ABOUT DRIFT MOTION POLE VAULT

About the Club

In Colorado and especially in the Denver metropolitan area, many of the track clubs don't offer pole vault as part of their programs and there were only a couple of pole vault clubs, but not in the Denver metro area. Drift Motion Pole Vault Club was started to help grow the sport of pole vaulting by providing a place to practice and provide experienced coaching and training in the south Denver metro areas.

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The Name

People have asked how we came up with Drift Motion as a pole vault club name, especially because it differs from other pole vault clubs that have descriptions like "vertical, high, above, flyer, air, sky or rise" as part of their names. We wanted a combination of a verb and a noun that describe the pole vault but in a different way. Take a look at the definitions of each word below.

 

Drift [drift]

1. a driving movement or force; impulse; impetus; pressure.

 

Motion [moh-shuh n]

1. the action or process of moving or of changing place, position, or direction; movement.

2. power of movement

3. the manner of moving the body

 

When you put these two words together, it really describes the core of the pole vault. It's about energy, movement, pressure, and changing direction.

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Our Philosophy

 

We have three parts to our philosophy of coaching the pole vault. First, our core philosophy is to be Energy Efficient or to reduce amount of energy loss. We are not talking about light bulbs or insulation in walls or attics, what we are talking about is the energy in the pole vault system. If we can keep more of the energy that was generated from the speed on the runway, then more of the ability to maximize vault height potential. That core belief is what guides us in what models, technique, and drills we use in our coaching.

 

Second, is we want to be Energy Guides or Energy Surfers. Think of lightning. You can harness it, you can direct it, and use some of its energy, but you can not contain it. The same can be said of the energy in the pole vault, we want to harness the kinetic energy and then direct it and use that energy to go up, but we can not contain it. When we say energy surfer, we refer to actual surfing, where the wave is the kinetic energy and the surfer is harnessing that energy for direction and movement with their board but also going with the flow of the wave. Also, a surfer is in constant movement with balance and pressure to work with the wave and not just letting the wave do the work. In the pole vault, we believe in the same principles of surfing as the pole vaulter is harnessing the energy from their run by constant movement of their body and keeping pressure and directing the flow of the energy to catch the perfect ride. This guides our coaching on what key body positions, pressure, balance, and the movement of what we look for and how we teach it.

 

Our third philosophy is Adaptable and Flexible. So when we say Go with the Flow, we mean that sometimes that certain models or technique doesn't quite work for an athlete and we might have be adaptable and flexible to tweak it, but still keep in mind of our core philosophy of being energy efficient to be able to maximize the athlete's potential. This helps to individualize our coaching to our athletes. Also, being flexible is being open to keep learning new techniques, ideas, models, drills and being adaptable to incorporate into our club.