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VAULTER MAGAZINE 2015
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CONTENTS
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FROM THE EDITOR
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POSITIVE ATTITUDES PRODUCING POSITIVE RESULTS 8 A POLE VAULT NOTEBOOK
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AKRON: “POLE VAULT HEAVEN”
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ROLLED ANKLES FROM LANDING ON YOUR FEET
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Cover photo by Sean Palchick Sports Information
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FROM THE EDITOR Over halfway through the semester and Thanksgiving Break is almost here! That means indoor season is just around the corner! For this month, we have a range of articles for you to enjoy.
don’t just have one approach to remember, but you have a 3-step, 5-step, 6-step, and an 8-step. It is easy to forget where each of them starts. That is why you should keep a pole vault notebook. Just like you take and use a notebook in class, you First, we have an article on should take and use a notebook why you should not land on in practice and at meets. You your feet in the pits. Too many can write down all your marks, times have people landed on your pole progression, what their feet and sat themselves your coach has told you to think out with a rolled ankle. And about, and some encouragement too many times did they miss to yourself. There are many important meets and got behind other reasons why you should in practices. You do not want to try keeping a notebook like this, lose a few weeks of your season so check it out. because of a rolled ankle. But, if you do have a rolled ankle, We all have bad practices. included in this article are some We all get into a slump where rehab exercises to help you nothing seems to be going heal faster and get back on the right—you are getting nothing runway. There are also some accomplished. The last thing we preventative rehab exercises want to hear is to stay positive. that will strengthen the muscles We think it is something our and ligaments in your ankles, coach just says so we will calm which will hopefully prevent down. Or maybe they just do your ankles from rolling. not understand what is going on and do not know what we are There is so much to going through. But our coach remember in pole vault. All the is right about staying positive. technique, all the drills, then When you get angry, when you have to remember numbers you become negative, nothing too—numbers for your steps will get accomplished. Your and numbers for your grips. You attitude greatly effects how
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your practices and meets turn out. Being negative can also affect your teammates around you. Positive attitudes really do produce positive results, and this month we have an article suggesting what you should do to stay positive. You want to be the best you can be, so don’t beat yourself up. Instead, read this article and see what you can do to stay positive.
Our featured university this month is the special University of Akron. 20-year home of Coach Dennis Mitchell and training center for World Champion Shawn Barber, the University of Akron vault crew has made itself known in the vaulting world. Suiting up 18 vaulters this season, Coach Mitchell has big plans of success for his team. All-around great school and program, and a dedicated vault crew—this team is not one you want to miss! Please enjoy this month’s issue. Until next month, have a great Thanksgiving Break! Editor Sadie Lovett Sadie@vaultermagazine.com
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POSITIVE ATTITUDES PRODUCING POSITIVE RESULTS By: Vaulter Magazine We’ve all had our coach tell us to be positive. They tell you to be positive on the days that you had a really bad practice. You want to be positive, but how can you? You couldn’t take any jumps up and nothing was going right—there was nothing to be positive about. But did you really have a bad practice? You may not have taken any jumps up, but you are one practice closer to fixing your run. You may have no-heighted at that meet, but you got on bigger poles.
There is always a positive. Getting upset and having a bad attitude will affect how you perform. If you leave practice with a bad attitude, you will go into your next practice remembering how bad the last one was— instantly setting you up for possibly another bad day.
If you take out your frustrations on your teammates or coach, that is not helping anyone. Your teammates are there to encourage you and your coach is there to help you. When you get frustrated, just sit down by yourself and focus on something else. Getting
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Lilianna Ifft
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Pole Vault Clinics & Camps
“The Unfair Advantage!” 803.315.5998
www.ShealyAthletics.com
85 SCHS State Champions, 11 National Champions, and 3 “Team USA” (World Team) since 1998.
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worked up won’t help you stay positive. When you don’t have a positive attitude, it affects everyone around you.
If you have trouble getting off the ground, ask your coach if you can go to a shorter run for a few jumps so you can get out of the “run-through rut”— even if that means going all the way down to a two-step approach. Try focusing on one thing at a time. The key is not to overwhelm yourself with things to work on because that is when you get frustrated, then mad, then negative, and then everything just falls apart. After each meet and each practice, try to list two or three positive things about that meet or practice: my warm-ups felt good, my back didn’t hurt today, I had a better jump at take-off, etc. Don’t focus on the negative because that is only going to bring you down. If you come up with this positive list, it will help you with your attitude next practice. Do this even when you have a good day! Try writing it down, then you can always look back at all your positive thoughts. Trust
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me, if you start making these positive lists, you will notice a difference.
Pole vault is so frustrating. You are not always going to have a good day, but that’s to be expected. Saying that you are bad at this sport or that you hate it, is not going to help you get better. Take it from someone who has had their fair share of frustrating practices that we all wish never happened. Throwing your pole down, being snippy at your coach, or ignoring your teammate’s encouragement to get through the bad practice, won’t look good on your part and most certainly won’t help you get better. It is all a change in attitude. If you find yourself on the edge of just blowing up, stop. Trying over and over again, getting more frustrated and angry, isn’t doing you any good. Seriously try sitting down and cooling off. Then, ask your coach what he thinks you should do to get out of the “bad practice slump.” They are there to help you: let them. They will talk it out with you and come up with some ideas to help you. You have to remember that your coach does not know what is going on in your head:
they can only see that you are struggling and are not doing what they suggest to try. If you communicate with them what you are thinking, what you are trying, and what is not working, then they have the opportunity to calm you down, keep you positive, and know which direction to coach you. You could even ask a teammate what they do when they face what you are struggling with. Sometimes talking to someone who can explain what they think of or what they did to fix it, helps a lot. Remember, there are so many things to perfect, there is always something to be positive about—you just have to find it.
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A POLE VAULT Notebook By: Vaulter Magazine
How often have you gone to practice and forgot where your step should be?
It is so frustrating that you cannot remember and your coach can’t remember everyone’s step. Doing another runback, getting another step, trying to remember another number, you now forget where your grip is supposed to be on this pole.
Mark Hollis
Want a simple solution? Try keeping a notebook. There is so much to remember about each practice—where your new step is, what your grip is, the progres-
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sion of poles—that you are bound to forget something. If you keep a notebook, you can write down everything you
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need to know and always refer back to it. What if you move your step forward or back sev-
eral times and at your next practice, you can’t remember what the ending mark was? Just refer back to your notebook where you have written it all down. You can go into each practice, open up your notebook, know where to start your step, and be ready to go!
What many vaulters do is they date each practice and then write down their step and grip for each run and each pole. You could take notes on what you were working on, things you thought about to get technique down, some encouragement to yourself, anything!
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Mark Hollis Notebook
Using a notebook is handy at meets too in case your coach is not by you. You may need to know which pole to go to next and your coach is not there, but you have your progression of poles written down in your notebook so you are good to go. All your steps and grips are right there in your notebook. Another thing you could write down is where to put your standards for each height and each pole. If you have a multievent coach, there are going to be some meets where your
coach is not with you for each jump. If you write down where your standards are supposed to be, then you will have all the information you will need to know to make the next bar. Write down things you need to remember: trail leg, jump at take-off, rock back, pike over the bar, or throw your pole. This will help too. Many of the elite pole vaulters use a notebook every day. Because they have several workouts each day, they have
so much to remember. It is easy to remember everything they did and everything their coach told them by writing it down. The best in the business use one; you should try it too. What made the bar fall off on my last attempt? Write it down to remind yourself so you know what to work on next practice. Weather is a big factor at practices and meets. Tail wind, cross wind, heat, cold—all of it determines what you do to your run, which pole you use, and where you should grip. If there
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FUN FACT DID YOU KNOW
that the United States has won the most gold medals at IAAF Worlds with 143 as of 2015, followed by Russia with 55, and Kenya with 50.
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is a head wind, you are going to move your step forward. To know where to start, you can refer to your notebook to see where your last step was. Then, you can write a note to yourself that at this practice or meet, there was a head wind. If it is really hot, your poles are going to be softer. So you are either going to need to move your grip down to make the pole stiffer, or you are going to move up poles. On days like this, you may get on one of your biggest poles. Write a note to yourself saying that at this practice or meet, it was really hot. Then, write down where you moved your grip or what pole you moved to. For meets or practices like this, you can always look back to see what you changed based on the weather for when you face a windy or hot day again. Ever go to a facility that has a raised runway? Or maybe you train on a raised runway and you go to a meet that does not have one. Either situation, it effects where your step will be. All the marks you have are based on a regular track and now you are going to compete on a raised runway. It will take time to find where your step should be, but there is always the possibility that you will compete at this facility again. Write down how much you moved your step back and why:
“Raised runway – moved step 1.5 feet back.” That way, when you compete there again, you can refer back to what you did the first time. Same goes for competing on a regular runway. If all of your steps are based on a raised-runway speed, you are probably going to need to move your step forward. Not many places have a raised runway, so writing down a step for a regular runway is a good idea. You will always be able to refer to that step and will not need to do as much adjusting in warm-ups.
You could even write down which other schools will be at your meets. Not to intimidate yourself, you can mentally prepare for how slow or fast the competition will move when you know how many competitors will be there. If there are going to be 10 schools and 20 vaulters competing, you can prepare for “five alive” or for the starting height to be low.
All of these ideas are to help you improve. Just like you take notes in class, you can take notes in practice to help you along. If pole vault is something you want to pursue after high school and after college, treat it like it is a class and you are taking notes for it. Once you try using a notebook, you won’t know how you ever practiced or competed without one.
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AKRON: “POLE VAULT HEAVEN” By: Sadie Lovett
Located in the state of Ohio, Coach Dennis Mitchell trains the largest jumps crew he has ever had: six men, eight women, and four decathletes. “Two years ago we had nine total vaulters qualify for the NCAA first round of nationals. With so many vaulters this year, we hope to break that record,” says Coach Mitchell. Coach Mitchell gives us a little insight on Akron’s name: “Nick name is the Zips mascot, is Zippy the Kangaroo. Akron in Greek means ‘the highest’ or ‘the summit.’ We like to call Akron “Pole Vault Heaven”. It says on each athlete’s chest that they are part of the highest. Our colors are Blue and Gold. So we zip fast, jump like a kangaroo, blue ribbon training, and gold medal performances.”
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How could this team not be successful? Their name says it all!
When Coach Mitchell was in college, he vaulted for the University of Utah and then transferred to Abilene Christian where he worked with Don Hood for two years. For those two years, 1983-1985, Coach Mitchell trained with many of the nation’s best. Being a college pole vaulter himself, Coach Mitchell learned firsthand the importance of teammates. “If your best competition is on your team, you have a great program,” he says. Every day your teammates push you to be better. “The ideal situation is to have around five vaulters. Number 5 hates being number 5, and number 1 knows they must work hard to make sure 5 does
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not overtake him or her. This mutual idea of being the best is what unites all these vaulters in friendship. They do not see each other as adversaries, but as facilitators to reaching their goals. It is amazing how good competition can push you through complicated technical and physical demands of the event more efficiently than any other means. Most all my vaulters have been pretty close friends,” Coach Mitchell tells us.
Coach Mitchell has been coaching for many years. He started his coaching career by volunteering at high school where he coached the Utah state champion. After six years at Texas, four years at the University of North Carolina, Coach Mitchell found his way to the University of Akron and has been head coach for 20 years. At Akron, Coach Mitchell coaches the decathlon, heptathlon, and pole vault alongside five full-
time assistant coaches in all track and field events. He also has a few volunteer coaches.
Because Coach Mitchell has coached for so long, he knows what he wants in his athletes. “I am looking for great athletes: Speed, coordination, good levers, power, and good students are important. 12’ and 15’4” would be the normal starting bars, however, I have had vaulters come into Nicole Waibel
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FUN FACT
the program with lower PRs who went to nationals and/ or placed. My first female 14’ vaulter I started recruiting her when I saw her go 10”. I am always looking for potential more so than how high they have gone. However, no matter the physical attributes, there is no substitute for a person who has the knack to flat out be able to pole vault along with being a tough, hard-working competitor,” Coach says.
The leaders of the team this year are World Champion, Shawn Barber who continues to train with his Akron team. Shawn is the collegiate record holder, a Bowerman finalist, and Track and Field News
The Akron track team has a lot to offer its pole vaulters. There are four pole vault pits— two indoor and two outdoors. They also have rings, a high bar, trampoline, and parallel bars for drills. They have over 250 poles in their collection where most of them are Altius. The weight room is also right next to
Athlete of the Year. Alongside Shawn is Caroline Hasse. She was part of the 2010 German World Junior team and a twotime national qualifier. Team Captain is Alex McCune. He has a PR of 17’10 (5.45m), which is the Indoor Heptathlon Pole Vault American and Collegiate record. Last year’s team Captain
Rebecca Szabo
the indoor pole vault area. They have a huge indoor facility—a 300m track with stands. Their outdoor track is right next to their indoor facility. Outdoors they used two-directional pits.
DID YOU KNOW
that despite being the WR holder for so long, Bubka won only 1 gold medal at Olympic games: 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics.
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Byron Spruill
was Clare Lucas and she is a two-time national qualifier. Joining the team this year is Rebecca Pietsch, 2014 German World Junior team, and Roxy Dunn, Ohio State Champion.
The Akron track season starts officially the first week of school, but most of their athletes train all year long. In the off-season, the Akron coaches make sure their athletes are prepared to handle the intense workouts of pre-season. “In the early off-season training, we train to handle more training,”
Coach Mitchell tells us. Like many other pole vault crews, the Akron team starts developing basic new concepts and habits early in the pre-season. “We also do the physical activity needed to prevent injuries. When our athletes come back from the summer, they are expected to pass a series of tests to make sure they are physically prepared to handle the fall training. I believe that to have great technical abilities you must be totally physically prepared: Weights, gymnastics, strength endurance, sprint
approach mechanics, basic plant takeoff mechanics are an important part of off-season training,” Coach says. This training prepares the vault crew for all the major meets they will go to during their indoor and outdoor seasons. “We go against everyone in the country going to all the major meets. We are always looking for meets against the best vaulters in the nation,” says Coach Mitchell. Being a NCAA Division One school, the Akron vault crew is in a good pole vault conference—Mid-
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American Conference. Since Coach Mitchell has been at Akron, between the men and women teams, they have won 20 Team Championships.
A lot has happened at Akron: Shawn Barber and all his accomplishments to start. The Akron vault crew also put on the Pole Vault Convention. The track team as a whole, men and women, were 10th in the nation last year. “The men significantly affected by Barber’s performance, we finished men’s best finish at 9th at NCAA Indoors. Last year our women finished 10th at NCAA Outdoor Championships with Annika Roloff winning the pole vault,” Coach tells us. Coach Mitchell also has many alumni he is proud of in all his years of coaching: Doug Jones, Warren Smith, Scotty Miller, Kevin Brown, Shannon Pope, Jeanine Thomas, Kevin Pest, John Russel, Kira Sims, Dan Kinsey, Joe Wesley, Michael Uhle, Carrie Kayes, Kat Lee, Claire Lucas, Annika Roloff, along with others who made the NCAA Regionals and first round competitions. Like many other teams, the Akron vault crew likes to have some fun. When they are traveling and have time, the team likes to participate in local sites, food, and activities. Sometimes they will play some
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beach volleyball or they will get into add-ons on the trampoline. Coach Mitchell also makes sure the vault crew swims once a week for recovery purposes, which probably turns into a fun game, too! The vault crew’s biggest event every year is
the Pole Vault Convention. Coach Mitchell describes what happens at this convention: “It is designed as a gathering of pole vault ideas in training, technique, merchandise, team/club management, and competition. We want vault
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Caroline Hasse
enthusiast to be exposed to elite vaulting and coaching. This all grows out of philosophies I have about pole vaulting. Not only is competitive interaction important, but it is also important to know what works best with each vaulter. I have
an ideal model I use as a guide not as an absolute. What works for one vaulter may not work for another. Knowing your vaulter is very important. I try to individualize their technique and some of their training to fit each vaulter’s individual needs
and demands. For example, some vaulters are better at prejumping while others have to be a little more under to feel a better connection to the vault. Look at all the world-class vaulters. They all look different taking off. Feeling confident in what you are doing on the runway is very important. A vaulter can only run as fast and execute with aggressiveness at the level they are most confident. You can’t ignore physics, however, each vaulters carries so many different experiences and attributes that cannot be ignored. These include differences speed, strength, power, endurance, coordination, head height, arm length, leg length, body weight, training experience, what they were taught when they were first developing in the vault, and so many more factors. The Pole Vault Convention grows out of the need deal with so many variables and ideas.”
This vault crew has a coach that knows what is best. The facilities have so much to offer them, and a season the will have them compete against the bestof-the-best, which will push them to be the best they can be. With Early Bird meets just around the corner, the Akron pole vault crew will jump big bars this year.
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Featured in this image: Eboni Hall and Rebecca Pietsch Coach Dennis Mitchell Becky Szabo Mackenzie Brown, Nicole Waibel (Jr) Roxy Dunn Adam Alexander Ben Watterman Malik Hudson Kamar Majid Cole Wigal, Riley Fillman Quentin Cieslinski, Jordan Latimore Caroline Hasse, Tyler Fraker, Shawn Barber Straddle Matt Rowland, Alex McCune
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Matthew Rowland
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ROLLED ANKLES FROM LANDING ON YOUR FEET By: Vaulter Magazine
We’ve all done it: tested out a pole or had a jump where we didn’t swing up and then landed on our feet. Sometimes there are consequences to landing on our feet.
It’s easier to land on our feet and then walk off the pit—you don’t have to roll over, stand up, then walk off—but there is less risk of an injurie if you choose to land on your back or butt. Rolling an ankle is very common when landing on your feet. Whether the mats are hard or soft, they can manipulate either ankle into rolling to one side. Some ankle sprains aren’t bad—stings at first but then you’re fine to finish the workout. What some people don’t realize is that once you roll an ankle, you are more likely to roll it again. The
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tendons and muscles in your ankles become progressively weaker with every sprain making it easier for you to roll your ankle and increasing the time you will have to sit out of practice.
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Rehab or rest time for a rolled ankle depends on each athlete: three days, one week, ten days. But each time you roll an ankle, the rehab time is longer, the swelling can be worse, and the tendons and muscles stretch more. Over time, more damage can be done than just stretching the tendons and muscles. Excessive rolling can cause a partial or complete tear of the ankle ligaments on the outside of your foot. Breaking areas of your foot has been known to happen as well. The last thing you want is to have surgery.
IAAF 2014
How do you heal from an ankle sprain? How do you prevent it from happening again? Truth is, you will most likely do it again. But listed below are some exercises to help your recovery process and also some preventative exercises that will make the muscles and tendons in your ankles stronger. Here are some rehab exercises that will help you heal from a sprained ankle: Ice Bath
• Icing helps reduce swelling.
• After you have built up the courage to put your foot and ankle into the icy water, rotate your foot in circles. Do
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these circles slowly— focus on making it a complete circle. All you are doing is reducing some of the inflammation and keeping your range of motion (scare tissue will build up and you could lose a lot of your mobility). Try to do 3 sets of 10 circles both clockwise and counter-clockwise. If doing big circles hurts, try smaller circles and work your way up to big circles.
• Flex and point your foot – Flex your foot as much as you can then point it as much as you can. With 1 flex and 1 point being one rep, try to do 2 sets of 10 reps. Again, do these slow. • ABCs – Write your ABCs. Do them slow and focus on each movement it takes to make each letter. Feeling strong? Try doing to lowercase letters. Do one set through. • All of these exercises can be done out of the ice bath as well. Balance on one leg
• You need to get your stability back. Balancing on one leg will slowly help you with that. Massage the swelling
• All the swelling in your
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ankle needs to go. If you let your body try to push all the swelling out, it will not get rid of it all and that swelling will add more scare tissue. It’s painful, but you need to rub it out.
• Sit down on the couch as if you’re going to lie down and pull the knee of your bad ankle close to your chest. In upward motions, rub from your lower ankle (almost foot) up to your calf. Adjust the pressure based on how sore or not sore your ankle is.
• Sometimes asking someone to do it for you, like mom or dad, is better because we tend to be easier on ourselves. If someone does it for you, lie on your stomach and bend the leg of your bad ankle at the knee to a 90-degree angle. The person helping you will rub the swelling the same way you would, just down your leg towards your knee. You want this one to hurt a little bit. If it’s so bad that you’re about to cry, then ease up, but going easy on it won’t be very effective. Wall stretch
1. Stand straight with a wall in front of you
2. Put your hands in front of you on the wall
3. Step back with your bad foot and put yourself into a lung
4. Your goal is to put the heel of your bad foot onto the floor. If you can’t do it, then do less of a lung. 5. Work your way into deeper lunges to help get your range of motion back.
While you are doing rehab and giving your ankle time to heal, you should try to reduce the amount of activity you do on your feet. Your ankles are holding your body weight, and just like you when your body is hurting, the last thing you want to do is lift more weight. You also don’t want to twist your ankle more. So don’t massage your own foot by crossing your legs and turning the bottom of your foot up towards you—this is only putting more pressure on the already-stretched tendons.
The following exercises can be used for rehab and preventative strengthening: Towel Exercise
1. Sit in a chair and put a towel down on the floor in front of you. 2. Put your bare foot on the towel, and keep your heel on the ground. 3. Starting with your little toe,
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grab the towel with your toes tightly and sweep it toward the midline of your body.
4. Without moving your heel, continue to gather and sweep the towel until you have done 10 repetitions or you run out of towel. Switch feet and repeat.
• For this exercise, you can pull the towel towards the middle of your body, pull it to the outside of your body, and straight towards your body.
Calf raises • You can do these single legged or both at the same time. You can do these on a flat floor or a step. For both cases, focus on going all the way up on your toes to full extension and then back down. If you’re on a step, dip your heels down as far as you can go. You can use something like a wall or table to stabilize you, but don’t use it to help you raise up.
Theraband • This is a therapeutic band that you can buy for cheap that will help strengthen the muscles in your ankle.
• Each color is a different tightness. The most common color is green.
For theraband exercises, try searching on YouTube for some ideas. • Take your theraband and
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place it over the end of your foot.
• Someone will need to help you because they will need to put some resistance on your ankle for the muscles to work and get strong. • Have your partner pull either side of the theraband away from you. • What you need to do is flex your foot towards you, pulling against your partner.
• Try to do 3 sets of 10 repetitions. Increase the amount of resistance as it gets easier to do. You want the muscles to burn and be tired, so if you don’t feel that, pull on the band a little bit harder and increase the amount of repetitions you do.
Mike Arnold
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• Do both ankles, not just the sore or weak one.
For theraband exercises, try searching on YouTube for more ideas. There are many exercises you can do with a theraband. Ball tosses
• Balance on one foot and have someone throw you a ball. They should not throw it directly to you—they should throw it to either side, short of you, above you, anywhere that will get you to lose balance when you catch it. • Your job is to work at not losing your balance. Jump rope
• Single leg and both together
Hops • Single leg hops forwards and backwards
• Also do hops where you jump your legs apart, and then back together—apart, together, apart, together, etc. While you are healing or until you think your ankles are strong enough, try using some ankle braces or having an athletic trainer tape your ankle. Do this only until your ankles are strong and only when you are doing things that may cause your ankle to roll, because braces and tape can keep the muscles from getting strong. Doing these exercises won’t necessarily keep you from rolling your ankles altogether, but they most certainly will make it hard for it to happen and if it does happen, these will reduce the amount of recovery time. No one likes to sit out of practice because they are hurt. There are so many ways you can roll your ankle, but for many of them, we can’t control whether it happens. We can control whether we land on our feet or not. Don’t sit yourself out with a rolled ankle. Land on your butt or back then get right back on the runway for another jump!
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