Off Topic Pole Vaulting anyone???

[gymjourneymom]

One of DD's teachers at school found out that she's a gymnast. The teacher has asked her to consider doing track & field in the spring(she's in 10th grade) in hopes of having her try Pole Vaulting. DD has never Pole Vaulted before in her life, but she is curious to learn more about it. I was hoping some CB'ers might have some info or stories to share with her. Thanks!

 

[gymnastbeth]

I do pole vault!!! For a gymnast, I feel like it's really easy to pick up. The first day I tried it, I got 7 feet! You really need core strength, and an ability to run fast for a short distance. Pretty much all the strength a gymnast has will help them pole vault. There's another gymnast on the team, and we are both the best pole vaulters. Gymnasts are seriously naturals.

ETA: I'm sort of a tall gymnast for level 9... That might actually be to my advantage in pole vault though.

 

[staceyb]

One of my bases was a pole vaulter, got to national level in about a year. It's all about core strength and air-awareness.

 

[jenniffir]

yeah when i was in 7th grade one of the P.E. teachers found out i was a gymnast and ask me to pole vault. When i told my mom she laughed at me

 

[hunde2]

Since DD quit gym she did track one season and tried pole vaulting x1.
She really did well doing the triple jump which is technically a little more difficult than the long jump.
She liked pole vaulting too and did pretty well for the first time.

 

[JZMOMMY]

There are a number of girls from our gym who pv and are very successful. One just hit 12 ft as a freshman and there are college scholarships available, much more so than gymnastics.

 

[BlairBob]

Yep, a lot of the high end pole vault training now includes some rings and bar training. We only did a few bar drills at my HS and some PB drills besides gymnastics basic conditioning.

Height helps a lot as I remember many of the PVers were tall or built long and light and there were very few short broad guys like me. My dad laughed at the notion and it took me about a year and a half before I could even master the basics (the first season and most of the second season, I sucked. I wasn't a natural by any means).

Aerial awareness is important as is guts.

According to some research data, PVers actually run faster with a pole than the fastest gymnasts out there. This is peak speed however.

 

[Tuduri]

Pole Vaulting and diving

One of our former gymnasts, Amy Chow, pole vaulted at Stanford University as an undergrad after her olympic career was over.
She also went to Stanford medical school and graduated recently. She visited our gym last month. I was surprised to learn that she had to leave in a rush, after taking pictures and signing autographs, because she had a diving practice at Stanford!

I've heard Amy was given scholarships for competing in these sports, but I am not sure of this.

It seems gymnasts are naturals at both pole vaulting and diving. There is some cross over of skills from one sport to the other. We had a diving coach for about two years who taught levels four, five and six before he moved on to a full-time diving job. He was very knowledgeable of vaulting and uneven bars skills.

Julio Garcia,
Jamy's dad

 

[gymjourneymom]

yeah when i was in 7th grade one of the P.E. teachers found out i was a gymnast and ask me to pole vault. When i told my mom she laughed at me

I'm sorry your mom laughed at the idea. When people don't understand something, sometimes they tend to have a negative response about it. I was also unsure when my DD brought the idea up. That's why I want to learn more about it. If she wants to try it, I'll support her efforts 100%. I want her to try all kinds of new things at this time of her life. She's become an interesting young person...I want her to explore interesting things.

 

[gymjourneymom]

Thanks for all of the great replies everyone!