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Today was the first practice for all the "new" vaulters, and the first thing my coach did was give them a pole, taught them how to hold it, and then made me show them how to do rock back drills. I asked him if he should be teaching them more basic stuff that will help in the long run, such as proper run form and how to plant the pole. He simply told me that that could be taught later on. I am not a coach or anything by far, but aren't I right? I wished someone would have taught me how to run and plant properly first, because i am having to do a lot of plant and run work now.

i would say you are but if you dont let new vaulters atleast jump a little by doing rockbacks they will quit easier cuz they arnt having fun yet

Well there are a couple that are returning from last year. To make it short, they did no plant or run form at all.

definitley start with some abc drills...working on the plant...another thing to do is pole runs over some cones spread out..keeping thier knees up with long strides...try to incorporate games with beginers like doing pole run relays and things of that sort...key is keeping them interested as nitro said.

Buy him a copy of BTB2 - either the book or the DVD - and he will see that you are correct. The rockback drill is completely counterproductive with beginners.

altius wrote:Buy him a copy of BTB2 - either the book or the DVD - and he will see that you are correct. The rockback drill is completely counterproductive with beginners.

I Might just let him borrow my copy of the book and the dvd. Now how would i go along telling him that they should work on the plant and run without sounding like a smart a**?

txpolevaulter_k25 wrote:
Now how would i go along telling him that they should work on the plant and run without sounding like a smart a**?

Good luck with that! They have to WANT to be willing to learn something about the event, and in my experience, more often than not, they don't care to learn.

There is no spoon?!?

You might try it from an ass-kissing strategy like "Hey Coach, I just got this new book on pole vaulting. Would you read it and tell me if the stuff in it is right or not? I really trust your judgment and I want to make sure I'm not learning bad information."

Ha, yeah maybe.