US Sports Track and Field: Florida Gators Coach Nic Petersen’s Two Keys for Teaching the Triple Jump and Giulia DE MARCHI • Women's HIGH JUMP Performance

 

• By Grant Young
 

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Track and field coaches that are triple jump training to youth, high school, and college athletes can be particularly challenging due to the event's inherent complexity. 

The triple jump consists of three distinct phases: the hop, step, and jump, each requiring specific techniques and precise timing. Coaches must ensure that athletes can execute these phases smoothly while maintaining speed and momentum, which can be daunting for those inexperienced in the event. 

Additionally, mastering the triple jump demands a combination of strength, power, and coordination. Athletes often come with varying levels of physical ability, making it essential for coaches to tailor training programs accordingly. This individualized approach can be time-consuming, especially in a team setting. Moreover, the psychological aspect cannot be overlooked. The fear of failure or injury may deter athletes from fully committing to their training or attempting new techniques. 

Establishing confidence in athletes is crucial, but it often takes time and patient encouragement. Limited resources and facilities can further complicate coaching efforts. Effective instruction requires a thorough understanding of these challenges and a commitment to supporting each athlete’s development.

Due to this difficulty, it’s imperative that track and field have a few key points and techniques they  can rely on that will help athletes of all levels. And there are few coaches better to learn from than Nic Petersen. 

Coach Petersen is entering his 3rd season as Associate Head Coach (and 12th season as any coach) of Jumps at the University of Florida Gators track and field program, and has made his own imprint on one of the nation’s historically elite jumps programs.

The Gators have continued their extraordinary run of success in the jumps under Petersen. The program has recorded 21 men’s and women’s individual NCAA titles since his arrival in 2013, including seven from Jasmine Moore (2022-2023), two from Yanis David in 2019, three from KeAndre Bates in 2017 and seven from Marquis Dendy (2012-2015).

Petersen has been a part of nine National Championship teams and seven SEC Championship teams since his arrival to the program. During his tenure, Petersen’s jumps group has won 21 National Championships and 28 SEC Championships.

In his ‘Teaching the Triple Jump’ course, Coach Petersen goes over the teaching of triple jump from the ground up. Topics covered include his teaching progression for triple jump, training inventory, runway drills, 1st run jump drills, short run drills, and extended or specific bounding drills. 

We have pulled two of his most crucial lessons about teaching the triple jump and have provided them for you below. 

Addressing Common Errors

Perhaps the most important part of Coach Petersen’s course comes at the end when he addresses some of the most common errors that arise in triple jump athletes. 

The first error he discusses is athletes reaching or hopping into the board. This could either be reaching into the board, the athlete sticking their foot out into the board, setting up too much as they make their entry into the board, decelerating into it, and just overall making sure athletes are maintaining their proper mechanics and not developing any bad habits as they get into and execute their take off are all things coaches should be constantly looking out for. 

An athlete having a low knee drive or taking their hop too high are also things coaches want to key in on. 

In addition to this, Coach Petersen notes that most issues that arise for an athlete during their triple jump are the result of something incorrectly done earlier on in their jumping process. Therefore, Coach Petersen stresses what he calls “coaching backward”. 

To show what this means, he discusses how errors from the hop are normally from something that happened in the run and errors from the step are normally from something that happened in the hop. 

“Look for things that happened before [the error]. What caused that?” Whatever the error is might have nothing to do with that actual phase and instead have everything to do with what they did heading into that phase. 

Gator Drill

The triple jump drill that Coach Petersen is most known for is called the Gator Drill, which has multiple variations that can be customized and catered to specific athletes. 

The most basic iteration of this starts with an athlete either on flat ground or on a raised box. They’ll begin by taking their first jump with their right leg, their second jump with their right leg, and then their final jump with their left leg before getting into their actual leap. 

This is a great drill for coaches to diagnose and pinpoint the specific areas where an athlete is excelling or needs improvement. Especially by having these drills on video, Coach Petersen can look back at these repetitions with the athletes and work through various aspects of it in detail, such as ground contact at each phase of the foot position upon landing. 

Coach Petersen suggests instituting a small box (anywhere from 1 to 6 inches) at the beginning of the drill only if you’re working with high-level athletes because the drill is already difficult enough in itself.

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US Sports Track and Field. The Technique Behind Mykolas Alekna’s Discus World Record and Mykolas and Martynas Alekna qualify for discus final...

 

• By Grant Young
 

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Lithuanian discus thrower Mykolas Alekna broke a world record that had stood for four decadest/mondo-duplantis-pole-vault-paris-olympics-spt-intl/index.html">world record that had stood for four decades at the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational meeting on April 14.

Alekna’s throw of 74.35 meters surpassed the previous record of 74.08 meters, which was set by Germany’s Jurgen Schult’s in 1986. Before Alekna broke it, Schult’s throw was the longest-standing record in track and field, according to Olympics.com.

Alekna has long been considered a prodigy in the discus event. He was the youngest-ever European discus champion at age 19, and in 2022 threw the longest-ever discus mark by a teenager and fourth-best overall in the world. The US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) voted him West Region Men’s Field Athlete of the Year and First Team All-American during his first season at the University of California. He was the Pac-12 Men’s Field Athlete and Freshman of the Year, and finished his freshman season with 6 of the top 10 discus throws in NCAA history, including earning the all-time record. 

Mohammad Saatara, Alekna’s coach at the University of California, spends over an hour breaking down Alekna’s world-record breaking technique in his ‘Mykolas Alekna Technical Analysis’ course. Sataara details the precise technical points that Alekna achieves with each throw, breaking down the world-record breaking form into easily digestible fragments that allows other discus coaches to teach this same technique to their own athletes. 

Technical Points

In the ‘Technical Points’ section of Coach Sataara’s breakdown of Alekna’s discus technique, he breaks down the various different phases of the throw into six sections. Those sections are as follows:

DS1 - the initial wind and entry to the turn

SS1 - right leg pick up and movement to the center of the circle

Flight phase - transition from the entry to the middle of the circle

SS2 - right leg landing and rotation about the central axis until the landing of the left leg

DS2 - landing in the delivery position and delivery

Recovery - landing after the release of the discus

Coach Sataara notes how, when humans are throwing something, they can only put a lot of acceleration on to the throw when both legs are on the ground. This is because one side of the body becomes the axis of rotation, while the other side acts as the propelling half. 

Coach Sataara said that this is important when it comes to discus technique because a thrower wants to be spending much more time both of their feet planted during the throw, rather than having one leg lifted or in the air. 

Mykolas Alekna implements this idea exceptionally well. Prior to every one of his throws, Alekna enters a squatting position that grounds his feet into the earth. He then uses this to generate power and torque, which fuels him to and through his entire throw. Alekna would not be able to generate such power — and therefore, not produce such a pristine throw — if he spent any more time with his feet off the ground than he has to. 

Technical Characteristics

In addition to his six technical points, Coach Sataara also lists five general points that he considers crucial to not only Alekna’s discus throw, but to every discus athlete.

These five points are: 

1. Balanced movement throughout the throw

2. Long path of the discus through the throw

3. Deliberate increase in the tempo of the throw

4. Long duration of DS phases

5. Active acceleration of the discus about a stable blocking left side

Coach Sataara believes that perhaps the most important aspect of discus technique is that the thrower’s center of gravity has to be as close to (or over) the axis of rotation. Which is to say that balance must be achieved before anything else takes place during the throw. 

If that center of gravity is not over the axis of rotation, crucial time and energy is spent making the body come to balance throughout the process of the throw. Coach Sataara explains how Alekna does an excellent job with this, and has been a vocal point of his technique throughout his life. 

In addition, Coach Sataara explains that, when it comes to the discus throw’s delivery, it’s very important to, “have a really long path of movement. And also a long path of generating acceleration into the implementation.”

Mykolas Alekna having trained in the discus since he was a young boy, he was already well aware of these points, and knew how to implement them into his throws. Yet, when he came to the University of California and teamed up with Coach Sataara, his technique continued to be sharpened over time because he was extremely coachable and willing to learn. 

Coach Sataara also knew that Alekna came to him with an excellent ability, and had clearly had good coaches before coming to college. Because there was a lot already working for him, Coach Sataara didn’t fiddle too much with Alekna’s mechanics, and instead honed his technique into an even better version of what it once was.

Strength Training

Another important point that Coach Sataara makes is that, while strength training is obviously important for discus throwers (and all other athletes, for that matter), the goal of strength training for discus should not to lift as heavy weight as possible. There’s a certain strength and weight threshold that a discus thrower needs in order to maximize their execution and efficiency, but any time spent trying to lift as heavy as possible in the weight room is time wasted, according to Coach Sataara. Because that time can instead be spent honing technique.

Instead of focusing on lifting extremely heavy, Coach Sataara instructs Alekna to focus on event-specific lifts and exercises. These sorts of exercises are catered specifically to discus throwers, and will both help increase one’s throw and help protect a young thrower from unnecessarily injury that may come from lifting weights recklessly. 

Utilizing Coach Sataara’s instructions that he employs when coaching world record holder Mykolas Alekna might not mean that your pupil is going to break any world records. Yet, taking these techniques to heart and teaching them to your own pupils will help them get the most out of their natural discus throwing ability.

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US Sports Track and Field: Three Hurdle Drills All Track Coaches Should Know and You will not believe how close these finishes got 👀 Tokyo 25

 

• By Grant Young
 

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The Paris 2024 Olympics have made track and field top of mind for not just American citizens watching the games on TV, but especially young athletes who find themselves intrigued by the record-breaking feats they’re witnessing. 

One of Team USA’s most famous athletes at the Olympics is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. She is a 25-year-old American hurdler and sprinter who competed in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2024 Olympics. She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion with the Games record and the 2022 World champion. She currently holds a world record time of 50.65 seconds, which was set at the U.S. Olympic Trials on June 30, 2024. But many are expecting her to set a new world record when she competes in Paris. 

While McLaughlin-Levrone is now the world’s fastest female hurdler, she got to this point by dedicating herself to her craft for years, even decades. She surely honed her hurdling skills by using many of the same drills that Chris Parno teaches his college athletes and Olympic hopefuls. 

Coach Parno is the Associate Head Track and Field Coach at Minnesota State University. Parno leads the men's and women's sprint/hurdle groups and serves as the recruiting coordinator. While being led by Parno, the maverick sprinters and hurdlers have experienced unprecedented success, re-wrote the record books, and established MSU as a sprints and hurdles powerhouse among Division II. This includes Coach Parno coaching 11 Individual/relay NCAA National Champions and 8 Individual/relay NCAA National Runner-ups in his 13 seasons at MSU. 

Coach Parno’s ‘Hurdle Drills’ course details all of the main drills he has used to turn Minnesota State into a national powerhouse. They will help track coaches cover all the bases when it comes to getting their athletes prepared for their next hurdle event—and could even help turn a select few of these athletes into Team USA’s next Olympics champion. 

Cut Step Drill

One of Coach Parno’s favorite drills for hurdlers is what he calls the Cut Step Drill. 

The cut step is the last, shortened step a runner makes before they make their jump. Therefore, working to perfect the cut step can be the difference between winning one’s race and coming up a few milliseconds short. 

The cut step drill will start by placing a hurdle against a wall or some other flat surface. The runner will position themselves a few steps away from the wall and then begin by taking a couple of steps toward the hurdle. Once they reach their cut step, the runner will get their drive foot down beneath their hips before projecting into the hurdle. 

This drill doesn’t require the runner to make any actual hurdles. Rather, their simulating the jump will end with their lead foot being placed against the wall just above the hurdle, and not having ever left the ground. 

“Cutting” that last step before the hurdle a bit short allows the runner to project into the hurdle. The runner wants to start feeling the hip projection as they lead into their hurdle, which will help propel them forward when making their jump without losing momentum. 

One Step Leads and Trails

One dynamic drill that Coach Parno recommends for any hurdle athlete is what he calls the One Step Leads and Trails drill. 

This drill is going to start with three hurdles being placed about 3-5 feet in between one another (although that can change depending on what level you’re coaching at/whatever your need is). 

The hurdler will then start with the runner approaching the side of the first hurdle (meaning they aren’t jumping over the entire hurdle) and getting their lead leg only over the hurdle.

Once they land, they’ll have to return right back into their hurdling position after a quick contact with the ground and get into their golden position take-off before sending their lead leg over the second hurdle. Then they’ll do the same thing with the third and final hurdle. 

The goal for this drill is to get the rhythm down of these golden position take-offs and get repeated attacks into each hurdle in order to build repetitions. Therefore, the hurdle doesn’t need to be at its full height. 

The second half of this drill is the trails portion, where the runner will be doing the same thing as before but with their trail foot going over the hurdle, rather than their lead foot. 

Another important part of this drill is that the coach makes sure the runner’s lead arm is coming down and around as they make their jump, as per the proper technique. 

6 Step Starts

A runner’s ability to get off the starting blocks can either spell success or despair for a runner during a race. And that’s why Coach Parno’s ‘6 Step Starts’ drill is a must for not just hurdle coaches, but coaches for all other track events as well. 

The drill starts with the coach putting a piece of tape on the track where the hurdler’s sixth step should land. Then the hurdle will head off the blocks and by their sixth step, they should have already launched into the first hurdle. 

This drill is particularly effective for getting runners to push off the blocks because if they haven’t reached that piece of tape by their sixth step it’s clear proof that they’re not excelling at the start of the race as efficiently as they could be. 

Without putting the tape marks down, it takes more guesswork from a coach to figure out how their runners are starting off the blocks. 

US Sports Track And Field: How to Teach the Glide Shot Put and He WON Worlds with a Broken Freakin' Elbow

 

• By Grant Young
 

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There are two prevailing techniques for the shot put: the spin and the glide.

For those who are unaware, let’s briefly discuss the fundamental differences between these two techniques. A thrower who utilizes the glide technique will typically have a much wider base when establishing their foot positioning, and will also have a significantly deeper torso position than the spinner. 

A thrower who employs the spin technique, however, will be a bit more upright during their standing throw. 

While the throw’s initiation will come from the left side with both techniques (given the thrower is right-handed), the thrower’s left arm travels differently in each movement. And this is where a thrower’s build, athleticism, and natural abilities should help decide which technique is best for that athlete. 

The glide technique is simpler to learn and execute, and places less physical demands on the athlete compared to the spin. Gliding typically allows for greater stability and balance during the throw, which is crucial for young athletes still developing their strength and coordination. 

And there are few better coaches of the glide technique for developing athletes than René Sack.

Coach Sack has been the German national coach for the women’s discus since 2016. Before that, he was also a national junior coach for the discus throw and hammer throw. He has coached athletes at Halle Olympic Training Center for more than a decade, including athletes such as World Championships discus medalist Nadine Müller.

As an athlete, René competed in the shot put with a best of 19.84 meters, placed second at the German championships, and represented Germany at the World University Games and several European age group championships.

Coach Sack’s ‘Glide Shot Put’ course by ITCCCA reveals all the keys that he used as a world-class athlete and as a coach to master the glide shot put. We have pulled some of his best lessons so that you can use them as a blueprint for teaching the glide shot put to your own developing athletes. 

Technical Progression

Coach Sack likes to think of the glide shot put’s technical progression training as a pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid’s base are the basic and special throws.

These are all of the medicine ball throws, kettlebell throws, and the many variations of those types of throws (such as doing them standing, sitting, and with various rotational elements). The goal for these is to make your athletes get a basic feel for various aspects of the throw, as well as provide core and strength stability training. 

Coach Sack says the next rung of the pyramid should be implement-handling/standing throw training, which will break down the glide technique into different segments that will give the athlete a better idea of what they should be feeling in each phase of the movement. 

The next rung up in the training pyramid will be to add throws with pre-acceleration, which will help to build on rhythm and help the athlete get a good feel for what their base should feel like as they through their throw. 

And at the top of the pyramid is the competition technique, which simulates what the complete technique will be when the actual competition is taking place. 

Implementing a training regimen that includes all four rungs of this pyramid, and that goes in this gradual progression from basic exercises and throws to full-on competition throws is not only the safest but the most effective way to help develop your athlete’s glide shot put technique.

Where To Put

The next glide shot put aspect that Coach Sack broaches is where to position the actual shot on one’s body during the throw. 

Coach Sack notes that the positioning between the glide and the spin throw is quite different. For the spin throw, most American coaches direct their athletes to hold the shot near the back of their neck. 

If we were to envision the neck as a clock, with the adam’s apple at six o’clock and the back of one’s back at twelve o’clock, Coach Sack notes that most spin coaches would have their athletes holding at about ten o’clock.

But the glide technique is vastly different. Coach Sack suggests that athletes should be holding the shot at about seven o’clock on their neck, in a position where it sits above the athlete’s clavicle bone and tucked beneath their chin.

This is because if the right leg is in the right position during the glide shot’s execution, the chest will open up, which will naturally cause the arm (and shot) to separate from the body. And if the shot is being held too far back then this might cause the arm to enter some uncomfortable positions and take away from the throw’s power.  

In addition, holding the shot at ten or eleven o’clock will force the arm to remain flexed and tight throughout the throw, rather than the throw starting out relaxed at the throw’s beginning.

Lifting Drill

Coach Sack believes that the most effective powerlifting exercise for glide shot put throwers is the power clean. 

For those who don’t know, the power clean is a highly technical exercise that involves catching a barbell in a partial squat, or "power position", above parallel to the ground. It’s also an Olympic weightlifting movement often used to develop whole-body explosive strength and power, and using it consistently brings benefits such as boosting explosive power development, enhancing body composition, and improving overall coordination.

Many aspects of the power clean relate to the actual glide throw, in terms of which muscles are being used at what phases of the lift. This is why the power clean should be an essential part of the workout regimen of any athlete who uses the glide technique (or even the spin technique). 

US Sports Track & Field: How Distance Running Coaches Can Get the Most Out of Their Athletes and Habtom Samuel, New Mexico Cross Country Grind At Altitude

 

• By Grant Young
 

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When it comes to coaching distance runners, there’s one obvious training method: make the runners run; the farther, the better. 

But it shouldn’t be that simple if coaches truly want to maximize their athletes’ potential. Regardless of what level your athletes are at, you would be short-changing their progress if their daily training regimen only consisted of distance running. Not only would this contribute to these athletes feeling burnt out, but there are plenty of other training techniques that have been proven to help runners become the best version of themselves. 

And one of the key figures driving this movement toward improved distance runner training is Jay Johnson.

Jay Johnson has coached collegiate, professional, and adult runners for two decades. Coach Johnson started his career as the head track and cross country coach at Pratt Community College in Pratt, Kansas, before returning to CU to serve as an assistant cross country coach, middle-distance coach, and recruiting coordinator. After eight years as a collegiate coach, Johnson transitioned to coaching post-collegiate athletes, three of whom won USATF titles, the most notable being Brent Vaughn, who won the USATF 2011 Cross Country championship. 

Coach Johnson is deeply involved with high school running. His popular YouTube channel has close to 2,300,000 views, with runners of all ages using this resource to learn exercises and routines needed to gain the strength and mobility necessary to remain injury-free.  

Coach Johnson’s ‘Consistency Is Key: Training Principles for Distance Coaches’ course has proven to be an indispensable training device for many professional, collegiate, high school, and youth track and field coaches. 

We have pulled some of Coach Johnson’s best insights from his course and distilled them into easily digestible bits that will give you a taste of the training wisdom he can offer when it comes to making your distance runners the best they can be.

What To Train - Introduction

While there’s a lot that should go into long-distance running training, there’s no doubt that actually running long distances should be a central part of a team or individual’s regimen. 

But the important part here that Coach Johnson stresses is that it isn’t good enough just to tell your runners to go run a random set of miles each day for practice. Rather, there needs to be structure (and a purpose) to each training session, even if it’s just distance running. 

And the purpose should be to build up the runner’s anaerobic base (or, as Coach Johnson calls it, their engine). And there are lots of different ways to do this that aren’t just a typical long-distance run every day.

One example of this is what Coach Johnson calls a “critical velocity run”. While this might sound like a complex concept, what it essentially means is a timed run where the runner’s goal is to run at the same pace throughout.

In order to achieve this, the runner would need to be checking their pace at set intervals (say, every five minutes), and try to maintain a running pace there she wouldn’t lose any time every five minutes. 

This is going to take time for the runner to perfect. But if this becomes a weekly part of the long-distance training routine then it can become a huge asset in building up a runner’s anaerobic endurance. 

Run Race Pace (or faster)

“This is the second biggest mistake I see athletes and coaches make. Kids have to be ready to run race pace. Training a touch faster is important, but also, you need to have a progression of strides.” - Coach Johnson

The first mistake that Coach Johnson alluded to in that quote is when high school athletes are not running strides most days. And he notes that the second biggest mistake made is not practicing race pace enough. 

While an athlete building their engine and strengthening their aerobic endurance should be a crucial component to one’s distance training, the lungs aren’t the only part of the body that needs to build stamina. 

 A runner’s legs also must be trained up. And there’s no better way to get one’s legs acclimated to running at race pace than running at race pace. 

Of course, this will take time to build up, and runners should not try to be running at race pace at their race distance on day one of training. But Coach Johnson notes that doesn’t mean a 400 or 800m runner can’t run 50 meters at race pace in the first week of practice just to get that race-like feel, and increase the distance from there. 

Remember To Sleep

“Sleep is like a secret ingredient in the recipe of running success.”

We’ve all been told countless times how important sleep is for our health and overall well-being. And Coach Johnson asserts that this is even more paramount for a distance runner.

Coach Johnson suggests that a distance runner (or any athlete, for that matter) should be getting at least 8 hours of sleep every night. In order to ensure this happens, he believes the best course of action is to work backward. 

First, a runner should figure out what they must wake up in the morning. From there, the athlete should figure out what’s (at least) eight hours before that wake-up time and plan to be in bed, trying to sleep, at that point. 

It might sound like a long shot that a coach can convince their athletes to go to sleep at 9 PM on a weeknight. But Coach Johnson claims that if any of those kids are willing and receptive to doing so, then those are almost certainly going to be your future champions and record-breakers.

US Sports Track and Field: 3 Pole Vault Check Points From Legendary Kansas Coach Tom Hays and Men's Top 10 Tokyo Performances World Athletics Championships

 

• By Grant Young

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For nearly four decades, Tom Hays has been the quiet architect behind the University of Kansas's remarkable pole vault coaching dynasty. His journey from promising athlete to legendary coach embodies the perfect marriage of technical precision and psychological insight that defines elite coaching.

Hays's approach begins with fundamentals. Early in his career, he recognized that the pole vault isn't merely about raw athleticism but requires a methodical building of skills. He developed a progressive teaching system that breaks down the complex movement into learnable segments—grip positioning, approach rhythm, plant technique, swing mechanics, and finally, the commitment to inversion.

What distinguishes Hays is his embrace of both science and artistry. In the 1990s, when biomechanical analysis was still emerging, he was already filming his vaulters, analyzing frame-by-frame movements to identify inefficiencies invisible to the naked eye. Yet he balances this analytical rigor with an intuitive understanding of how each athlete learns differently.

"The pole vault is physics in motion," Hays often tells his athletes, "but the vaulter is human." This philosophy informs his individualized coaching style. For some athletes, he focuses on technical cues; for others, he cultivates the psychological fortitude needed to hurl oneself nearly twenty feet into the air.

His training facilities at Kansas have evolved from basic pits to high-tech laboratories featuring specialty equipment and computer modeling. But Hays maintains that the most valuable coaching tool remains attentive observation—watching how an athlete responds to instruction, adapts to challenges, and demonstrates readiness for progression.

The results speak volumes: dozens of All-Americans, multiple national champions, and Olympic qualifiers, along with his securing the nation’s No. 1 men’s pole vault recruit for three consecutive years at one point in his career, ensuring continued excellence in Kansas’ jumps program. More impressively, many of his former athletes have become successful coaches themselves, spreading his methodology throughout the sport.

Coach Hays’ ‘Tom Hays - The Art of Coaching the Pole Vault’ clinic explains the art of coaching this challenging sport and offers insights into athlete evaluation, coaching technique improvement, and simplifying complex movements. He emphasizes the importance of self-evaluation, clear communication, and eliminating unnecessary elements.

We have pulled some lessons from Coach Hays’ clinic and included them for you below.

3 Check Points to Look For

At one point in his clinic, Coach Hays discusses three check points to look for what an athlete is executing their pole vault. 

Check point number one is that if the athlete is right-handed, when they land on their right foot in the step before takeoff, the hand is going to be somewhere around the runner’s forehead. 

Most athletes have a tendency to have their hand closer to neck height, which is about eight inches away from where they should be and which will make them late in their plant. 

Thankfully, this is a very easy thing to spot when watching film as it will be extremely apparent. But there are other nuances, such as the speed and rhythm are also important to diagnose and get right.

The second check point is when the runner lands on their takeoff foot, their top arm is extended close to straight. While many runners have a completely straight arm (which is okay and which Coach Hays teaches his athletes), Coach Hays explains that it’s also all right to have a slight bend if that’s what the athlete feels most comfortable doing. 

The top arm should be up over the runner’s head in a high position, regardless of how bent the arm is. 

The third and final check point is that the lead knee (or the drive knee) is before the takeoff foot leg before there’s pressure or bending in the pull phase. Coach Hays then discusses how, while some people don’t drive their knee correctly at this point, their hips are rising enough where it does the same mechanical work instead. 

 “The more pole speed you have, the more potential fly-away speed you’ll have,” Coach Hays said. He then quoted a coach who said, “Energy in, energy out.” In other words, the more energy and speed you can put into the takeoff, the more energy you’re going to get out of the pole. 

Coaching Athleticism

When it comes to coaching the pole vault, Coach Hays says that it’s important for an athlete to only have one voice they need to listen to, instead of multiple coaches telling them what to do. In order to ensure this, a coach will want to be very direct and specific about what they want their athlete to be working on on any given day.

He also said that stress can be a good thing when it comes to an athlete learning. However, it’s important to understand the difference between good stress and bad stress. Good stress is competition between peers or opponents, or working hard in the weight room or on the track. Bad stress can be external pressures that a coach puts on their athlete. 

He also discusses that if a coach puts a camera on their athletes while training so that they know there will be film of them, they’ll be more inclined to focus on their mechanics and develop good habits. This is another good type of stress. 

Finally, a tired athlete doesn’t learn very fast, so fitness needs to always be a focal point. And Coach Hays adds that rhythm (or a lack of rhythm) always overcomes effort.