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howdy yall
i have a problem ... we have two vaulters at my school and i am normally the better vaulter but i have just some days even weeks where i can't even get up and i am on so many different poles we never have the right one and i have already broken two this season and i have and when i have these days even weeks the other vaulter passes me up or so it seems she only gets up about four times a day on a regular basis. i just get so flustered at practice and so frustrated i try so hard but i can't help but get mad not at other people but at myself and then i even think about what it would have been like if i never started but i love vaulting its my life
is there a way that i can just stay possitive i try so hard but i can't all the time i try to look to the future and see how i'm gunna get better but i can't get to the future if i don't get throught the present
thanks for the help

Yeah I've had some bad years. 1999 was my first year and it was OK I guess. 2001 sucked. 2003 sucked. 2004 indoors sucked.

2000 was great and 2005 has been getting better by the day

Be patient and keep sticking with it. Your hard work will pay off eventually.

every vaulter goes through low points in the season. whether it's a day, a few days, a week, whatever amount of time, things happen. i had a really bad day of vaulting yesterday, and at the time it's frustrating, but you really just have to keep moving forward because tomorrow is another opportunity to vault and get better.

vaulting is very psychological and sometimes if you think you are going to do bad, that's what will happen. i'm trying to transition onto a new pole and sometimes i don't penetrate, and that scares me, and sometimes it will psych me out for my next vault. but i need to step back and really think about what i'm doing because i know i am capable of getting good penetration on this pole, i just have to allow myself to do it. keeping a positive attitude and trying to keep going even though you may be experiencing problems is the best thing you can do. everyone reaches plateaus where they don't really seem to be doing anything, or even doing below what they think they are capable of. but they will eventually pass and you will get better. hang in there!!!

Well, first of all, I would stop worrying about always proving yourself "the better vaulter." Not only are you putting unreasonable expectations upon yourself, but isn't vaulting about something more than celebrating your own accomplishments? I know that I always get really excited when a teammate does really well. Everyone is going to have bad days, bad weeks, bad meets, bad seasons. Pretty soon, you will see the rewards of working hard in a new pr. Just keep going at it and don't try to be too hard on yourself. Instead of coming off of a vaulting thinking about everything that you did wrong, try to pick out something that you did right or that led you to realize something that you can change to improve your vault.

As for me, this whole season has pretty much sucked. Last year, as a freshman girl I went 10'6". This summer, I really worked on my form and learned to actually rock back. Then, in February, just as track was starting up, I began to feel some pain in my foot. Decided to keep on going, but it kept getting worse. I'm going to pts, massage therapists, podiatrists, I have custom inserts, and I'm icing, stretching, doing everything possible for it. I started out the season trying to limit practices a bit and doing everything that I could off of my feet, so that I could compete at meets. After one meet, I could barely walk or stand on it. So, I took two weeks completely off. I came back with limited practices and it has just continued to get worse (it's now in the other foot too ). It just won't seem to go away and it's pretty much shot my season. I've only vaulted my old pr once this season, and then 10' a bunch of other times. However, it seems like I'm stuck while everyone else on the team has pr'ed by a foot (no joke on this, one girl has almost pr'ed by 2 feet). It definitely doesn't leave you feeling optimistic, esp. since everyone kinda knows that you could be vaulting really well, but you just have to deal with it and look forward to the next season, reassuring yourself that you'll just blow them away next year.

Wow...I'm sorry that my post was amazingly long, but I've been feeling really frustrated lately (ha, can you tell?) and the topic just said something to me.

bvpv07 wrote: Then, in February, just as track was starting up, I began to feel some pain in my foot. Decided to keep on going, but it kept getting worse. I'm going to pts, massage therapists, podiatrists, I have custom inserts, and I'm icing, stretching, doing everything possible for it.

have you seen a doctor about your foot?? i had the exact same problem two years ago and it turned out to be a pretty serious stress fracture. they can go unnoticed on regular x-rays, i had to get a bone scan to find it.

I went to my doctor, and then I got x-rays. The radiologist said that nothing showed on the x-rays (stress fracture, etc.). I'm thinking that since it is now on both feet, that it isn't something wrong with the bones, but probably just a lot of inflammation with the tendons, ligaments, and everything else. I've already tried taping (doesn't work), and so now I am just relying on doing everything light when I can, lots of icing, and reserving motrin (in high doses) for meet days, when I really have to vault. The only real problem with that is that, because of my feet, I'm running a lot slower than I usually do, so I am striding out and have to keep on moving my step back so that I am not two feet under.

bvpv07 wrote:However, it seems like I'm stuck while everyone else on the team has pr'ed by a foot

I know exactally how you feel

Ya last year i did really good but this year we got a new girl who moved here from New Hampshere and shes really good and she make s me really nervous so i cant always fouse straight

bvpv07 wrote:The radiologist said that nothing showed on the x-rays (stress fracture, etc.).

most stress fractures will not show up on an x-ray. i tried tape too and that never worked, but maybe inserts in your shoes? that's what i had to do once i got out of my walking cast and it helped a bit.

PVPirate26 wrote:most stress fractures will not show up on an x-ray

Thats very true - to actually diagnose my last stress fracture they had to do a bone scan (where they inject you with radioactive fluid). It didnt show up on the x-rays at all but was really obvious on the bone scan.

talk about bad days...
today was the worst! i am a sophomore and i usually hit 10'6'' - 11'' and today we had a tri-meet and the other teams had no vaulters so i came in at like the minimum with a freshman (7'6'') to kinda work on something, plus i had been tired from working all day (landscape design) and i was messing with my steps in practice and i hit the bar 3x at like 9' It was pathetic....oh well "best asset an athlete has is a short memory" got another meet Monday...lookin for 11 again

Yea bad days suck but I can almost promise you its mental. You just have to look at the bright side and go out there and have fun. I took a bad fall at the indoor state meet this year and wasnt able to jump more than 11' until last week. It took some time but once i got it out of my head i was fine. Just keep your head up and do it!!!! Hope it all ends up well for you