pole vault information

Everything you wanted on pole vaulting!

Try this site and see if there is anything left out about pole vaulting. There are videos listed, instruction from beginners to elite, camps, and a message board where you can leave questions and gets answers from all over the world. www.polevaultpower.com

"I use this site all the time".

Coach Ras

Mankato State Pole Vault Camps

For those who are interested coach Matt Kolb has a pole vault camp at Mankato State and can be reached at the email address below. His blog is also an excellent place to get tips on pole vault technique and training.
Coach Smith

http://www.trackshark.com/blogs/home.php

Coach Matt Kolb
Elevation by Determination Pole Vault Camps
UCS Spirit Track Equipment Representative
Minnesota State University Pole Vault Coach
Mankato West H.S Jumps Coach
Cell 271-3626
E-Mail Kolb@hickorytech.net

PreseasonTips for Jumpers

November Tip of the Month

The weather is starting to change around the country and soon it will be difficult to do workouts outdoors without a lot of bulking clothing on. For those of you in parts of the country without an indoor facility to do your running training, the next several months will be tough. You have to find a way to become adaptable to your environment. You’d be amazed at how much productive work you can get done running in the gymnasium or in the halls at your school.

The key to the interval type running that jumpers do is to focus on stride control, rhythm, and pushing toward your anaerobic threshold. Many of you are training for sprint and middle distance events along with being jumpers so you are already doing the kind of training where the rest interval is short. If you don’t have access to a place where you can run 150-200 meters for training that’s okay. On the days when all you have to do is bundle up to run outdoors, do so and don’t focus as much on the times that you’d like to run. Focus on keeping your rest interval short and utilizing proper running technique instead. If you keep the total number of meters that you run around 1200-1500 meters on your long interval days and between 800-1100 meters on your sprint interval days it doesn’t really matter if you are running far and fast, just that you are doing so on a formula where you take, roughly, double the distance rest.

What do I mean by that? Example: if you’re running repeat 200 meter intervals, taking double the distance rest would be to take 4 mins. rest between 200’s. If you’re taking equal the distance rest you would be taking 2 mins. rest between each set. For 150 meter runs, double the distance rest would be 3 mins. and equal the distance rest would be 1 ½ minutes. The idea is to keep your pulse in your “training zone.” To calculate your “training zone”, subtract your age from 220 and then take 70% and 80% of that number. That’s your “training zone”. Example: If you’re 16 years old, take 16 away from 220, (220 minus 16 = 204), take 70% of 204 (204 x 70% = 143) and take 80% of 204 (204 x 80% = 163). In this example, your “training zone” would be 143 – 163 beats per minute. Once you get warmed-up and are 1/3 of the way through your running workout, your pulse should stay between those numbers in order for you to achieve the maximum anaerobic benefit.

It’s always smart to monitor your “training zone” so that you can be efficient about the work you’re doing. You may find that your pulse rate is in excess of your maximum training zone number immediately after completing a run of 200 or 300 meters. Don’t worry, at the end of 1 minute your pulse should recover toward the lower end of your training zone. The idea is to start your next running set just as your pulse gets down to that lower number early in your pre-competitive season training. As you become more fit, your pulse recovers more quickly from hard work and you can move from a quantity oriented training plan to a quality oriented training plan. You know the old saying, “no pain….no gain”. Once you’ve paid the price of becoming generally fit in the early season, you earn the right to start training at a level where you get to run faster and take more rest between efforts. The first 6 weeks are usually the most challenging.

The most important meets of the winter season don’t hit until early February for most jumpers. Now is the time to begin the background training that’s outlined in my Dwight Stones Sports Interactive Training Program. If you haven’t yet, go to www.DwightStones.com and click on the “Training & Motivational Programs” tab and sign up for a program. It’s not too late to be ready in time for those winter competitive opportunities that will help you get a head start on your competition. A good winter equals an outstanding spring.

Preparation is everything but that preparation has to be well-planned. It has to be part of an overall regimen that stresses the specifics that are unique to jumpers. You can’t train a jumper like a distance runner or a sprinter. Some of the training is similar but it’s the “jumping specific” drills, the event specific lifts, and the well-thought out interval workouts that will make the difference between “just another track season” and you becoming the best jumper you can be.

Go to www.DwightStones.com and click on the “Training & Motivational Programs” tab to get a head start on 2008. Make it your best season ever….I guarantee it!

Cheers,

Coach Stones

The Peak Performance Sports Science Library

The Peak Performance Library is an excellent source of information and research on the latest training techniques, nutrition, and fitness programs for track and field (and many other sports) Take a look at the web site http://www.pponline.co.uk/
as well the library (See link above).

They also have a FREE sports training library with hundreds of articles. (See the link below.)

Leadership: Bo's Lasting Lessons

I just picked up a great book "Bo's Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership." by Bo Schembechler and John U. Bacon. Yes, He is the legendary coach of the University of Michigan football team who passed on just last year. I couldn't put it down. It is filled with stories from his coaching days and through them he tells you how he lead his team and lived his values, values that even after football, his players are living out in life, in business, education, whatever. This is a great book for coaches and leaders of every stripe (business, athletics, education, etc.) He was a man who didn't just talk about leadership, he led!

I give this book two thumbs up!

Eating Right to Improve Performance?

All of our young athletes want to improve their performance. That's a given. They train hard, practice technique. Listen to their coaches (hopefully?) Yet, when it comes to filling the gas tank, they put the equivalent of sludge into their gas tank and expect to get great gas mileage and Indi car speed out of their bodies.

I want to spell out a simple way to begin the process of eating well, for athletic performance, and for life in general.

#1 You need to sign up for http://www.fitday.com/ This FREE website will help you accomplish the following:

A. You need to monitor what you put into your body. This will help you access how to make changes in your diet intake that will be beneficial. Keeping a daily log with fitday.com will allow you to do just that. It will measure the calories, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats as well your vitamin and mineral intakes.

B. Fitday will help you estimate your caloric intake and your daily caloric needs. This will help you neither over or under consume food. This will vary for individuals based on age, weight, gender, training regime, and base calorie needs (for your regular work/school activities)

C. Fitday will measure your balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats, for the athlete these should be in the range of:

Proteins - 25-30%
Carbohydrates - 50-60%
Fats - 20-25%

D. Fitday will help you measure you need to supplement vitamins and minerals which are lacking in your daily diet. For most this will simple mean taking a multi-vitamin. More on supplements later.

E. Once you have recorded what you eat for at least a week, you will be able to see the patterns emerge and begin to make adjustments. One at a time is best. Some will be obvious, like to much saturated fat (solid at room temperature) vs. good unsaturated fats (like olive oil) and omega 3 oils (in many kinds of fish).

F. Fitday can also be used as a daily workout journal in which you can record your running, speed work, weight (resistance), isometric, and plyometric training regime, both in season and out. You should also record how you feel. Then you can correlate your performance in training/competition with dietary variations. Learning when to eat what is also import, especially prior to competitions

G. Lastly Fitday allow you to monitor your water (H2O) intake. This one of the least considered elements for young athletes, but it can have a devastating effect on your performance. Cramping, lack of endurance, and rapid fatigue, among other things, can often be linked back to poor hydration.

So that will give you a start down the road to better performance through good eating habits. I plan to write more about each of these aspects in the days to come.

Coach Smith

Say it isn't so...Marion?

Sadly, I am beginning this blog intent on helping young men and women to improve their training, nutrition, and performance in track and field, on the same day as multi gold medalist, Marion Jones, has admitted to taking "the clear", a performance enhancing steriod. I am saddened that we thrilled to see her run so fast, only to now find out that she used these enhancements. Not that we don't use every legal means to improve our performances, but these are endangering and can be life threatening in later life, if not before. Certain wrestlers, and a football player named Lyle, come to mind.

I hope that we can help steer young people, especially those in our coaching charge, in the direction, of making the most of what God has given them, by all natural means.




The three-time Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones cries as she addresses the media during a news conference outside the federal courthouse Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 in White Plains, N.Y. Jones pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs,. She also pleaded guilty to a second count of lying to investigators about her association with a check-fraud scheme. Looking on in the background is her mother Marion Toller. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)