Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

Brad Walker jumps 6.04m at Prefontaine to set a new American Record.  He moved the bar up to the WR but the attempts they showed on TV he just looked dead. 

Is he the Gold Medal favorite?

IrishB - 08 June 2008 03:36 PM

Brad Walker jumps 6.04m at Prefontaine to set a new American Record.  He moved the bar up to the WR but the attempts they showed on TV he just looked dead. 

Is he the Gold Medal favorite?

Clearly.  He kinda called that.  See his good interview on athleticscoaching.ca.  He talks about how he just focuses on speed and strength due to injuries that limit his vaulting volume in practice.  He speaks my language…who needs endless hours of tech work

Dan Pfaff is Walker’s coach so this setup should be of no surprise. My setup for PVers (courtesy of my time under Boo and Dan’s influence) are the same. It takes a while for a typical PVer coming out of HS to get used to but once they do they almost always really appreciate the change from vaulting every day of the week to vaulting only 1-2 days a week.

As a shameless promo, Walker’s new AR just made Dan’s scheduled talk on “Planning Training for the Elite Pole Vaulter” at the ELITETRACK Gold Medal Clinic by HPC that much more interesting. He already told me what he will say will likely ruffle some feathers.

I agree completely…I hate being around vaulters and vault coaches that don’t want to listen and swear that speed is less important than jumping.  That may be one of the hardest things to coach in track and field…vaulters that want to do nothing but vault.

I have had good success training vaulters with only vaulting 1-2 days a week. Sprinting technique and TO speed make it easier to move up poles and heights. Also when a sub-elite vaulter becomes faster, technique improves due to the relaxed posture at TO.