My injury saga

[KirkB]

Think this thru, PP ...

I'm a Junior. My FIRST choice is West Point... My grades aren't that impressive though. My leadership background is very strong, but I really need some sort of athletic prowess to make up for my lack of academic domination that most others applying will have. And I have to start the application process very soon... Probably before April is over.

All my other school choices are 'vault schools'! Getting on the team isn't happening if I can't jump 15'+, which isn't happening if I can barely get through a workout!

PP, why aren't your grades "that impressive"? You're a bright young guy, and I KNOW that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to ... provide you're HEALTHY!

Why not cram for those grades, and finish the year with straight A's (or as close to A's as possible)? That should impress the USMA! I don't see why you can't do this ... while you recuperate from your physical ailments. If your FIRST choice is West Point (as you say), then work as hard towards reaching that dream of yours as you have worked to become a 15'+ pole vaulter. It might be be your Plan B, but at the moment, it's your BEST plan! No ... I'm confused ... you say that West Point is your Plan A?

I am surprised that you prefer West Point over a vault school. Do they vault there? Paul Gensic is in the Air Force, but I don't know where he was educated or trained for PV. Was that via West Point, or what? Sorry, I don't know much about the US military education system.

If West Point is your dream school, then go for it! I'm guessing that they want HEALTHY recruits, but they don't need to be elite pole vaulters ... they just need to be smart and show leadership qualities. You have those! But you're not healthy (yet)! So do you really think they'll take pity on you if you plead that you're injured, and that's why you haven't vaulted 15'+? ... and that's why you're STILL INJURED ... and can't pass the USMA medical? No! Instead, they'll say "this kid's not healthy ... he's been injured for the last 12 months ... so let's eliminate him ... we already have the 1,200 best candidates ... and they're all HEALTHY!

As little as I know about the USMA, I GUARANTEE you that they will ask you to fill out and sign a form that swears that you're in good health ... and that you have no prolonged medical conditions.

And even if you pass the medical by the skin of your teeth, I GUARANTEE you that you're going to be going thru some rigorous "basic training" where YOU NEED TO BE HEALTHY TO SURVIVE!

Tough love!

http://admissions.usma.edu/overview.cfm

Each year the United States Military Academy admits 1,150 to 1,200 young men and women. These new members of the cadet corps come from all corners of the United States and represent nearly every race, religion and culture in the country. Nurtured by the West Point environment, this diversity of background helps cadets gain a cultural as well as a rich educational experience.

To become a cadet you must meet the requirements specified by public law and must be qualified academically, physically and medically.

Kirk

[VaultPurple]

Well westpoints best pole vaulter only jumps around 4.40 right now (14'4ish) so your not going to have to jump 15 to get on the team. As far as them getting you in, they may do that for some sports, maybe track. I know a football player that definatly wont navy material and they were trying to get him in there. You should go ahead and contact coaches and just see what they are looking for in a recruit and how much leeway they have.

You keep saying you have to be at 15 to get on the other teams you are looking at. Who? I know ur in Maryland right? so on the east coast theres not too many schools i can think of that would require a vaulter to be at 15 to get a walk on spot. Depending on the current amount of people on their roster, some big schools with 17' vautlers have 13'6 14' guys on the team that practice with them, you just dont see them at meets. Some coaches do realize that people improve in college. It all depends on coach. I was lucky enough to get on a D1 school with only a 13'6 pr because the coach was only ever given lower height vaulters, but he had also had experience taking 13-14 foot vaulters over 5meters.

At most walk on tryouts anyway you barely vault and they dont expect you to be jumping ur pr at the try out. So just get a decient pr in high school (probably gonna have to be atleast over 13), get in good shape and have flawless technique in all the drills, and try to get your sprint speed as good as possiable. That way most teams would let you on at a walk on try out.

[KirkB]

At most walk on tryouts anyway you barely vault and they dont expect you to be jumping ur pr at the try out. So just get a decient pr in high school (probably gonna have to be atleast over 13), get in good shape and have flawless technique in all the drills, and try to get your sprint speed as good as possiable. That way most teams would let you on at a walk on try out.

I underlined the part that I disagree with.

If you vault 13-0 and have "FLAWLESS TECHNIQUE in all the drills", then something's wrong. i.e. If your drill technique is flawless, then why aren't you jumping any higher than 13-0?

I conjecture that the opposite is true ... if you have good speed ... and are in good shape ... and demonstrate good coordination (rather than flawless technique) ... and a keen interest ... THEN the coach might let you walk on.

I think coaches look for athleticism first. Technique is secondary. That's what they want to teach you ... THEIR technique. So if your technique is already FLAWLESS, then there's not any challenge for him as a coach to teach you much, is there?

But strangely ... PP ... VP might be right about your specific case ... you probably have very good drill technique (at least you TALK a good story ), but your PR is in jeopardy of being sub-15' (or even sub-13') if you don't get healthy. If you were healthy this year, 13' would be (or should be) a piece of cake for you.

Thus my reccomendation to work on your academic and leadership prowess to get you into the school of your choice.

I have another idea ... but this would be a Plan C ...

If you don't get the scholarship offers you're hoping for (especially to an NCAA "vaulting school"), then you could always attend a community college or work for a year (training under a GOOD coach and competing unattached) while you get your health and PR up to a height that attracts the kind of school you're hoping to get into. THEN you go to university! I know that this is a very unusual route to take ... but your situation is very unusual, and with you at the helm of your own career, it just might work! It wouldn't hurt to hold onto this as a Plan C, in case Plans A-B don't work out. Just a thought.

Kirk

[rainbowgirl28]

2 year school to 4 year school is not _that_ unusual of a route to take. Less common for vaulters than other events. Main problem is I can't think of any 2 year schools in the northeast that have any kind of decent vault program.

PP, what do you want to get out of college outside of pole vaulting?

[powerplant42]

...A decent education!

Really, that's just about the whole story!

I tend to exaggerate about my grades... Weighted, I have ~4.0 cumulative... I should score 5's on almost all (maybe not English, probably not World History) 5 AP tests I'm taking this May, and I go to a very difficult high school... we graduate 99.19% of our students, and the vast majority of them go to 4 year colleges right away! I get mostly B's... I'm one of those 89.49% kind of students!

This might be a good time to ask if anyone has any connections to USMA's vault/sprint coach... Greg Lott?

[Robert schmitt]

Sorry I did not see your pm sooner my firewall block pop ups so I never noticed it until now. I just had a chance to skim through your post but it sounds like a realetivly common condition that I see that created some serious symptoms. I pretty confident reading through your post that you have a sacro-illiac subluxation or commonly reffred to as an SI joint problem. This is the joint that is most beat up by taking off under. The SI joint is composed of two bone the sacrum and the illium. The SI joint is engaged when you are standing, walking, and running. When it is not able to move through it''s full range of motion (ROM) (which is also why your hip flexion is limited on one side) It causes a rotational twisting to occur in the spine and at the hip joint (illio femoral joint) - probably the initial hip pain you felt. This will eventually cause disc damage in the lumber spine (herniation and or degeneration). The piriformes muscle will spasm trying to stabilized the abnormal motion in the hip joint and constrict the siatic nerve at the siatic notch on the illium-helping cause the siatica. you might also still have-had a disc herniation contributing to the siatica-supine (lying down MRIs don't always catch a herniation b/c the is no load on the disc in the supine position. A upright MRI is better to determine if a herniation is present. It will also cause spasm in the erector spinea muscle group that travels up the entire length of you spine which might have caused the symptoms to travel up, and or the dural lining of you spinal cord at the base comes to a thin attachment to the coccyx (tail bone) this attachment is called the fillium terminalie the coccyx is attached to the inferior(bottom) end of the sacrum (the other bone in the SI joint) so as the sacrum moves through abnormal ROM is can occasional but more tension on this attachment and but tension on the dural lining of the spinal cord which can create just about any symptom under the sun.

now for the hamstring pulls an spasm all the time. A persons body senses the movement of it's self by proprioception. Most proprioceptive fibers are found in the muscle and surrounding structures of joints the highest population of proprioceptive fibers are found in the spine. In the spine the highest population of fibers are found in the upper cervical region and the SI joint. Your body uses information to PREDICT your motion and what muscle groups need to fire in what sequence. It takes to long for all the information to get to the brain and for it to process what motion is actually happening in real time. so when the SI joint is not moving through it's normal ROM when your running your nervous system makes the wrong prediction of what motor groups need to fire when. It's like having the timing on a engine a little off- the engine will run at idle maybe misfire a bit but take it up to maximum RPM and the engine will rip itself apart B/C timing is not right.

So- I would find a gonstead chiropractor. If there is none then look for a CBP chiropractor or one that works with some major sports teams. you can go to http://www.gonstead.com and search for one in your area. Also the side all of your symptoms are on may not be the same side a the SI joint that is not moving correctly quite often the side that can move through it's full ROM is the one that is forced into excessive ROM to compensate for the less moblie side.

[powerplant42]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

I have a prescription for physical therapy... I have an evaluation session Monday. What should I do? Could this work in conjunction with the chiropractic? What should I tell my therapist? How expensive do you think that might be?

[KirkB]

... my firewall blocks pop ups so I never noticed it until now. ... I would find a gonstead chiropractor. If there is none then look for a CBP chiropractor or one that works with some major sports teams. you can go to http://www.gonstead.com and search for one in your area. Also the side all of your symptoms are on may not be the same side a the SI joint that is not moving correctly quite often the side that can move through it's full ROM is the one that is forced into excessive ROM to compensate for the less moblie side.

Hmm ... so if I want to block all of PP's "pop ups", what firewall settings should I use?

Seriously, it would be great if you've nailed his problem! We need to get PP ON THE ROAD AGAIN ... to better health and happy vaulting!

Your chiropractic techno-speak is too much for me to absorb all at once, but I get the gist of what you're saying. I found this definition of a "CBP chiropractor" ... http://www.idealspine.com/

Chiropractic BioPhysics®, or CBP®, is, in short, a higher level of chiropractic. It is a more knowledgeable, comprehensive, systematic, scientific approach to chiropractic, that provides predictable results for patients and will contribute to building a more stable and successful chiropractic practice. Support for this claim includes a considerable amount of data from research, the experience of numerous flourishing CBP® practitioners, and the longevity of the approach. CBP® combines standard chiropractic joint adjustments with mirror image® (opposite position) postural adjustments, mirror image® spinal/postural exercise, and mirror-image® traction to provide more permanent relief and improved health for patients through spine and postural correction.

... What should I do? Could this work in conjunction with the chiropractic? What should I tell my therapist? ...

PP, Robert can advise you better than me, but I'd say that the CHIROPRACTOR can advise you about PHYSICAL THERAPY, but not the other way around. You've just received some good advice from a certified Doctor of Chiropractic. You won't get any better advice by talking to a physio-therapist. Take his advice and phone the nearest Gonstead or CBP chiro clinic IMMEDIATELY! Don't wait until you talk to your physio-therapist.

I don't want to scare you, but if the physio-therapist doesn't understand what's wrong, he/she might injure you even more by applying the wrong therapy. You're far better off with a chiropractic assessment. (You mean you haven't already been to one?)

Robert, please correct me if I'm saying anything wrong. You're the doctor!

Kirk

[Robert schmitt]

physical theropy and chiropractic can work great together. After having a joint not moving through it's normal range of motion (ROM) for over a year now your body has learned improper motor patterns and created muscle imbalances to compensate for the joint not moving correctly. This is what PT's do best. You need to get the cause of the muscle imbalance and improper motor patterns addressed first or in conjunction with the PT. I would keep you appt. But, you need to get you spine/pelvis assessed by a chiro to determine the joint malfunction and neurological consequences from that. Getting Pt before that is like changing tires that are wearing out wrong on a misaligned car but never fixing the alignment problem. It may make the problem better in the short term but if there is a underlying alignment issue the problem will return and there is more damage that happens in the mean time.

As far as cost, The first visit in my office would be $225 then $35 a visit after that. I would want to take weight bearing (standing) full spine x-rays to see what you spine is doing under the stress of gravity standing. If you a covered by insurance the you just have a office visit co-pay can be from $0 - $40. I would call you insurance and find out also Chiropractors are primary care physicians so you don't need a referral.

[Robert schmitt]

Seriously, it would be great if you've nailed his problem! We need to get PP ON THE ROAD AGAIN ... to better health and happy vaulting!

What I described is where I would start looking b/c of all the reasons I stated and the direct correlation with his symptoms. But when you are dealing with the spine a problem anywhere can cause a problem anywhere as your spine compensates and the the fact this has been going on for a year is not benificial.

[powerplant42]

How long might treatment last? Is there anything I can do/not do in the meantime that can help me avoid furthering my condition?