March 24, 1999
'Run, plant, take off...' vaulters converge on Central
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Run, plant, take off, turn, clear and push away.
The six steps for hurling a body a dozen or more feet in the air using just speed, strength and a long fiberglass pole sound so simple on paper. But to the pole vaulter, years of training and drilling go into creating those successful few seconds when they can defy gravity and fly.
"I just love flying through the air, it's a rush," said Luke Schwartz, 12th grade, captain of the Traverse City Central High School Track Team who has been vaulting for three years. "When you flex the pole it is like riding a roller coaster. I fell in love with it the first time I tried it."
Schwartz and nearly 120 other pole vaulters from around the state converged on the Traverse City Central High School gym Saturday for the 18th annual Pole Vaulters Clinic. Boys and girls, veterans and novices alike practiced the fundamentals and made vault after vault at one of three pits set up around the gym. Central High School track coaches John Lober, Mike Lober and Scott Buyze gave each vaulter personal feedback on their style and techniques.
"I tell them not to worry about the height of the bar, just do it right," said John Lober head track coach for Traverse City Central High School. "Imagine running full speed while carrying a 17-foot pole, that is hard enough. Then they are suspending themselves in the air as a result of what they've done. You don't learn this in one day, you learn it by going home and practicing."
Successful vaulting takes speed, strength, flexibility and endurance. Speed is important because the faster the vaulter can do the 75-foot plus run up to the bar the higher the jump. Upper body strength, especially in the shoulders, is crucial to obtain jump height and use the pole's flex to launch over the bar. Flexibility is necessary to maneuver over the bar and clear it without touching. Endurance is a factor because vaulters jump over and over again, using bursts of speed and strength for jump after jump in a meet.
"When you vault, you want to be already sweating," Schwartz said.
Mental preparation is also important in a sport where you can find yourself 13 feet in the air, heading down fast. Learning to manage and overcome that fear is another element of training.
"The biggest thing is don't be afraid," said Schwartz, who hopes to get a track scholarship to college. "Fear is really a big issue with vaulters even though you are in the air for not even two seconds."
More than half of the clinic's attendees were new to the sport, spending the day working on practice drills. They also tried their hand at jumping three- to six-foot jumps, getting used to the techniques of a successful jump. Some of the coaches at the clinic were relatively new to the sport and came to learn the coaching techniques for their own team.
"I wanted them to learn some drills to do it right," said Steve Gusler, the pole vaulting coach from Fairview High School. "I've got several kids just starting out and I wanted to learn the right techniques for coaching them. I hadn't jumped myself in 30 years when I was drafted into this job last year."
Lober and his fellow track coaches have worked with more than 1700 vaulters and coaches during the past 18 years. They travel each January to the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada, to learn the latest coaching and vaulting techniques and bring the information back to Michigan.
"We've had so much experience and spent so much time learning about it, we want to share it," Lober said. "Vaulters always hang together anyway, the bar is the thing, not winning."