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CONTENTS pril
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FROM THE EDITOR
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THE FLYING DRAGONS SOAR WITH COACH MIKE COCKERHAM’S SUPPORT
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NARROWING MUSCULAR IMBALANCES FROM POLE VAULTING
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Cover photo by Jack Pompe
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FROM THE EDITOR Everything is getting hot in the pole vault world and records are being broken, and new PR’s are constantly being achieved. Everyone seems to be stepping up their game and clearing the big bars. Pole Vault news, “men’s pole vault final – IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018” (With the bar at 5.90m and three men clear at 5.85m, Renauld Lavillenie stood on the runway as the final man to make a second attempt, knowing that a clearance would likely secure him a third world indoor title. (2018). (https:// www.iaaf.org/news/report/ world-indoor-birmingham2018-men-pole-vault)
“women’s pole vault final – IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018” (Still the wait goes on for Katerina Stefanidi. The 28-year-old might have come to Birmingham as the Greek with the Midas vaulting touch – on a roll
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of European outdoor, Olympic, European indoor, and world indoor titles – but, when it came to the world indoor final, the one gold missing from her Fort Knox collection proved beyond her grasp once again. (2018). Retrieved from (https:// www.iaaf.org/news/report/ womens-pole-vault-final-iaafworld-indoor-cha) On the cover, Coach Mike Cockerham, Flying Dragons Pole Vault Coach. “The coaching philosophy at The Flying Dragons club stems from Mike’s own experience as a vaulter, as well as what he’s observed over the years.” Mike and his club are one of a kind that develops some of the best athletes the sport has ever seen. Enjoy the article and the hard work that Samantha put forth this month. Well deserved! Kreager Taber writes about Narrowing Muscular Imbalances from Pole Vault-
ing. Many imbalances can affect your sport and the abilities that you put forth. “The oblique muscles, instead of being lopsided from the athlete only swinging up on one side, will be strengthened uniformly and provide even stabilization for the vaulter as they run down the runway.” It’s a serious article that you should not take lightly! Enjoy and good job Kreager! Check us out next month when we sit down and talk to Bubba Sparks and analyze his knowledge of the sport. Fun times ahead, stay tuned! Doug Bouma Editor, Vaulter Magazine Vaulter Club Inc. editor@thevaultermag.com
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THE FLYING DRAGONS SOAR
WITH COACH MIKE COCKERHAM’S SUPPORT By Samantha Kaplan
Instagram: @eat_sleep_pv_repeat Ever since he first became a pole vaulter, Mike Cockerham has wanted to coach. Inspired by his own high school coach’s dedication, Mike decided he would one day go above and beyond for his own vaulters. When Mike was a high school vaulter, his coach, Coach Patrick Murphy, was so committed to Mike’s success in the sport that he took Mike all over Nebraska and Kansas to compete in USATF meets, a task neither
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required nor expected of a high school coach. Coach Murphy took Mike to these meets because he had a passion for pole vault and for Mike’s development. “I told him that if I ever had the opportunity to repay the favor, I would,” recalls Mike. So in 1997, when a friend referred him to the local high school’s new track coach, Mike knew this was his chance to start a coaching legacy of his own. The first athlete
Mike took on was an 11’6” high school boy. Within three weeks, Mike has him over 14”. When a young vaulter from the surrounding area heard that Mike was the reason for his competitor’s improvement, he wanted nothing more than to train under him. “His mother called me on the phone and asked me if I would be her son’s Christmas present,” says Mike. “That was the turning point in my coaching career.”
Mike Cockerham has come a long way since taking on that first vaulter. Today, he owns and operates the Flying Dragons Pole Vault Club in Normal, Illinois, the place where vaulters from all around can come to vault, lift, sprint, and learn about the sport they love. ‘The Den’ is a 30,000 square foot space that houses everything a vaulter could dream of. To help with vault drills, there’s platform and scaffold vaulting,
Mike hard at work
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Chandelar Ifft Walking it back down the runway
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two ropes, two sets of rings, a high bar, and an SI device. For strength training vaulters have access to a set of free weights, an Olympic lifting station, squat racks, and plyometric and spinning sections. The 160-foot straight away with mini hurdles helps with speed work. Two pits and runways allow many vaulters to practice at once, without the long lines. With its most recent expansion, The Den now contains facilities for athletes in other field events to practice too. An elevated 130-foot runway into a 10 by 20 foot sand box allows long and triple jumpers to train at the facility. There is also space for high jumpers to practice and for throwers to toss shot put and discus. “We now house an all field event training center,” says Mike. “I wanted to give all of the field events an opportunity and a place to train year round.”
The Flying Dragons club has not always been the dominant facility it is today. Mike had to start out small. In fact, he is always making upgrades. When Mike first decided to start up a club, he also coached pole vault at Illinois Wesleyan University, so he had access to the facilities there and used them for his club vaulters. But when they lost their training place
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at IWU, Mike knew he had to scout out a new location fast. “I promised all of the vaulters that I would find a place for them to train.” After reviewing over thirty locations, Mike decided on a 15,000 square foot empty building, but he still had no money, poles, or equipment to fill it with. “Everyone told me it could not be done, but that only fueled the fire.” Mike’s relentless dedication to his athletes had him determined to succeed. “I ask all of the kids to give me their all, so in return I will give all of me to them.” Little by little, Mike scraped together a facility. He scored three old pits and combined the usable pieces to make one good one, built an elevated runway, and got his hands on some free weights. He had built a club from the ground up. The improvements and expansions have continued since then. “We are now on our fifth building,” explains Mike. “We’ve had to move five times in the last ten years, but I think where we are now is our home.” Although Mike has put his heart and soul into The Den, a powerhouse club cannot be run alone. The Flying Dragons have five coaches, and two veteran club members helping out. Along with Mike, Jason Bradford, Tom Coulon, Ken Lovett, and Mark Ifft coach the athletes. Emma Heartness and
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Logan Pflibsen use their experience as flying dragons to help out as well.
The coaching philosophy at The Flying Dragons club stems
from Mike’s own experience as a vaulter, as well as what he’s observed over the years. The Flying Dragons coaches are extremely versatile, and they have to be considering their
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Drone view of Dragon den
approach. “We do not coach any specific style of pole vaulting,” explains Mike. “We try to enhance things that the kids do naturally and make them better.” This means that the
coaches must be observant and knowledgeable to not only pick up on a vaulter’s style while watching him vault, but then also know which style to coach him in to make him the
best he can be. “For instance, it is really hard to teach the Petroff style of vaulting to someone who is not physically capable of doing it. Personally I think everyone has their own specific style and no one vaults the same way.”
In order to receive such specialized training from their coaches, Flying Dragons vaulters must stick to a specific schedule. The club runs for ten months out of the year, from October through August. The early fall is left for the athletes to integrate back into the new school year before kicking back into pole vault gear. However, the Flying Dragons like to get ahead of the game, so before official club practices begin, the vaulters use the end of September participate in captain’s practices. “We condition, run miles, do stadiums, hills, and sprint drills,” explains Mike. “We do that until mid October, when we start all of the fundamental work for pole vaulting.” The rest of the year is no less orchestrated for success. The Flying Dragons stay on track for improvement using Coach Jason Bradford’s weekly programs. At other clubs, athletes go to practice and go through the same routine each day. Practicing like this can cause stagnation and reinforcement of bad habits. But at The Den, each vaulter receives a printed
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copy of their weekly progressive program. The programs add new tasks and approaches to practice each week, to stimulate growth and progression throughout the season. Most of the vaulters follow it to a T, and in turn see improvement in their vaulting.
Along with regular practice, The Den hosts several vaulting events throughout the year. “We try to do at least three meets a year,” says Mike. “We also put on a huge clinic in mid November.” These events, along with the June street vault, get the whole community involved and extend the love of pole vault to the entire town of Normal. As far as events within the club go, Flying Dragons vaulters can look forward to sleepovers, nighttime moon vaults, cookouts, and trips to the Grand Haven beach vault and Louisville street vault. These events foster a bond within the club, making them less like a group of teammates and coaches, and more like a family.
The Flying Dragons Pole Vault Club is place where vaulters of all sorts are welcomed and treated with individual care. The coaching staff uses their years of knowledge and keen observation skills to coach each individual athlete in a unique style that will best
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promote his or her success. No one at the club is ever closed minded to new techniques in vaulting, coaching, or learning. “I learn something new from
everyone,” Mike says about his nationwide network of coaching inspirations. “I would have to say the pole vault community is my greatest influence.” Flying Dragons Pole Selection
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NARROWING MUSCULAR IMBALANCES
from Pole Vaulting By: Kreager Taber
While ambidextrous pole vaulting is next to impossible, doing short approaches, rope drills, and swing up drills as both a right and left handed vaulter would help to prevent injuries associated with muscular imbalances. Pole vaulting repeatedly puts unequal amounts of
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stress on different parts of the body, for example, on the takeoff gluteus muscles, the abdominal muscles used to swing up during the knee drive and turn, and the back and shoulder muscles that give the top arm the power to nail the takeoff. In an ideal world, simulating the motions of pole
vaulting on both sides of the body would work to correct uneven muscles; however, pole vault specific drills can’t always be performed due to a lack of equipment or because it is the off-season. Performing straight pole drills with the opposite hand on top is also downright terrifying, making
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it unlikely that high school vaulters would be able to perform them often as a prehabilitation strategy. Luckily, exercises in the weight room or body weight movements are just as effective in preventing muscular imbalances from developing or worsening. These imbalances, such as lopsided abdominal, gluteus, or back muscles, lead to injuries because of the body’s need to compensate for the weakness by using the stronger muscle. Specifically, imbalanced back and abdominal muscles can destabilize the core and cause injuries to the lower back, shoulders, and hips. Uneven
gluteus muscles, on the other hand, can cause issues in the lower legs such as overpronation of the arches, shin splits, hamstring issues, and tightness of the hips. For these reasons, strength and rehabilitation exercises to even out muscles commonly used vaulting is an effective, long-term injury prevention strategy that can prevent injuries from developing years into an athlete’s career.
Rope vaulting as both a right and left handed vaulter can be an effective way to develop symmetric abdominal muscles. The oblique muscles, instead of
being lopsided from the athlete only swinging up on one side, will be strengthened uniformly and provide even stabilization for the vaulter as they run down the runway. Additionally, imbalances in the abdominal muscles can be narrowed with standard exercises such as front and side planks, side crunches, and oblique dips during a quick, after-practice strength session. A strong core is essential for powerful and safe vaulting, and developing the abdominals evenly is crucial. In addition to abdominal muscles, a vaulter’s back muscles may form unevenly due to the vaulter pressing their top arm forward Foam Roller Work
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during the takeoff, rocking back to drop their shoulders, and pushing off of the pole with their top arm during the top of the vault. To strengthen the back muscles evenly in order to avoid lower back pain, hip tightness, and hamstring issues, exercises such as single arm dumbbell rows, wide-grip pull ups, and planks can be useful. These exercises should be performed during weight lifting sessions or after vault practices to ensure that they are done at least a few times a week. Imbalances in the gluteus muscles, often caused from the repeated stress put on the takeoff leg and the subsequent
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strengthening that occurs, can lead to many issues down the legs. For example, gluteus imbalances have been associated with uneven psoas tightness, hamstring strains, shin splits, and overpronation of the arches of the foot. A gluteus imbalance is difficult to narrow in pole vaulters because of the heightened stress the takeoff leg undergoes every practice, but single leg exercises can help to strengthen the other gluteus muscle and minimize the differences between the two. In the weight room, single leg dumbbell step-ups, single leg Romanian deadlifts with a kettlebell or dumbbell,
and single leg lunges with dumbbells or a barbell isolate each gluteus muscle and strengthen them individually, rather than having them work as a unit. Exercises such as deadlifts, front or back squats, cleans, and snatches also target the gluteus muscles, but by allowing them to work together, the lifts allow the stronger muscle to compensate for the weaker. Body weight exercises, such as jumping split squats and single leg bounds, are effective and quick movements to tighten the strength gap between muscles and can be performed on a track or field. Single leg or marching glute bridges can also be useful
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exercises as body weight, post-practice strengthening movements. The latter are performed by the vaulter first laying on their back with their knees up and feet flat on the ground, assuming the position for a normal glute bridge, and raising one leg while keeping the other stable on the ground. The vaulter then returns their first leg to the ground and raises the other slowly, isolating both gluteus muscles evenly. Particular attention should be given to ensure the athlete’s knees don’t collapse inwards during the bridge, which can be reflective of the knees trying to compensate for muscular imbalance.
By ammentorp @ 123.com
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Tightness associated with muscle imbalances, such as uneven psoas tightness due to lopsided gluteus muscles, can often be eased by rolling out the tight muscle with a foam roller, single lacrosse ball, or groups of tennis balls. These groups may be attached to form a peanut shape, used to roll out the back muscles, or a pyramid, which is commonly used to release the psoas. Rolling out both sides of the body evenly, even if one side is more tender, helps to draw attention to potential problem areas and to ease minor strains. However, in serious cases of tightness or muscle imbalance, physical therapists or school
athletic trainers can help to loosen muscles and provide an individualized, regimented strength and mobility routine to help even out an athlete’s musculature. Investments in mobility and developing even muscular strength are often discarded at a high school level because the benefits are seen in the long term, rather than over the course of a single season. For vaulters who plan on continuing their careers into college and beyond, these investments are vital in order to provide the athletes with a solid strength foundation and to prevent potentially careerending injuries down the road.
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