Club Indoor Competition Schedule

Saturday Jan. 3rd - Expo Explosion VI - HS & Collegiate
       in Belton, TX @ Coliseum
       Registration Deadline Dec. 6th INCLUDES a T-shirt, afterwards, no shirt included
       Price $43 Early Registration - $65 Day Of
       Register Here: Expo Registration

Friday Dec. 9 - U of H - Collegiate - Hannah
       3:00 Competition Time
Saturday Dec. 10 - Texas A&M High School Classic 
      3:00 Boys only (Girls compete on Friday - and you can register and go on your own! Coach Kat will be at a collegiate meet at U of H on Friday)
      Price: $20
      Register to Coach Kat by Sunday Jan. 5th - she will do the team entries.

Jan. 16-17 Pole Vault Summit @ Reno, NV + Snow Days Jan. 18-20 @ Tahoe!
       HS, College, Elite
      Summit Registration Deadline Jan. 2nd for Late Entry
      Summit Info

Jan. 30-31 U of H - Collegiate Meet  - Hannah & Jordan

Schedule Change: December Rubber Meet

December's Rubber Meets the Road  Practice Meet will be held on Friday Dec. 19th.

2:30- Runway opens for warmups
3:00- Competition begins

$10 entry fee
Free entry for athletes paid for full December month.
Register by text with name, step, opening height by Wednesday Dec. 17th

December schedule is up!

Come vault with us! Our practice session schedule for December is up. Check it out here. We have 14 sessions scheduled... So if we have decent weather we can get a ton of work done... And if we have bad weather we will still get plenty in!

There are some time changes to adjust to the weather and sunset schedule and they are some date changes around Christmas, so be sure to read it. We will send out reminders as the month progresses.

December is a critical month for training as Competition season is just around the corner.  Come out and get ready to compete at the very best of your ability!

Rubber Meets the Road - Meet Review

Friday night was our first ever Rubber Meets the Road Practice Meet and it was a huge success! For us coaches the main event started on Thursday - a TON of WD-40, some screw drivers and scrapers and a bit of elbow grease and we got both standards moving freely. It is fabulous to have them functional again!

Friday night our crew went to work making sure the pit was ready...

Then the MAIN EVENT arrived ...

... and the meet got started.

Coach Jessica ran the meet - the meet sheet, the bar, and the standards all by herself. Which meant she worked her tail off, and I was able to put my energy into coaching! It was great! She did a great job running her first pole vault competitoin ever - even running a split bar!

I am pleased with the end result - we got exactly what we wanted - the athletes got meet exposure - jumped with a bar, ran their own warm ups, figured out their standards and their steps, dealt with wait time before they came in, and dealt with some pressure of 3 attempt clearances. We got some kinks worked out, had some successes, and learned a lot about where we really are and what needs to be done to be prepared to compete. You are all on your way to being prepared for this upcoming season. 

Some highlights from the meet:

- Alexis went from a 3rd attempt opening height clearance at 5'2" to a PR of 6'2" in her first meet ever!

- Jordan also had his first meet ever, from a 6 step, and went up hand grip after hand grip- - check out this great take off! Jump after jump he blew through bars (that's a good thing for this time of year) and ended up clearing 8'6" from a 6 step. A great start for him... can't wait to see him in a full decathlon next spring!

- Zandy had the warm up of her LIFE! Getting fully inverted, turning quickly, and landing on her back. She followed that up with a solid performance at 7'6" from 8 steps, and left knowing that she has a TON more potential than that this year!

- Hannah looked great for a few jumps and found some kinks... her technique is rock solid and ready, but her body is struggling with all the training changes so she pulled out with a cramp in her leg... we're getting that figured out. She did get 2 clearances in before she pulled out and ended with a clearance at 9'6". I'm pretty sure last spring she opened somewhere near that in her first meets... and from a 12 step! She's well ahead of that already this year. 

- Saskia had her first meet in the U.S! She made the best of each jump, and got better and better as the meet went on. With a little coaching on some adjustments...

... she started to watch her jump and let her swing continue and that got her up and over with an 8'6" clearance from 6 steps. 

Great Job everyone on this Rubber Meet. Now you are all a little bit closer to being READY for the season. I had a blast having the opportunity to coach through a meet and can't wait for the next 

Rubber Meets the Road!

September Practice Meet

Introducing our Rubber Meets the Road series! Monthly Practice Meets for Vertical Edge Athletes and Alumni. We are so excited for this series. It will provide us with the opportunity to get all of our vaulters meet prepared so that everyone can go into the high school competition season comfortable and ready to compete. In addition to that... a chance for A TON OF FUN! This is why we pole vault, right? Jumping over bars, clearing heights, and giving our all to see what we can do... this is the FUN PART!

Vertical Edge Alumni who are now off to college, we miss you and would love to see you! If you are in town, come join us and pole vault again, or just come cheer on Vertical Edge's up and coming vaulters!

Check out all the details here.

A NEW YEAR!! Track Season 2014-15 HERE WE COME!

I hope everyone has had a great first week of school! This has been my first year back in school as a Mom, and it has been crazy! I am hosting a forign exchange student from Germany and so we are jumping into kindergarten and high school at the same time. Lots of paperwork, parent meetings, and a bit of "working" (fighting) with counselors. I now feel for you parents!

BUT... hopefully you have made it through the worst of it and you are itching to pole vault again! I know I can't wait to get back out to the track coaching! We have an exciting year coming up. Hannah, Zandy, and Noah have all put in a solid foundational year last year. They are all ready build on that foundation this year and take it to new heights!

A quick update from the summer meets:

Noah and Hannah both had a succesful summer season, both with big PRs!

All in all, Hannah raised her PR last from 11' to 12'3" !! The exclamation marks are there 1- because I am proud of her and 2- because I know there is SO MUCH MORE in the tank and I am SO excited to see it come together this year!!  Watch out collegiate pole vaulting, Hannah will be a fierce competitor this year!

Noah also raised his PR from 8' from the previous season to 10'9" this summer! (Both Hannah and Noah were setting personal records at the Quintana Beach Vault at the same time on different pits... it was a good meet!) Noah had a great season, AND has had an even better breakthrough summer so I can't wait to build off of that this coming year! He is a freshman this year, so high school track here he comes!

Zandy didn't get to compete in any summer meets, but has been training well through the summer. She will be the speedy one on the runway this year. Keep an eye out for her, she will be jumping higher!

New Athletes:
We will also have a couple new athletes join us this year. Jordan is joining us from Houston Baptist University. He will be a junior there and is making a switch from the 800m to the decathlon. I have been thrilled at his level of technical control and body awareness. He is already a fabulous athlete and learns quickly so he is a ton of fun to coach. This will be one decathlete who pole vaults like a VAULTER! 

Then Saskia will also be joining us. She is from Germany and staying with me for a year. She is a great vaulter, with a PR of 11'8". She brings a lot of experience, and a LOT of passion for the event! She will make a great addition to our team.

High Level Athletes:
 I am very pleased with our team outlook this year. All my athletes are high level athletes - they are performing well for their age, and they are committed to the event... and LOVE IT! This will be a GREAT group to train together!  I am excited not just for me, but for you ATHLETES, a great training group is worth a million bucks!

Looking for more:
This year we are also looking to recruit some more beginners to join us! We would like to add an additional beginner session to our schedule. If you know any one who wants to give it a try send them my way or bring them to a practice. If you know any fierce, speedy, or tough athletes - gymnasts, divers, volleyball, soccer, or basketball players, or anyone else - Tell them how much you LOVE POLE VAULT! Those of you who are the only vaulters at your school (or the only serious vaulters) recruit some team mates for yourself -  they will be a great help to you at the meets in the spring and they will keep the program going at your school.

In addition to teaching YOU how to reach your potential and jump higher, a main goal of mine is to build Pole Vault in this area into a very visible sport and to provide the opportunity for kids to pole vault as a serious, well educated athlete.

It's going to be a good year! Practice will start next week - this first week of September. Dates & times can be found on the Practice Page here.

New WORLD RECORD.. 6.16m!!

Renaud Lavillenie has had a fabulous indoor season this year - his 6.04m jump made headlines, and then again his 6.08 meter jump which was a new French Record. But two weeks later he bettered it again - with a WORLD RECORD jump - 6.16m. (20' 2.5"). It is a beautiful jump... and cleared on his first attempt at it! Sergey Bubka had held the world record since 1984 (when he first set it at 5.81m... 19' ) and set the last world record of 6.15 in 1993... at the same meet, Donetsk, that Renaud clears it at!

A little bit about Renaud's jumping - first you should know that he is not a very big guy. Unlike Sergey Bubka who was quite the athletic specimen with his tall, strong build, Renaud Lavillenie is 5'9" tall and 152 lbs. He may not be tall, but he is FAST. Lavillenie runs from 20 steps (the running joke is that you know it is the off season if Renaud is running from 14 steps) and puts on some serious speed down the runway. He hasn't clocked the worlds fastest 100 meters by any means, but with a pole in his hands, he is one of the fastest men ever! Renaud MAKES SPACE! Have you heard me say you want to vault like you are 6 or 7 feet tall? Well, Renaud does exactly that - His arms are completely extended before take off (Hollow!)

and then again how extended they are after he realigns... (there is no pulling there!) Some more views of the world record:

This is a great angle to see all the space he is creating. 

A great slow motion shot by Steve Chappel (maker of UCS Spirit poles... the poles Renaud is jumping on!)

Film - Dustin

This film is for Dustin - we were working on a few things this day - making space initially, and then realigning. He was cutting his swing short, dropping his legs and "flinging" horizontally off the pole - this film is of one of the jumps where he was working on continuing that swing up the pole.

The critical piece that you missed here, on this jump, Dustin, was the initial connection to the pole. Notice that when the pole impacts the box - its movement stops, and you just absorb it all. You need to be making that initial push to move the pole to vertical before going elastic. Space FIRST! Rememeber 1,2,& 3... that was just 2&3! You did it better on some earlier jumps before you started working on completing the swing.. but at the last practice session this was exactly the problem... need to get this initial connection better.