The last cross country topic!

[pvdad81]

I think we can all agree, in a perfect world we could all train year round with our poles, pits and world class coaches. However in reality, the choices in the fall are cross country, football or "run 15 60s" on your own, for most kids. I don't know much about twiching muscles but I do know teenagers. Very few are motivated enough to train in the fall on their own.

Besides, the question wasn't which fall training method was better. The question was, is cross country harmful to pole vaulters. The answer is No. If you turn your fast twich muscles into slow twich muscles in the fall, just turn them back into fast twich mucles in the spring. Right?

[KYLE ELLIS]

I think we can all agree, in a perfect world we could all train year round with our poles, pits and world class coaches. However in reality, the choices in the fall are cross country, football or "run 15 60s" on your own, for most kids. I don't know much about twiching muscles but I do know teenagers. Very few are motivated enough to train in the fall on their own.

Besides, the question wasn't which fall training method was better. The question was, is cross country harmful to pole vaulters. The answer is No. If you turn your fast twich muscles into slow twich muscles in the fall, just turn them back into fast twich mucles in the spring. Right?

Wow! all I can do is shake my head on this. Why do people insist on informing on a subject they obviously have no clue about? The answer is yes! It does have a negative impact. High school kids dont have to run 15 60's in the fall or train year around, has anyone on this subject ever heard of periodization. Playing touch football with friends, soccer, basketball, swimming etc. etc. are all much better options for a vaulter to do in the fall. These all incorporate both aerobic and anerobic qualities, as opposed to one or the other.

And no, in a perfect world we would not train year around with our poles.

Here is a question, don't you think some kids would burn out faster after running cross country in the fall?? As a highschool student I would not recommend trining year around nor would i advise cross country. I would advise playing a sports you like like i mentioned above, staying physically acitve with both anerobic and aerobic activities. I also wouldn't recommend lifting year around either...

[VaultPurple]

The question was, is cross country harmful to pole vaulters. The answer is No. If you turn your fast twich muscles into slow twich muscles in the fall, just turn them back into fast twich mucles in the spring. Right?

This is the only real reason I consider cross country bad for pole valuters.... yes you may be able to work your way back to the same speed after each cross country season, but had you not ran xc and lost those fast twich muscles, you would have them durring the start of track season and you would get faster with each track season, instead of staying the same.

[Thats.What.She.Said]

Wow! all I can do is shake my head on this. Why do people insist on informing on a subject they obviously have no clue about? The answer is yes! It does have a negative impact. High school kids dont have to run 15 60's in the fall or train year around, has anyone on this subject ever heard of periodization. Playing touch football with friends, soccer, basketball, swimming etc. etc. are all much better options for a vaulter to do in the fall.

now see those would be great except for recourses and stuff. i dont have a pool to easily access for swimming (which also kills your running so how is it much better?). Then football and basketball can only last for matbe a month or so, then the cold fall weather hits. this leaves soccer, and around here the kids that play soccer either play on the school team, or do xc to stay in shape. now i know these conditions dont apply to everyone, but i mean, the fact that i havent been able to play a pick up game of any of that since maybe 6th grade kinda says something.

Here is a question, don't you think some kids would burn out faster after running cross country in the fall?? As a highschool student I would not recommend trining year around nor would i advise cross country.

how would they burn out faster? i am yet to. i mean sure you could say the old "well they are doing running sports all year and that can cause a kid to burn out," but i dont see it that way. i do xc in the fall to do something, since there really is nothing else for me to do, unless i want to go out for soccer. but the problem with soccer right now is that 3 of the girls this season have ended up with casts on their arms, then there are all of the other injuries. then in the winter i do indoor track, but since we dont have pole vault indoor, i hurdle. Then in the spring i switch over to pole vault, with still some focus on hurdles so that i can be on the relay team. The way i see it, i am doing 3 different things each season, no different than someone who say does football, basketball, and lacross. and if i were to not do xc in the fall and just do training on my own, it would amount to about the same thing as what i am doing now since i have til spring for pole vault ani i do try to practice once a week the rest of the school year, but i would lack the motivation and end up fat and slow... or fat with "momentum"

[pvdad81]

Kyle, I'm glad my kid didn't listen to you and get burned out. We vaulted 15 months straight without a break. During that time, he went from a 9' vaulter to a 15' vaulter. I guess now I should have him stop working with his pole vault coach and play "touch football".

[KYLE ELLIS]

Kyle, I'm glad my kid didn't listen to you and get burned out. We vaulted 15 months straight without a break. During that time, he went from a 9' vaulter to a 15' vaulter. I guess now I should have him stop working with his pole vault coach and play "touch football".

ask me if I care...

I am tired of fighting a one sided battle. We have opinions vs science. I feel content that anyone wanting to gain knowledge can see two opposing sides on this and can make up their own mind.

I ran CC my jr and sr year and only jumped 14ft... Then I stopped and jumped 16ft in juco with no practice because we had no facilities. Then I jumped 17'6 at a Div 1 school. I wish I had never done cross country becasuse I felt it definately impacted me alot athletically and it took 4-5 years for the affects to wear off.

I will leave this as my last question. How many elite vaulters (18ft+)do you think run CC as form of staying in shape in the fall?

[rainbowgirl28]

I will leave this as my last question. How many elite vaulters (18ft+)do you think run CC a form of staying in shape in the fall?

But that's not the right question. No one on this board who is past high school has ever asked on here if they should run cross country in the fall. The question is whether any elite vaulters ever ran cross country in high school.

I have no idea if any of them ever did or not. Some of the current elites were total studs at pole vaulting in HS, others were not.

[KYLE ELLIS]

That would be intersting, like Hartwig if he ran CC? That would help explain his gradual increase from a 14'7 highschooler to 19'9 elite vaulter. I would be willing to bet that no h.s. 16+ jumper ran cross country... Maybe there was one freak kid.

[rainbowgirl28]

That would be intersting, like Hartwig if he ran CC? That would help explain his gradual increase from a 14'7 highschooler to 19'9 elite vaulter. I would be willing to bet that no h.s. 16+ jumper ran cross country... Maybe there was one freak kid.

I agree that most 16' high schoolers probably did not run cross, at least not later in their high school career. A good chunk of those kids are lucky enough to have access to pole vaulting facilities in the fall.

[KYLE ELLIS]

I think we can all agree, in a perfect world we could all train year round with our poles, pits and world class coaches. However in reality, the choices in the fall are cross country, football or "run 15 60s" on your own, for most kids. I don't know much about twiching muscles but I do know teenagers. Very few are motivated enough to train in the fall on their own.

Besides, the question wasn't which fall training method was better. The question was, is cross country harmful to pole vaulters. The answer is No. If you turn your fast twich muscles into slow twich muscles in the fall, just turn them back into fast twich mucles in the spring. Right?

I had to come back to this, you are born with % of fast twitch to slow twitch fibers. This never changes. What changes is that your nervous system slows down and your type II fibers can immitate slow twitch fibers. This takes a while to un-do

[rainbowgirl28]

But there is more to speed than % of fast and slow twitch... why don't you list all of the factors you can think of (I'm not being snarky, you have a better grasp of this stuff than I do).

[pvdad81]

I think we can all agree, in a perfect world we could all train year round with our poles, pits and world class coaches. However in reality, the choices in the fall are cross country, football or "run 15 60s" on your own, for most kids. I don't know much about twiching muscles but I do know teenagers. Very few are motivated enough to train in the fall on their own.

Besides, the question wasn't which fall training method was better. The question was, is cross country harmful to pole vaulters. The answer is No. If you turn your fast twich muscles into slow twich muscles in the fall, just turn them back into fast twich mucles in the spring. Right?

I had to come back to this, you are born with % of fast twitch to slow twitch fibers. This never changes. What changes is that your nervous system slows down and your type II fibers can immitate slow twitch fibers. This takes a while to un-do

I will concede this argument because I don't have a exercising degree. However, my opinions are based on my experiences as a vaulter who ran cc and a coach who has coaches vaulters that have ran cc. Many times after a vault practice, I also ran the sprinters workout. I don't think I could have done this without the endurance I developed in cross country. I also recovered from practices much faster. There are benefits to running cross country.

One of the girls I coached ran distance. She wasn't the fastest kid I had but she jumped twice as often as the rest. Last year she placed 4th at state in Mississippi. She was a 9th grader.