Counting Steps

In an ideal world, pole vaulters would be able to step on a runway, raise their pole, and begin their approach on autopilot - building speed slowly, confident in their steps, lowering the pole at the perfect time, and hitting their absolute top speed at take-off. Perhaps some elite athletes are able to perfect their timing automatically, however, most athletes resort to counting steps.

In the pursuance of confidence and consistency, many coaches have their athletes count the number of times their take-off foot strikes the ground as they proceed down the runway. For instance, a right-handed pole vaulter will place their left foot at the start make of their approach. The athlete will then take the first step with their right foot and begin counting each and every time their left foot touches the runway all the way through take-off.

A typical 9-stride approach might be to build speed consistently on strides 1,2,3, accelerate through 4,5,6, start lowering the pole on 7, last burst of speed on 8, followed by the plant and take-off on 9.

The only problem with that scenario is vaulters vary their approach length depending on conditions or poles used, giving athletes a reason to pause. This becomes evident when your athletes change runway lengths and become confused about when to start lowering the pole, not to mention being out of control on take-off due to reaching his top speed too early.

Enter the role of counting backward.

If an athlete is counting backward they will always start their approach by building speed consistently through strides 6, 5, 4, start lowering the pole on 2, adding their remaining speed on 1, followed by a pre-launch and take-off. An athlete can shorten or lengthen their approach and these variables will always be the same - every time, the same action invariably on the same stride number. As an added bonus, an athlete will mentally repeat the length of their run-up with their very first stride, making it virtually impossible to forget their approach length halfway down the runway (don’t laugh, we have all done it).

A typical 5 stride runway might look like this:

• Start left foot forward

• Step right, count left (4)

• Step right, count left (3)

• Step right, count left (2) - drop pole tip

• Step right, count left (1), right (2), and left (3)

*Typical 5-stride runway (not to scale)

Notice that counting a 5-step starts with step 4, and counting every left until step 1, at which point you count each step (both right and left) in the last stride. This mentally encourages quickening the last 3-steps as the athlete prepares for launch as the athlete repeats 1 - 2 - 3 in their head, very much like a three-step plant drill.

A few coaches may feel it takes more mental effort to count backward - or even count at all. However, I will argue that vaulters who do not count their steps are the subject of much comic relief on YouTube. Counting steps will build confidence, consistency, and safety into any athlete’s vault. It may not be autopilot, but it will simplify the run-up and allow a quick change between approach lengths.