v
You know … Illinois
Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association
v
The “field” is always
getting the short end of the stick.
v
How would you like to
go through life with that hanging over your head.
v
That’s enough to
screw anybody up.
v
I’m generally a
person of few words
v
I’m the “quite
Johnson”
v
I’ve really dedicated
myself to staying under the radar.
v
My motto is … I wish
to remain anonymous
v
So when Andrew
Schmidt asked me to do this, dog and pony show, I was more then a little
apprehensive
v
1 - It just goes
against character
v
2 - What could I
possibly talk about for an hour.
v
My wife complains
that I don’t talk to her enough.
v
How am I going to
talk to you for an hour?
v
… about
not being involved in Vaulting for 20 years and what I’ve seen since I’ve been
back.
v
Unfortunately it
became my crowning achievement.
v
So after 30 years
I’ve returned to the scene of the crime
v
One ironic thing was
I HATED jumping here.
v
I had nothing but
trouble here.
v
I no-highted my Fr.& Jr. years
v
I broke my ankle in
the cloud 9 my So. Yr.
v
I wasn’t even go to go my Sr. year unless they guaranteed there’s a new pit.
v
Not to get bogged
down in the past too much
v
Bloom HS 74
v
Nat record 16’7”
v
Jumped 17’
Outdoor at the USTFF Championship
v
State meet - 3rd
as freshman and sophomore won Jr. and Sr.
v
NCAA
All-American at
v
Won a few meets along
the way
v
Qualified for
OT’s a couple of times 76, 80
v
Flitered with 18’ a few
times
v
Went through the
motions of vaulting until 83 at which time I had gravity attack.
v
I gathered up
all my poles and presented them to my brother and said No Mas.
v
Not to say I
didn’t have some measure of success, just not as much as I would have liked
v
Unfortunately I
classify myself as one of the people that didn’t quit live-up to expectations
v
Life after vaulting
took 180 degree turn.
v
Took a job as a
computer programmer and slipped off into the middle class coma with a wife, two
kids and dog and didn’t look back.
v
At the time it was
about as far away from Vaulting as I could get.
v
The one really good
thing during the intervening 20 years was that no one ever referred to me as
Jan Johnson’s little brother.
v
For those who are new in the state or have selective
recall.
v
Once upon a time … Bloom was the home of, not only,
great Track & Field teams
v
… But a whole lot of great vaulters.
v
5 or 6 state champions,
v
3 or 4 guys over 16’
v
Bunch of guys over 15’
v
And a lot of people that scored at the state meet.
v
And not one but two NATIONAL HS RECORD HOLDERS in the
VAULT. (The other one’s not my brother
either)
v
Success well beyond Jan and Myself
v
And it all started, in the 50’s, with a Tall geeky
math teacher that was an old bamboo vaulter from
Colorado named George Hamlin and continued on with Don Slota
in the 70’s, 80’s & 90’s
v
The point is that success just didn’t happen.
v
There wasn’t something in the water. (we had really bad water)
v
There were people there that had a clue.
v
They cared.
v
They didn’t leave us unsupervised
v
They had system and it was successful.
v
Balance – How to
balance the relationship between your grip, Pole
Weight, How much you bend the pole and how that effects how you move the pole
to vertical.
v
Learn how to adjust –
He taught us how to make decisions on the runway. Vaulting isn’t static. Conditions dictate
changes in standard placement and run etc.
v
MOVE THE POLE TO
VERTICALE – This is the real goal in vaulting
v
Start wrong end wrong
– Basically that means it’s harder to fix the top of the vault if the bottom of
the vault is wrong.
v
Run consistently
v
Use mid marks – it
doesn’t do you any good if your step varies +/- a foot every time you come down
the run-way.
v
Longer run doesn’t
necessarily mean that you’re running faster. It’s your speed at take-off that
matters.
v
High plant – Push
your hands up not forward. Try to get as
tall as you can - Any force out of the lineal plane of the pole is wasted.
v
Out-step – Take-off with our
foot under our top-hand.
v
Pushing with the
bottom arm to much stops you from rotating
v
Swing the bottom – It
helps maintain pole-speed
v
Rotate on your
shoulders
v
Practice with “short
runs” – learn how to vault small before you vault big.
v
Efficiency – This is
the measure of how far you can jump over your grip.
v
Control - If you can
do all of these things you can control the vault. If not the vault controls
you… and that’s a BAD thing.
v
For a long time after
I had my gravity attack I loved to hate it.
v
I would always look
back and ask how could I have so much early success and not continue it on
through my career.
v
Why did I have that
one exceptional year
v
Granted I had more
then my share of injuries
v
There wasn’t a year in
HS and College where I didn’t have at least one significant injury or illness.
v
I was utterly
frustrated by it.
§
It created a lot of
self doubt.
§
… a
lot of soul searching.
v
The really
frustrating thing of all was when it finally dawned on me that I had gotten
away from the things that created the success in the first place.
v
I got caught up in
trying other things and away from the basic thing that I was trying to do.
v
I finally thought I
had clue.
v
I finally put all the
pieces in the right order and had a clue as to how to jump…
v
The funny thing was
that it was the same basic set of lessons that George Hamlin at Bloom HS first
taught Don Slota then Jan then myself
then Don taught a whole bunch of other guys.
v
There were just a few
minor adjustments that I could have made that would have made all the
difference.
v
Only problem was I
couldn’t execute. My body just couldn’t
go any more.
v
All the years of
missing the pit and landing on the runway or in the box and slamming into the
standards took its toll.
v
I went off into my
middle class, anonymity, thinking that things were in good hands.
v
I thought that the
key to vaulting success was clear to all of my contemporaries at the time.
v
So over the next 20
years the extent of my contact with vaulting was through Jan.
v
We’d talk about
vaulting and I’d go out to Jan-land a few times a year and watch the kids jump
and everyone was doing the things that we talked about.
v
I had one incursion
into coaching in the early 80’s. My wife
was the track coach at the U of C lab school (a rather good coach too. She had
a team that was 2nd class A in 91).
Anyway I attempted to coach a couple of kids from there one year.
v
In the early 90’s the
girls started vaulting and I didn’t see any difference between the boy and
girls. The mechanics was the same.
v
So what are the
changes?
v
All we had to do was refine the process
and put the pieces in the right order then determine just how far to go with it.
v
The things we gradually discovered in the 70’s and
early 80’s was the relationship between the individual elements and how they
impacted each other.
v
You can’t look at the parts of the vault as
individual elements.
v
It’s more of a chain reaction
v
Every succeeding action is a direct result of the
preceding action.
v
Up until that point we had been doing “Brut Force”
Vaulting.
v
We were trying to muscle things too much.
v
We were all trying to jump on the biggest pole
possible.
v
We were jumping on poles that were 20 to 50 lbs over
our body weight.
v
We didn’t grip real high at least by today’s
standards. 15’6” 15’9 at best.
v
When I jumped 16’7” here I was maybe holding 14’6”
That’s 33” of efficiency.
v
We we’re more concerned with efficiency. How much were we pushing off over our grip. 32”, 36”, 40” or more.
v
So the goal was the same, push the pole to vertical,
get on your shoulders while the pole is unbending and try to catch a ride.
v
I was a Brut Force vaulter,
(not easy when you’re 5’9” and 150lbs) Jan was, Bob Seagren,
John Pannel, John Ulesses,
Fred Hanson, Dave Roberts, Dan Ripley, and the best brut force vaulter of all was Steve Smith
v
He was the only guy that could disprove the theory of
start wrong end wrong. He was so strong and ornerier that he just made things
happen.
v
All these guys were American or world record holders
and all of them had the same fundamental vaulting flaws.
v
They were all bad UNDER JUMPERS.
v
We all took-off too close.
v
We didn’t realize it at the time because we thought
that we were out far enough.
v
Every once in awhile we would get out farther then
normal, toes closer to the top hand, and good things would generally happen.
v
But since we weren’t focused in on it enough it took
awhile for the light bulb to go off and say “hey the whole jump changes when I
get a little farther out”.
v
Now the pole isn’t rip’n me
off the ground.
v
Then along came guys like Earl Bell and Mike Tulley and Billy Olson in the late 70’s and early 80’s that
were professing the “Passive” bottom arm.
Which was the 90 degree bottom elbow at take-off.
v
You don’t have to push the bottom.
v
I bought the concept but didn’t understand how I
could move the pole away with out pushing the bottom arm.
v
Then one day I’m talking to Mike Tulley
and he’s talking about the bottom arm and I’m still not seeing it.
v
He’s standing there and he’s demonstrating what he’s
doing with his hands and it’s still not clicking.
v
Then I stand back for a moment and I look at his top
hand and I look down at his take off foot….
v
Then the light bulb goes off.
v
And I say, “You’re taking-off WAY, WAY outside your
top hand.
v
Mike says “that’s the difference.”
v
If you’re out you don’t have to put as much pressure
on the bottom arm
v
You’re actually jumping off the ground because you
jump through the pole.
v
The whole transition off the ground is easier,
smoother
v
The pole moves away with out pushing the bottom arm
so hard.
v
You’re not starting behind the pole like you would if
you were under because you’re not pushing your self back away from the pole.
v
It places you in a better position to swing off the
ground.
v
These are the fundamental tenants of the POLE
Speed philosophy
v
They were the fundamental tenants the George Hamlin
taught us we just didn’t know how far to go with it.
v
We were literally just a few inches from having it.
v
Actually it’s a year
ago last September
v
I’m talking to my brother Jan one day and he asks me
if I know a guy named Bob Geiger that ran track at Bloom in the 80’s
v
I say no. Jan forwards me an email that Bob sent to him
it was basically plea for help.
v
This letter was the catalyst that sucked me back into
Vaulting.
v
So if you’re going to blame anyone for my presence
today then look no farther then Mr. Geiger.
v
What it boiled down to was this, Bloom had no pit no
poles and no coach and worst of all …no $$.
v
As I recall the ensuing discussion involved, maybe
they don’t want it. It’s a big hassle.
v
But after talking to Andrew Schmidt and Joe Reda it was determined that Bloom really was enthusiastic
about resurrecting the program.
v
The only problem was the $$ and the coach.
v
At that point we embarked on a fund raising campaign
to raise the 25k that it would take to buy a new pit and inventory of poles.
v
By xmas
we had called enough former Bloom vaulters and track
alums and former coaches to come up with 25K.
v
Surprisingly there are quite a few Bloom vaulters that are Doctors, Dentists and Lawyers … and loan sharks.
v
I guess that shows we weren’t all brain dead.
v
The only outstanding issue was who was going to
coach.
v
After a few months of Jan working on me in his
inevitable way I was duly nominated and elected.
v
Here I am in Blooms field house and standing before
me are 3 kids and Andy Schmidt.
v
This is the last place on earth I saw myself a few
months before.
v
I got a little skinny Puerto Rican kid with a buzz
cut and this nasty little rat tail hanging down his back and a black kid with
the biggest afro since super-fly and a little skinny white girl with a mouthful
of braces whose dad ran track at Bloom with me.
v
I’m thinking what, have I gotten myself into.
v
I have no clue what’s going happen.
v
So we start doing drills and working through the
incremental progression
v
Learn to vault small and work your way up.
v
Just like George Hamlin and Slota
taught me.
v
Deja Vue all over again
v
Unbeknownst to me I get roped into running the vault
at Blooms first meet.
v
I hate running the vault.
v
I start the vault and I see pretty much the same
stuff I’ve seen a million times.
v
Bad plants, bad running, people with potential but
without a clue.
v
If that wasn’t scary enough when the bar gets up to
about 11’ the “good guys” enter the competition.
v
So here’s this kid and he wants his standards at 15”
– That’s telling me he’s not planning on getting into the pit.
v
He’s walking way down the runway 100 plus feet. – I’m
thinking he must have some wheels to run from way back there.
v
He’s capping a 14’6” pole.
v
He comes down the runway showing pretty good speed.
v
Jacks his plant up.
v
I can see he’s way under. His step is way to close.
v
He jams his bottom arm into the pole like his life
depends on it.
v
The pole starts bending and bending. Bends past 100 degrees.
v
It seems like it’s taking all day for the pole to
stop bending.
v
My eyes are getting bigger and they start bugging out
of my head.
v
I’m thinking about how I’m going to time my run at
the box so I can push this kid into the pit because there’s no way he’s getting
into the pit.
v
I really don’t want a casualty the first day.
v
Then the pole starts to unbend.
v
Now the Sh— is going to hit
the fan.
v
At this point he has relinquished control to the
pole.
v
I’m scared because I haven’t seen the pole move
forward too much.
v
This tells me he’s not going to get the pole to
vertical.
v
Pole starts un-bending he still jamming the bottom
arm he can’t get his feet up.
v
The pole is picking up speed but not the right kind
of speed.
v
It’s not moving forward it’s just starting to un-bend
fast.
v
He basically drops his feet and the pole shoots him head
first into the air over the bar like superman.
v
The crowd goes crazy and we live to jump another day.
v
So I go up to the kid and say hey you know if you
lower your grip a little you wont bend the pole so much but you’ll move it to
vertical a whole lot easier.
v
He looks at me like I’m the anti-Christ or I was
insulting his manliness
v
Walks back down the runway and does it again.
v
This time he gets his step out a little better and
the result aren’t as spectacular.
v
Next guy – same thing
v
Not holding as high but the same general premise.
v
He was only capping a 13’6” pole
v
Stepping under
v
Bending the pole too much
v
Hammering the bottom arm
v
Can’t rotate
v
Not moving the pole to vertical
v
It’s was like continually watching bad scenes from
Jack Ass the Movie.
v
This guy starts out with more of the same.
v
Difference is this guy listens to me when I suggest
that he lowers his grip and move your step back
v
Suddenly he starts moving the pole.
v
So the next thing to do was to get him to rotate to
his shoulders.
v
Next jump I say now don’t push your bottom arm, just
let it go.
v
I knew he was approaching a good out-step and he had
good pole speed.
v
So if he didn’t lever the bottom to much he would
naturally rotate.
v
He went from an 11’6” PR to 13’ that day and eventually
cleared 14’6” at the Top Times.
v
The only thing that
could sum up this experience is Shock and Awe
v
I called Jan that
night and said “you’re not going to believe what I saw today.
v
He proceeded to tell
me all about the GNR mentality
v
How this mentality
started to take hold in the 80’s
v
Kids started capping
small “training” poles and just hammering them.
v
… and
it all went downhill from there.
v
The resulting
catastrophic injuries…
v
I guess to understand
this you need to understand the evolution of vaulting
v
Vaulting has evolved
over time as the poles changed.
v
Bamboo and
steel period
v
Rigid pole
technique
v
Slide the bottom hand up
v
Modification of rigid
pole technique into Brute Force
v
Less sliding bottom
hand up
v
Start pushing the
bottom arm
v
Higher grips
v
Under step
v
Not bending pole much
- 70 degrees
v
Early pole weight
classification system
v
Newer fiberglass
technology
v
Pole speed
concept started to evolve
v
Pushing bottom
arm
v
Still higher
grips
v
Step moving
out
v
Big Poles
v
Bending pole
to 90 degrees
v
This is where the
schism started
v
Smaller poles
v
Much Higher grips
v
Locking out bottom
arm
v
Bending pole past 90
degrees
v
Up surge in
catastrophic injuries
v
Step moves out past
top hand
v
Bottom arm stays bent
v
Jumping on big poles
v
Bending pole to 90
degrees
v
High grips
v
Move the pole to
vertical
v
If you believe in
evolution then GNR is like when Cro-Magnon man came to the cross roads and
Neanderthal’s went down one road to extinction and the rest went on to become
modern man.
v
Only problem is
there’s going to be too many casualties before the GNR’s
go extinct.
v
GNR’s are Brute Force vaulters
that failed to evolve into pole speed vaulters
v
From the best that I
can tell the goal is to hold as high as you can and bend the pole as much as
you can.
v
Identifiable traits
of GNR include:
v
Under-Step
v
Lock-out bottom arm
v
Can’t rotate to
shoulders
v
Bends pole 90 degrees
or more
v
Slow jumps (no pole
speed)
v
Zero to negative
efficiency
v
Characterized by
under step
v
Moderate grips
v
Don’t bend the pole
to 90
v
Jumping on big poles
(20 plus lbs above body weight)
v
Struggle to get pole
to vertical
v
Higher grips
v
Out-Step
v
Bent bottom arm
v
Powerful swing
v
Rotates to shoulders
v
Moves pole to
vertical with speed.
v
The thing is it’s relatively easy to have immediate
success with it.
v
If you can get them to try it they find it a lot
easier
v
It’s SAFER because they know they’ll land in the pit
every time.
v
They figure out that they can jump higher because
their efficiency is better.
v
The end result is its MORE FUN
v
Whoever’s teaching this grip n rip stuff JUST STOP
IT.
v
Its wrong thinking
v
It’s dangerous
v
It’s ruining the sport
v
There’s an easier safer way
v
It’s POLE VAULTING NOT POLE BENDING
v
I don’t – www.Vaultchicago.com
v
Jan Johnson doesn’t –
www.skyjumpers.com, www.pvscb.com
v
Greg Hull doesn’t – www.SkyAthletics.com
v
Earl Bell doesn’t – www.BellAthletics.com
v
Tim Werner doesn’t - www.advantageathletics.com
v
Anthony Curran
doesn’t - http://uclabruins.collegesports.com/sports/m-track/mtt/curran_anthony00.html
v
Rick Attig U. of Nebraska USAT&F doesn’t – www.usatf.org
v
If you don’t believe
me then contact any of these guys they’ll tell you the same thing.
v
All of the safety rules of the last 20 years are
directly aimed at grip’n N rip’n
v
The problem is that the rules only treat the symptoms
of the problem and do nothing to treat the cause.
v
The Standard placement – Used to pull the standard
past zero.
v
Pit size - Grip N Rip’s tend to spend a lot of time
on the buns, and in the standards, on the runway just about every where but in
the PLZ
v
Padded surfaces
v
The weight rule
v
The weight rule is trying to treat a symptom of a
problem not cure the problem.
v
The problem is the fallacy of the philosophy of grip
n rip
v
THE MORE YOU BEND IT THE HIGHER YOU GO!!!!!!!!
v
You can still over bend the pole and meet the weight
rule.
v
It mitigates it somewhat but it doesn’t cure it.
v
It’s like taking aspirin for cancer. It might stop the pain temporarily but in the
long term it’s not going to cure it.
v
The only thing that’s going to cure it is to
recognize it as wrong and stop teaching it … AND THAT’S UP TO YOU!!!!
v
It’s not the pole you use…its how you use it.
v
It’s a radical cure but it addresses the issue
directly
v
When I was in HS, Bloom had a 90 box.
v
It forced me to learn how to balance my grip and how
much I was bending the pole.
v
Too much bend and the pole would bend into the back
of the box and stop.
v
I couldn’t bend the pole effectively past 75 degrees.
v
Go back to a 90 degree box
v
That would stop it dead in its tracks
v
Problem is if you can’t adjust you’ll land in the
box.
v
This just takes us back to where we started.
v
All of the padding
emboldens kids to do more dangerous things
v
It’s the Fear Factor
effect – Do you think those people would do any of those stunts if they didn’t
have a lot of safety equipment.
v
Tapping – kid can’t
make the pit on a pole at his weight so rather then adjust to a lower grip on a
smaller pole – he gets a boost.
v
One of the things that I noticed during all of these
meets was the tendency of the kids to take the max. grip
on the min weight pole.
v
If the kid was 145lbs he would always attempt to max
grip on a min. weight pole.
v
They don’t understand how relative pole flex works
v
Vaulting is like wrestling – You got to make weight.
In conclusion remember this…
There’s more to sports than playing with balls.