Pole Vault - First Attempt

I have never Pole Vaulted before - and with 4 weeks to go to the Decathlon I'm doing (UK Masters Champs) to help raise funds and awareness for the Rays of Sunshine Childrens' Charity, I thought I'd better have a go!

Yesterday I called a lady called Sonya Ellis, who is a multi event coach, and asked if she would be able to let me in on a coaching session. She told me there was one this afternoon at Exeter Arena so I went and joined in. I was late arriving due to trqaffic and the group (of about 20 kids) had already started doing drills so I got stuck in. Some of them (and their parents from the stands) were very amused at my lack of co-ordination - it was like a mini dance class to begin with!

We got issued our Pole and started learning how to run with it, then how to 'plant it' into the sand pit and when we had got used to a small run up and planting it and taking our body weight, we moved to the Pole Vault area. I found it fairly difficult to get the run up right so that I was in the right position before sticking the pole into the box and driving upwards, but I did find that I was able to 'take my weight' fairly well as I left the ground. What I didn't quite get to achieving was going upside down and flinging my feet over the bar first!

Here's when we stuck the foam bar to try it out: 

There was a young man there called Steve who was also trying it out for the first time. He went to the Comnmonwealth Games last year in Gymnastics for England, so he was strong and fit. He did really well, going over 3m on his first session. I managed 2m a few times but didn't get the height for the 3m attempt!

Great fun, not as scary as i thought, and confidence boosting in terms of believing I can now get a score in theis event which is one of the ones I was really worried about. My hamstring starting to give way on me before the one in the video so I was taking the run up easy. On another session, I look forward to running in at 80% sprint speed and seeing what happens!!!

You can laugh now - as long as you share this page or the video to help raise awareness. Thanks a lot for reading!