Worst indoor season ever ?
by atlegu » Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:23 pm
I might provoke someone, especially since I am not an American (and comes from a country without any significant pole vaulters since 1930). However I think it is should be debated: Why are the US male vaulters (as a group) so bad this year?
This indoor season is according to the statistics all time low for US vaulters. This is not a critic of each and one jumper, but it is kind of scary that Mark Hollis is the best American with 5.63 meter. In, a not extremely good year internationally, he is number 13 on the world rankings for 2011.
No country in the world have more high school and college vaulters than the US. What happen with them?
Is it the start on a trend ? is it just a fact of randomness ? Will it be different next year ?
Atle
The "stories" are information in support of my opinion so that I'm NOT speaking from "ego" or from "because I said so"… …
Fact: higher runway speeds produce higher vaults.
Fact: the majority of vaulters from 30-20-10 years ago had longer Approach Run distances.
Fact: Today's vaulters as a whole are practicing more from short runs and not (never) transitioning to longer runs. They should be transitioning within the same season where as most are not even moving to longer runs in a 2/3 year span!!
Fact: we have more vaulters participating with the "average" heights achieved going up but the "top end" averages are lower.
Fact: Accuracy on the approach run is the number one predictor of a successful vault.
Fact: We have more vaulting poles available today than any time in our vault history.
A question?
Has any 6.00m vaulter run slower than 9.3 mps or had an approach run shorter than 18 strides?
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Some of my opinions..
*Some of the potentially best high school talent is "pushed" into the decathlon in college because they are good at several events.
*We do too much "short run" vaulting (with the incorrect run technique) with no/"O" transition to longer runs.
*We have too many pole designs and most do not "fit' the physics of the event at any level, and this creates a huge "technical" problem for youth and beginners.
*We are refusing to "change" our methods and our approach to teaching and/or vaulting even though we are not working with the physics of the event and continue to produce the same but wrong result.
I think everyone should state their opinions with their experience for support. That makes it more of an educated, knowledgeable "debate" ….
dj