Get Inspired: Come and Learn the Pole Vault

 

Tonight we had the BBC crew visiting Kilmarnock Harriers at the AAA, who were interviewing young and not so young athletes, trying to find out what inspires them to do their chosen sport – athletics. One thing our young athletes pointed out during their interview was the good facilities the club has at the Ayrshire Athletics Arena. Since moving to the new track in 2012 athletes have for the first time the opportunity to learn and train for a variety of field events, including the pole vault. An opportunity unthinkable a few years ago and while attending a recent pole vault workshop as part of the National Coach Development weekend, I discovered that Kilmarnock Harriers is indeed very privileged to have such superb facilities. In fact there are only a few places in Scotland where athletes can presently learn the pole vault (Aberdeen, Grangemouth, Glasgow (only indoors), Edinburgh and Kilmarnock).

We started our own pole group in spring 2013 and what started as a modest attempt to learn this exciting event, both from an athlete and coaches point of view, has made good progress and has become a regular feature in our training program. Kilmarnock Harriers athletes have competed successfully over the last year in a variety of competitions, ranging from Open Graded, West District, Nationals and Scottish Schools. Kilmarnock Harriers athletes won medals in the pole vault at regional level (Cara Baillie), Youth Development league (Cara Baillie, Hannah Bartl) and Kilmarnock Harriers had even a Scottish Champion Evie Bartl,  (U14 national Champion 2013 and also silver medalist U16 2014).

 

Hopefully, this will inspire other young kids to take up this field event and its good to see that there are already some young kids, who show a keen interest in learning this event. A young boy, James, who only recently joined the club has mastered confidently the first steps in pole vaulting, being able to clear a bar at the height of 1.50m after only a few training sessions.

 

James first attempt ever can be seen here and after a months or so here is his excellent clearance of 1.50m in the sand pit. What is encouraging for me as a coach is the realization that pole vault can be indeed taught to young athletes starting with U13 age group, where basic movements like take off etc can be successfully mastered by even novices.

Anybody interested in learning the pole vault should get in touch with coach Harald. Once the summer season starts properly, which hopefully will be in a few weeks time, we will have our pole vault session every Wednesday evening starting 6.30-8.00 pm. For anybody, who wants to be inspired have a look at the following video. The video shows how exciting pole vault can be and that through dedication and perseverance you might also be able to vault the same way one day. enjoy the video clip.