Vaulters Brandon Bangel Whiteland Community High School - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Coaching “advanced” Pole Vaulters

Brandon Bangel Whiteland Community High School coachbangel@gmail.com

What do we mean by “Advanced”?

• A few characteristics of advanced pole

vaulters:

– 1. Already has an established and consistent approach – 2. Already knows how to bend the pole – 3. Gets “inverted” or at least gets hips higher than shoulders on jumps – 4. Can jump at their hand hold or higher – Note: I am going to be speaking like I am coaching a right handed pole vaulter.

Coaching can make the difference

• A good athlete can become a “good” vaulter

without much help from coaches. To become great they almost always need help.

• Here are the most important aspects of coaching

an advanced vaulter:

• 1. Diagnose the issue
• 2. Explain/show them the mistakes they are

making

• 3. Provide drills to correct the mistakes
• 4. Find different ways to address the issues until

they get it fixed

5 Phases of the vault

• 1- Approach (or run)

– Consistent, fast, controlled

• 2. Take off

– Tall, good posture and body position

• 3. Drive phase

– Keep left leg back, pole away from body and face

• 4. Swing

– Quick movement to get upside down

• 5. Bar clearance

– Awareness of bar, throw pole “away”

A few coaching tips

• Start from the “back” of the vault and work your way

forward.

– Most mistakes in vault are actually caused by doing something incorrect in the previous phase.

• Slow things down for your athletes (when possible) if they

are making the same mistakes.

• Research, study, and ask for help from more experienced

coaches (no one has all the answers).

• Video tape as much as possible and share with athletes.
• Understand that each athlete is different and needs to be

coached that way.

• Don’t be afraid to ask others for help

– Track coaches are usually very good about helping if you ask!

Common problems with the approach

• 1. Inconsistent start to the approach

– From my experience this is the most likely time for vaulters to be inconsistent on their approach. – If they are off at the beginning it will throw off the rest

• f the run.
• 2. Gallop (long) step when lifting the pole.

– Sometimes this is hard to see but it happens often with vaulters of all levels.

• 3. Long last step (being under on take-off)

– Very common among vaulters/long jumpers – Try to break this habit early instead of fixing it later

Drills to fix the first two steps

• 1. Do barrier run drills to emphasis the

importance of “pushing” out of the back.

– Place 3” to 6” hurdlers 5 or 6 feet apart and have athletes practice beginning their approach over the barriers (as seen on next video)

• 2. Have athletes check each others first step to

make sure that it is consistent on each approach.

– Simply have other athletes watch and place a mark where their first step hits. They should be very consistent each time they begin their approach on this mark.

“Gallop” step when lifting the pole

• The first thing I would say is to watch the vaulters left

hand when they lift the pole.

• Many times when they begin to lift their right hand

they will also start to lift their left at the same time.

• When this happens it has a tendency to slow down the

lift and vaulters take a long step.

• Their left hand does not actually lift until the last right

step of the approach.

• If the left hand lifts too early the pole tip will actually

stop its drop momentarily and throw the run off.

• The next two slides will show drills to help fix this

issue.

Correcting the long last step

• Again I think it is best to try to break this habit

early instead of fixing it later.

• The first thing we do to try to fix their long last

step is to place foam just in front of their take-off mark.

• Another drill is to place barriers a set distance

apart and make the last barrier 1’ shorter than the rest. This forces athletes to shorten last stride.

• Really focus on keeping their last stride short on

all of your slide box and approach drills.

Common mistakes with Take-off

• 1. The most common mistake with take-off is that

athletes are “under” and can be fixed with drills mentioned before.

• 2. The next most common issue is athletes not

having their hands high and keeping their left leg back.

– We use the “Jan Johnson” drill to fix this issue.

• 3. A third issue at take-off may simply be the

strength of the athlete.

– I will show a variety of exercises we use at the end of the presentation to help build specific strength for pole vaulters.

Common Issues with Drive Phase

• There are two major issues that can occur

during the drive phase:

– 1. Incorrect body position

• Jan Johnson Drills will help get them in correct position.

– 2. Attempting to swing up too early or not holding the drive phase long enough.

• We will commonly use flag drills to force the athletes to

stay in take off position longer than needed.

Common Issues with the swing

• 1. Starting the swing too early

– Use flag and Jan Johnson Drills to help

• 2. Not keeping left leg long

– Usually caused by bad take-off position – Leg Drags can be helpful – Tell athletes to “kick from the hip”

• 3. Swinging sideways or getting off balance

– Make sure take-off is not off balance – “pulling” with the left hand can also cause this issue

• 4. Not getting completely inverted

– Most common issue with vaulters – I believe it is the most difficult issue to fix in the vault – We tell our athletes to finish the top of every vault in practice

Drills to help get inverted

• Rockbacks
• Jump with standards as far forward as legal

– This forces athletes to swing quickly

• Do anything the helps athletes feel more

comfortable upside-down

– Many athletes simply do not know what being inverted really feels like

Common Issues with the finish

• 1. Athlete “drops” their feet into bar once they

start to turn.

• 2. Athlete simply does not turn at all (common

with girls).

• 3. Poor bar awareness
• 4. Does not “throw” pole away or consistently

knocks crossbar off with pole.

Tips to improve finish

• Note- I believe the top of the vault is the hardest part

to work on because everything else has to be done correctly to get to this point.

• 1. Tell your athletes to finish every jump in practice.
• 2. We tell our athletes to “keep their hands active” the

entire time…. Don’t just hold onto pole.

• 3. If athletes are having issues turning once they get

inverted tell them to take their right hand to their right

• hips. (this should initiate the turn)
• 4. Straight pole attempts off of a box can really help

the finish because the athletes can feel when they are doing it right….. And they get more attempts!

Core strength/lifting for vaulters

• Clean and Jerk
• Snatch
• Power cleans
• Core:

– Glute ham raises, fireouts, back extension – Fish out of water (obliques) – Rock backs (on pull-up bar) – Rockies (think Rocky IV) – There are a million exercises out there….. Change it up!