As you can see, speed is very important, but proper technique goes a long way as well.
If your vaulters do not have a push off of 2'6" or better, they are not executing optimum vaulting technique. My best push off is 3'6". I pushed 2'11" in high school. I will always take the time to answer any questions you may have. I will do my best!!
Thanks,
Scott |
|
|
Tuesday, November 30, 2004 3:38 PM
Hi, I am a currently a Junior at El Camino Real and saw your training log on neovault and I just wanted to thank you for allowing them to post it. It has inspired me to buckle down and start training harder and keeping my own training logs to get ready for Reno as well as see coach Curran more often. I also just got a pull up bar at my house and this thing with a piece of pipe suspended by a chain, to practice bubbkas and stuff on. I was wondering if I should get more freeweights and start lifting, instead of just doing push ups, sit ups, etc.? If so which kinds of lifting would be the most beneficial? ex: bench press? Also what should I we doing to improve my speed on the runway?
thanks,
Tommy Fountain
|
|
Tommy,
I excited to see that young vaulters are seeking knowledge and information regarding the most challenging sport in the world. Neo Vault is my favorite web site for the vault. If you do not have the Neo Vault videos, I highly recommend them.
It sounds like you are do very well with your training. It is at least a great start. Curran is one of the greatest coaches of all time!! The pull up bar and the pipe idea are both great training apparatuses. Your lifting program is just as important. The most important lifts that all of the world class vault put into their training are power cleans, squats, and jump squats. All of these lift are geared towards improve speed and power on the runway. You need an Olympic bar and rubber weights. You do however, need someone who knows what they are doing to show you how to perform these lifts properly. These lifts can be very dangerous. Lifting does improve speed however, without an intense running program you will not get faster. To run fast you have to train your body to run fast. Everyone is different. Most world class vaulters run over distance and under distance. Ex. repeat 300m 200m 150m at 75% and fast 100m 50m 30m 20m sprints at 90 to 100%. Look at my training log to get some ideas.
If you have any other questions feel free to contact me any time. I will do my best to help.
Keep training hard!!!
Scott
|
|
|
Thursday, November 25, 2004 8:28 PM
Hello scott. My name is Eric White. I am a vaulter at santa monica high school with Anthony Curran as my coach. I was just wondering if you knew what colleges require of high school students in order to vault there. Just a good website or something. I cant seem to find one. I was also wondering how hard you really trained and how many times a week you vaulted. I am vaulting 4 or 5 times a week and training really hard. My problem is that i dont have enough natural talent. I have more heart than anyone your likely to meet but im not fast. I dont know what i want to do with pole vault but i know i just have to keep at it..Thanks a lot
Eric |
|
Eric,
It sounds like you are doing well with your training. You are definitely with the right coach!! Anthony is the one to ask about the college requirements. Things have changed. As for my training, you asked if I trained hard. Just read through my training log posted on NeoVault.com. I trained very hard. I vaulted 3 days a week and ran my but off after I vaulted and on the days that I did not vault. Just ask yourself if you have ever ran 6 x 200m on Sunday, the day after a big meet. I did that after almost every meet. Keep going!!! Heart goes a long long way!! If you ever need advice, feel free to contact me any time. I will my best to help.
Scott |
|
|
