Barefoot wrote:kmonty51 wrote: Getting back to the thread,, how many coaches out there volunteer unsolicited to help a someone like I was - brand spanking new, but unlike me, unwilling or afraid to ask for help?Allan began this thread by noting the unprofessional nature of coaches advising other coaches athletes. He has also stated elsewhere that a central problem with USA pole vaulting in not bad coaching, but a lack in numbers of good coaches. When we see so many un-coached athletes, so many ill equipped vaulters, so many schools phasing out the vault program; its hard to stand silently by. Perhaps the proactive stance we as coaches take to helping our event bleeds into an unprofessional mode where we over-step our boundaries.
I have a suggestion. Oftentimes, new coaches in an event are intimidated and don't know the accepted behavior for an event. In most sports, and other T & F events, it's "every coach for himself." They don't know how asking for advice will be accepted by other coaches. I had no qualms about asking advice because I had been around track and field longer than several others had been alive. Another incident that helped me quite a lot (here is the suggestion) is a young man, 24 or 25 at the time, that I had watched and admired in terms of his coaching (also an 18 foot vaulter himself), struck up a conversation with me. When he found out I had accepted the offer to coach pole vault with virtually no knowledge of the event, he said, " I think it's great what you're doing. It takes a lot of guts, and without people like you, the event is going to die." HE MADE HIMSELF APPROACHABLE AND ACTUALLY PRAISED ME! After that, I felt at ease asking him questions. I didn't feel intimidated, stupid, or any of those other things. Here was a coach (me) that had been brought out of mothballs after retiring from teaching and coaching several years earlier, being taught by a gifted coach that was less than half my age. To my credit, I wasn't too proud to seek his advice. I also sought knowledge at coaching clinics, tons of reading (yes, BTB 2 was in my collection), and asking questions on this forum. Ladyvolspvcoach and souleman e-mailed me regularly with answers to questions I asked.
What I'm suggesting is that those coaches, young and old, with strong knowledge of pole vaulting, find a way to befriend the newbies. Maybe ask them what they think about some issue. When the relationship is comfortable, the new coach doesn't have to swallow quite so hard when he asks another more accomplished coach for help. It's a two-way street, but we knowledgeable coaches (I think I've earned the right to call myself knowledgeable as long as I remember I have plenty yet to learn) can start the process. If the new guy or gal isn't open to our subtle approaches, we simply back off. Don't wait for the new coach to approach you. As was mentioned earlier, without those new coaches, including those who have never pole vaulted, the event will die.