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MARCH 2018 ISSUE
CONTENTS h c r a
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FROM THE EDITOR
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POOL WORKOUTS FOR POLE VAULTERS
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THE VALUE OF FUN: COACH ST. LAWRENCE AND THE HUDSON VALLEY FLYING CIRCUS
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Cover photo by Doug Bouma Vaulter Magazine
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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, “Katie Nageotte crowned U.S. indoor champion, new pole vault queen” (American pole vaulter Katie Nageotte has a major reason to be proud! She upsets Olympic medalists Sandi Morris and Jenn Suhr for the indoor championship win. (2018). (Retrieved from http:// w w w. d i g i t a l j o u r n a l . c o m / sports/review-katie-nageottecrowned-usa-indoor-champion-new-pole-vault-queen/article/515539) “Houston stuns Kendricks for U.S. pole vault title” (Scott Houston upset world pole vault champion Sam Kendricks while Christian Coleman stayed on course in the 60 metres at the U.S. indoor championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico on
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Saturday. (2018). Retrieved from (https://www.reuters. com/article/us-athletics-usa/ houston-stuns-kendricks-foru-s-pole-vault-title-idUSKCN1G200L)
On the cover, Coach Tim St. Lawrence, The Hudson Valley Flying Circus Pole Vault Coach. “Coach St.’s pole vault story is a long one, full of crazy anecdotes, outstanding achievements, and 47 years of coaching experience, and it starts with the very first person to hand him a pole; his father.” Our writer, Samantha Kaplan knows this club very well and calls them her family. A home that a pole vaulter can come home to when the season is over and place that they can come back to and polish their skills. Kreager Taber writes about Pool Workouts for Pole Vaulters and all the different benefits that swimming and exercise in the pool have to offer. Fun and thoughtful to the fullest when you read this article about the
pool and your favorite sport. “As indoor championship season quickly approaches for high school and collegiate athletes, pole vaulters must take special care to help their bodies perform at their most elite level for competition. In many cases, that means substituting sprint workouts for cross-training activities to take pressure off of injured shins, ankles, or overused muscles.” Read and take it all in, many clubs and college spend a lot of time in the pool perfecting their vault. Check us out next month when we sit down and talk to Coach Mike Cockerham from the Flying Dragons Pole Vault Club and 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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Swimming Laps
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POOL WORKOUTS
FOR POLE VAULTERS By: Kreager Taber
As indoor championship season quickly approaches for high school and collegiate athletes, pole vaulters must take special care to help their bodies perform at their most elite level for competition. In many cases, that means substituting sprint workouts for cross training activities to take pressure off of injured shins, ankles, or overused muscles. While circuit training on a stationary bike or the elliptical present viable options to maintain the athletes’ cardiovascular strength, swimming, pool vaulting, and aqua-jogging are often overlooked alternatives that can help improve vaulters’ sprinting and vaulting form while offering a low-impact alternative to harder workouts.
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Swimming laps helps to develop and preserve athletes’ cardiovascular strength while avoiding problems that training on a bike can cause. For example, biking can exacerbate problems from tight hips, such as back pain and hamstring tightness. The slouched posture assumed while the athlete bikes can also tighten their back, while simultaneously putting strain on their hip flexors. This can cause problems for the vaulter when they return to sprint or vault workouts. In contrast, swimming laps is a great way to loosen up the athlete’s hips while also working their hamstrings, quads, and gluteus muscles in a way conducive to running. Swimming in a steady
state or in sprint intervals can strengthen the athletes’ muscles for running and also help prepare them for competitions by giving their legs a break from running.
Aqua-jogging, while awkward at first, can help vaulters improve their sprint form, practice putting power into their steps, and strengthen their hips, while being a perfect low impact activity to do in between vault sessions. The athlete should bob upright in the deep end of the pool while swinging their arms and legs in a sprinting motion. Whether or not the athlete moves forward in the pool while aqua-jogging is up to their own personal preference and the amount
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that they use their arms, rather than their legs, to propel themselves. In contrast, the athlete may remain near the wall so that they can hold on during their breaks. Aqua-jogging is most effectively performed in sprint intervals, such as ten seconds sprinting accompanied by twenty seconds of rest, or fifteen seconds of sprinting and fifteen seconds of rest. The athlete can mimic their typical running form in the pool, without worrying about stress put
on their legs that could impair them in competition. Additionally, the vaulter can practice inserting more power into their stride by pushing down harder than they would be able to on a track. A-skips, B-skips, straight leg runs, and other typical running drills can also be performed in the shallow end of the pool. The water increases the resistance that the vaulter’s legs face, while cushioning the impact that could hurt the athlete.
Pole vault specific drills can also be performed in the pool to help strengthen the vaulter’s technique on their off days. In the shallow end, vaulters can practice the timing of their run and solidify the technique of their pole plant with a short pole. The athlete can practice the final three steps of their run in the pool, helping them solidify their arm movements during the pole drop. Additionally, they can perform exercises to strengthen their
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shoulders and core, such as holding a short pole still above their heads as they perform basic running drills. Performing high knee and butt kick drills while holding the pole still, as well as A-skips and B-skips, can help the athlete train to keep their upper body upright and still as they run, instead of moving it or bending over while running with a pole. Vaulters can also use the deep end of the pool to “pool vault”, or practice their inversion and push-off underwater. While pool vaulting can be performed in the deep or shallow end of a pool, the deep end allows the vaulter to fully invert and push off of the top of the pole in a more powerful and laid out extension. The shoulder drop can also be practiced underwater, and many of the mechanics simulated and developed with straight pole drills can be translated into underwater exercises to help the athletes keep stress off of their legs. In order to pool vault in the deep end of the pool, a long pole should be submerged with an athlete or coach holding it vertical from the edge of the pool. While they continue to hold the pole steady, the submerged vaulter should grip the pole as they would when normally vaulting. Holding onto the pole to keep themselves from floating upwards, the athlete should overemphasize their shoulder drop and extend their body to a vertical position. Then, they should turn towards the pole as they would during a straight pole drill and propel their body upwards by pushing off of the pole with their top hand. The increased resistance from the water will slow down the vaulter’s movements, which can help them to feel, and then finely tune, miniscule problems in their inversion. Pool vaulting can also be performed in the shallow end of the pool, with a pool divider used as a makeshift bungee (with a lifeguard’s permission, of course). The coach should hold the pole steady and vertical from the outside of the pool. The athlete should be-
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Aqua Jogging
gin in a sitting position underwater and swing as they would in their vault, while taking care to not hit their head on the pool floor. This can generally be avoided by having the vaulter keep their body hollow during the swing. After the vaulter’s swing, they can push off of the pole and clear a pool divider as they would a bungee,
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helping them focus on the timing of their turn and their push off. Swimming laps, aqua-jogging, and pool vaulting all provide a greatly underutilized method of cross training for pole vaulting. They help the vaulter improve their form and work on vault
and spring technique, instead of just sustaining their cardiovascular strength. Giving the body a break can be the best thing to help a vaulter jump to their full potential, particularly after a long, hard season of sprint and vault practices.
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The Value of Fun:
COACH ST. LAWRENCE AND THE HUDSON VALLEY FLYING CIRCUS By Samantha Kaplan
Instagram: @eat_sleep_pv_repeat
A Note from the Author: Pole vault has a very special place in my heart, but this article hits especially close to home. I am honored to be writing about my very own club coach this month. When I found out this month’s article would be about Coach St. I knew had to make him proud. Coach St. was there the first time I ever picked up a pole, and has been cheering me on ever since. I didn’t have any coaching at my high school, so everything I know stems from this man. He and Coach Cauthers are the two most dedicated, hard working people I have ever met, but what makes them even more outstanding is that this dedication and hard work is all for the success of others. He never fails to remind his athletes of their individual accomplishments and how proud they should be of them. There is no doubt in my mind that the reason I am in love with this sport, this community, this life I have chosen is because I have coaches like them at the root of it all. Here’s to you, Coach St.
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There are a lot of coaches out there who know their stuff. Just about every wellestablished club has an extremely experienced staff that knows the ins and outs of pole vault training, technique, and competition. But it takes a special human being to value fun above all else. While most people get caught up in the logistics and technicalities that make a good physical athlete, it takes someone who, in 57 years with the sport, has kept the spark that lit the passion
alive. The joy of movement, the self realization, the confidence that pole vault can bring are the values that made Coach Tim St. Lawrence fall in love with the sport, and are the foundations that his club, The Hudson Valley Flying Circus stand on to this today. Coach St.’s pole vault story is a long one, full of crazy anecdotes, outstanding achievements, and 47 years of coaching experience, and it starts with the very first
person to hand him a pole; his father. Joe St. Lawrence was a high school track coach, but that did not stop him from getting his son started even earlier. Vaulting as a 6th grader in his backyard, Tim and all of the neighborhood kids shared one steel pole. From there, Tim’s love for the sport only grew. A pioneer in fiberglass pole vaulting, Tim was one of the first in his area to get on poles that could bend. Under his father’s coaching, Tim took home the 1966 New
Flying Circus Summer Fun
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York State Championship title setting a state record of 14’5.25”, a height that remains the Suffern high school record to this day. This record caught the eye of some college coaches, and without ever even seeing him jump, the coach at the University of Alabama offered a full scholarship that Tim could not refuse. On his first day of practice at Alabama, the coach could not believe this was the kid he signed. The freshman in front of him was jumping off of the wrong take off leg. “Coach didn’t believe it was me,” recalls Coach St. from time to time. “He said ‘Let me see your driver’s license! I gave you a full scholarship and you’re a goofy footed pole vaulter!’” The turning point in Tim’s vaulting career came at Alabama. With a proper take off, Tim’s PR skyrocketed to 17’1.25”, and his love for coaching, now supplemented with a technical knowledge of the sport, only grew.
All of this love and passion lead him to the only logical profession; teaching. Continuing in St. Lawrence tradition, Tim became the physical education teacher, cross country head coach, and indoor and outdoor head coach at Warwick Valley High School. He coached there for 35 years before retiring and leaving the Tim St. Lawrence Outdoor Track and Field facility in his place. But Coach St. is a teacher at his core, and, deciding the coaching world couldn’t get rid of him that easily, he opened The Flying Circus in 2005 with club cofounder and profound pole vault coach Hugh Cauthers. For the past 13 years, The Flying Circus has been a hub of pole vault development for any athlete who comes through. Any athlete who frequents the club knows it not as The Hudson Valley Flying Circus, but more affectionately as The Barn. This is because Coach St.’s winding road, much like side streets and dirt roads of Warwick, NY, lead him to the purchase of a 100-year-old dairy
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FLYING CIRCUS SUMMER CAMP
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FLYING CIRCUS POLE VAULT, INDOOR BARN FACILITY, Warwick,NY
barn to house his vaulting haven. On the second floor of this barn live two pits, two Mondo X runways, 330 poles, and every apparatus for drills imaginable. Rings, high bar, swing up machine, trapeze, plyometric boxes, slide boxes, and a 40 video delay so jumpers can review their vaults after every attempt. In the past few years as the club has grown in numbers, four outdoor pits
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on three runways, an outdoor high bar, and an outdoor sandpit have been added to accommodate as many vaulters as possible, with the right weather. Speakers blare a quirky mix of country and Woodstock music, the perfect blend for jumping high bars. Of course as the popularity of the facility grows, Coach St. and Coach Cauthers can’t
handle it all alone anymore. Today, The Flying Circus has two additional coaches, 5 time All American at University of South Florida Coach Stephanie Duffy, and former Duke University vaulter Will Nesbitt, both veteran Barn vaulters themselves. Their infectious positivity aligns perfectly with The Flying Circus philosophy, and they are fantastic additions to the team.
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One unique aspect of The Flying Circus as a club is that its members extend several generations. “We have 3rd graders, middle and high schoolers, college athletes, and masters,” explains Coach St. Runways are grouped by ability so every vaulter gets an experience tailored to them. All Barn sessions are 90 minutes long. “We have a 16 minute dynamic warm up, 12 minutes on apparatus, leaving 60 minutes for vaulting,” explains Coach St. breaking down a typical Barn day. Private
lessons can also be scheduled with any of the coaches for a more individualized practice, but the structure will be identical.
Anyone can show up to an open lesson and will be welcome with open arms, but for the regulars, the season is a bit more intense. “Our program begins in early September,” says Coach St. The first six weeks of the program are focused on running and posture from the short runs with straight poles. “Foundation work is our
mission,” explains Coach St. “We teach small for the long haul.” Anyone who frequents the Barn has heard or read St.’s catchphrase, ‘Small drills=BIG VAULTS!’ and knows it to be true, no matter the level of the vaulter. “November 1st we transition to small run vaulting with emphasis on technique.” This phase ends with a fun short run meet. After almost three months of preseason, the vaulters are itching to get in some long runs, so on December 1st, putting together the posture,
Coach Tim St.Lawrence of Hudson Valley Flying Circus Pole Vault Club,Warwick, New York
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speed, and technique learned so far, the vaulters start on six, seven, and eight step runs just in time for the start of the high school indoor season. “Ten days recovery after indoor nationals, and we start over again for the outdoor season.” Mid June marks the end of a long high school season, but the Barn jumpers don’t stop there. “We rest ten days, then hit camps and experiment stages with summer competitions.” One of the best summer camps around is hosted by Coach St. and staffed with local high school and elite coaches and St.’s own enthusiastic high school and college vaulters who just couldn’t resist the opportunity to spread the love to the next generation of jumpers. The two-day camp is jam packed with learning and vaulting in specialized groups based on experience and ability. The Barn also hosts four weekly meets throughout the month of June in preparation for the Super Flying Circus Barnyard BBQ Meet on July 14th. “This meet is about family getting together, fun, and enjoying the end of the year,” says Coach St. 110 athletes from all over the east coast, from beginner to elite gather to jump, eat and drink Joe Tea, the unofficial meet sponsor. However, even Coach St. with his seemingly endless energy needs a break
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some time, so August 1st marks the closure of the Barn for emotional and physical recovery in preparation to start it all over again the next month.
The Barn approach to the annual training schedule is proven to be effective. In its time, The Flying Circus has produced 13 high school guys over 16”, including Jordan Yamoah’s 17’1” state record, and 6 girls over 13’ along with 20 more over 12’6”. Coach St.’s and Coach Cauthers’ supplemental coaching has helped 145 vaulters claim State titles and two claim National titles. These stats may be impressive, but they are not what Coach St. likes to advertise about his club. What is most impressive about the Barn is not the heights its athletes clear, but the fun they have while doing it. “I have learned that teaching in a positive, reinforcing style promotes success,” explains Coach St. “Our job as staff at The Flying Circus is to enhance confidence and self esteem first. We create an electric atmosphere of individual energy, motivation, and sportsmanship ideals; what ‘pure sport’ should be all about.”
The Barn is where Coach St. applies his years of guidance from his own coaches and
mentors. “It was my dad who taught me how to handle people with care,” recalls Coach St. “Then it was my university coach John Mitchell who taught me pole vault technique and the team aspect of track and field, and then I learned tremendous patience from Coach Bill Falk of the University of Rhode Island. My roommate and former Indoor World Record holder Jan Johnson taught me real athletic toughness in the competitive arena, and finally I learned how to teach pole vault specific mechanics from Coach Rick Suhr.” Coach St. is an archive of vaulting experience and knowledge from all angles of the sport. He has seen it grow into what it is today, and been a substantial part of its development himself, as a vaulter and as a teacher. Coach St.’s core values of fun and sheer love of sport never fail to remind his athletes why they picked up a pole in the first place, how far they’ve come, and what each and every one of their futures holds in store. I know I never forget it.
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Coach St,Jenn Suhr,Coach Cauthers,Coach Rick Suhr
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