Coaching is a rewarding job that allows you to connect with so many people and change lives. The reward comes from knowing that you made an impact, but there’s only one way you can actually have an impact. Stop making yourself the priority! I see many coaches out there who want to win, and who doesn’t. However if you coach long enough you realize it takes time to develop a county, state, or national champ. And even more importantly it take the right athlete. On a long enough

Are straight pole drills are the best drills, and the key to jumping high. Maybe? It all depends on context. Are we discussing beginners, experts, what part of the season are we talking about? What weakness in the vault are we trying to address? When is your next meet? What are your personal goals? Knowing the context of a drill or progression is needed before we prescribe them to athletes. We all tend to romanticize whatever we recently did to get a pr and tell the world th

It seems that no matter how high, or low, you vault all anyone comments on is whether or not your bottom arm is collapsed. Should you care? Probably not as much as the rest of the vault community, but you should probably care about your bottom arm only as much as you care about your pole carry, running mechanics, plant, jumping mechanics, swing etc. Although I don’t think a vaulter should have a collapsed bottom arm I do not think the emphasis that the vault community puts on

Hold your coaches to a high standard! I want to start this article by saying that there are lots of great coaches out there that have a system, progressions, and show great passion and commitment to their athletes. The club scene in pole vault is especially great. I see lots of great club programs out there that coach over a hundred kids, up to 8 years at a time. And people who need help coaching should search out these coaches and clubs to learn from them, everyone in the p

When thinking about what it takes to be a pole vault coach most only see what happens on meet days and even that is often confusing because there are many coaches out there trying to sound smart and giving an over abundance of technical cues just to sound smart. So what does it take to be a pole vault coach? There are three pivotal roles a pole vault coach must take on and without understanding and doing each your coaching is incomplete. The technical aspect of coaching is