Pole Vault and Distance--do they mix?

a Girl on my college track team was a good 800 runner and PVer in high school (she ditched the 800 in college).

on the Boy's side, this guy looks to have decent XC credentials, but not anywhere close to his PV talent (looks like he doesn't mess around with distance during track season).

http://dyestat.rise.espn.go.com/search.jsp?athID=139781

Realistically, it won't be optimal to train seriously for any event beyond 400 meters since it might make you too tired to put in the necessary work on the runway and might mess with your PV approach run.

That said, not all PV athletes are born sprinters and these athletes might have a talent for mid distance.

It would be very hard to spare enough time to practice both pole vault and distance running enough, so I'm guessing performance would suffer in both.

However, while pole vault AND distance might not work, pole vault FOR distance would be awesome!

fluffy lumpkins wrote:

However, while pole vault AND distance might not work, pole vault FOR distance would be awesome!

Agreed! I would love to see that! Check out these crazy Dutch doing just that Fierljeppen

I was a decathlete for most of my youth track career and eventually around 16/17 years old switched over to mid-distance full time. For about 4 years I was a 400/800/1600/PV/Jav guy.

During duel meets it was very difficult to compete in 800 or 1600/PV because I usually came in at a higher height then the majority coming in at the opening height(8'). So I would have to run the 800m, and immediately head over to the PV pit to jump. My coaches made me pick between the PV and racing. I couldn't do both. As for practice, I would usually do my runs, then head over to the pit. If I had a track workout that day, I skipped.

PV jumps aren't really tiring, but it does become more difficult after a race and it will hurt your performance. During big meets which are spaced out or jumping before a race, you would be fine.

I ran 400 in 52, 800 in 155, mile in 419, 2mile in 943, 5k in 1610 AND vaulted 9'6". It never affected me.

Smart One wrote:

I ran 400 in 52, 800 in 155, mile in 419, 2mile in 943, 5k in 1610 AND vaulted 9'6". It never affected me.

It never affected you because your PV mark is horrible.

Mexico wrote:

Smart One wrote:

I ran 400 in 52, 800 in 155, mile in 419, 2mile in 943, 5k in 1610 AND vaulted 9'6". It never affected me.

It never affected you because your PV mark is horrible.

+1

quiet bartha

As a coach I've learned that an ideal candidate for pole vault at a high school level is a kid who can run the 100 in 12.0 or faster, can long jump 19' or further, can do a back flip on command,is fearless, patient, follows instructions well, and has strong upper body strength (not to be confused with having a large upper body).

Some distance runners have the ability to run and jump to those marks. Most don't. If they are running a low 9 3k or better it's in their best interest to continue with that than to be undermining their true talent.

You have to ask them whether they want to be be a half assed distance runner / pole vaulter or a great distance runner.

So it really depends on the athlete. If I have a guy who is running 10 minutes for a 3k and he has been at it for a while,is coordinated enough then I might let him try it.

One important thing to remember about the pole vault. If you have an athlete that cares a lot about self preservation then they will not be good at the pole vault and to a certain degree they are in danger of not getting that pole verticle and reaching the mat. They have to be fearless. If they slow up on the approach it can be dangerous for them. There are kids I will not even let try simply because I don't want to kill them.

Also, if you're a coach you should get certified as a pole vault coach. If you're an athlete make sure your coach is certified. This is a dangerous event for those without knowledge.

the training to be successful at both are completely different. However if pole vaulting will keep the young man happy then let him do it for now. Ultimately he's going to have to choose. And hopefully he'll decide to get serious give up vaulting take the aggressiveness and body control that he has developed and become a real distance runner.

I run 4:26/1600m and 121' for disc, I say whatever goes

brother ran 1:59, 4:31 and PV 12'10" using steel pole in '64

Depending upon the order of events, it can be very hard to do both. Any distance race takes enough spring out of your legs that it hurts the PV. There's a reason why the good ones wait to come in--every jump involves fatigue, more central nervous system than muscular. The other issue is practice. You can get your distance in on your own. But every event area wants to go hard-easy, which means almost everybody wants their key workouts on the same days. That means less workouts at both events, assuming you alternate.

I would say that you could be a bad-to-decent athlete in either area on talent and conditioning alone (so you could train for vault and still run an ok mile, or train for distance and clear an ok height). But to be really good at either would require focus.

gamecock wrote:

I would say that you could be a bad-to-decent athlete in either area on talent and conditioning alone (so you could train for vault and still run an ok mile, or train for distance and clear an ok height). But to be really good at either would require focus.

That's kind of what I was thinking. You could be decent at both -- but ultimately I think it is extremely rare to see an athlete do very well at both distance and vaulting(especially since this runner also wants to do well in XC). A "jack of all trades but master of none" result would happen I would think. Some very rare exceptions I am sure (as witnessed to by the athlete linked from dyestat above--what a beast he must be!).

In high school this was actually very common for one of the schools in my league. They realized that LA city pole vault was super week (only a few schools even have the equipment) so if a girl could clear 8-6 and a boy could clear 9-6 they had a chance at scoring. These people were often successful distance runners. One reason to use a distance runner is that the 4 event cap in high school hurts sprinting, distance runners rarely approach this. They should do there pole vault training first, and run afterwards. You don't want to do the pole vault training exhausted.

400 - 50.3

800 - 2:01

5K (Course) - 16:29

15K (Road) - 52:50

PV - 15' 1"

Junior year 22nd in cross country 7th in the vault at the state meet (PA)

Senior year 9th in cross country 2nd in the vault state meet (PA)

From personal experience, and talking to many D-1 Coaches the max distance you want to run (without it affecting your vault height) is 400m. I also had a buddy that use to run all distance and vault (not a very good vaulter) and he was part of a very good 4X8 relay team. If he wants to vault, I say go for it because vaulting wouldn't affect his distance times (besides the possibility of injury), but he wouldn't be able to excel in the vault. I gave up running the 800m my senior year of high school to focus specifically on the vault. To answer the question point blank, no, they do not mix, but it sound like he has more potential in distance rather than vaulting.

I use to wing the 400s and 800s though. My base from summer running and cross country season got me those times.

Your vault is not that good, at that level it wouldn't really be affected. However, that low height could be due to he fact you trained for distance.