One of the best, and worst, parts of the sport is that there are a million things to work on. It is easy for vaulters to only want to do one thing... vault! But there are dozens of other things you can be doing to improve your vaulting when you don't have access to your pit, coach, or poles.
Back to the 2 things that happened this week:
1 - On Sunday I woke up to a very painful wrist - Monday morning it was worse and I came back from the doctor with an obnoxious splint.
2- I got sick! Every one hates it when coaches cancel practice... you've been waiting all week to get out and jump, and then it is cancelled. Ah! Today I had to cancel pole vault practice for my athletes. I hate to cancel, but I was too sick to go. So no pole vaulting today for them.
These are just 2 things that could happen - there are lots of others - It could be raining or snowing outside, your pit could be stuck in the shed until track season, you might not have any poles, you could have an injury, or you could be stuck sick in bed... but you can still be improving your vaulting. Here are 10 ways to improve your vaulting when you can't be on the runway.
1. Use your left hand. If your right hand is bothering you like mine, use your left hand. Even if you aren't injured... use your left hand every once in a while. If you are left handed, then use your right. Doing drills with your opposite hand can help you learn the movements better. Sometimes you have done a drill so many times with your good hand that you don't feel the little things you are doing wrong. It will be awkward at first, but focus on the technical cues and teach your left hand to do it right. It will make your good hand better!
I don't preach anything I don't do myself! Check out the film of my 1-arm pole drop... left handed of course on Vertical Edge's facebook page. This is how I spent my vaulting session on Monday.
2. Watch film. As high school vaulters practice, they are surrounded by other high school vaulters and see their vaulting, which, depending on where you are, can be decent or atrocious. Be sure to always go back to the real deal - so you can know what you are trying to do. My advice is to learn from the very best. Search for some Sergey Bubka or Maxim Tarasov on you tube.
3. Visualize. A lot of work can be done in the mind, but it takes practice. So spend some time visualizing. You can do it at home in bed when you are sick, going to sleep, or at the track. I love to sit at the very end of the runway to do my visualizing. When you can't pole vault for real, you can always vault in your mind!
4. Walking/Standing plant drills. Drill, drill, drill. Drill until you can do it in your sleep. Get it perfect away from the pit, and it will start translating into your jump. Check out the Slow Motion Plant here. Just be careful... don't drill mindlessly... always drill with a sharp mind so you are doing things RIGHT!
5. Core! A pole vaulter can always use more core. If you are sidelined off your feet for a while with an injury or stuck inside because of a storm.. get some core work in. Here is one good place to start: Pick 10 different core exercises: crunches, situps, straight leg situps, rotations, leg lifts, flutter kicks, side crunches, toe touches, V-ups, side bends, 1/2 v-ups, superman variations, reverse crunches, etc. Set the timer for 10 min. or 20 min and do 20 of each exercise. See how many you can get in before the timer goes off. We will get to some more advanced core workouts for vaulters later, but this is a good way to build a foundation. *Remember, strength is not gained in a single sitting, but as a result of regularly pushing your muscles to do more, so don't do core once a month. You won't get the results you want. Instead, aim for 3-4 times a week for a good core strength session.
It comes down to a favorite quote of mine, from a song done by Weezer... "If you want it, you can have it, but you've got to learn to reach out there and grab it."
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