7 Problems That Fuel Competition Anxiety in the Pole Vault

By Coach Tim Winder of RISE Pole Vault, with an introduction by Jake Winder. Originally written as an email to Tim's athletes in college.

Have you ever felt like your best performances happen in practice? Do you ever think, "If I could just pole vault in a meet the way I do in practice, I would crush it"? You are not alone. Competing is tough, and I would bet that many of the most elite vaulters feel, and sometimes succumb to, the pressures of competition. It's just part of sport. But if you can harness that nervous energy and channel it in the right direction, it can propel you to a level you never thought possible.

What follows is a set of wise words from an email RISE coach Tim Winder wrote to his athletes, on the seven problems he has seen fuel competition anxiety over more than three decades of coaching the vault: fatigued legs, jumping on emotion, living in the past or future, obsessing over outcomes, talking too much, showing up tense, and chasing pole vaulting epiphanies.

One quick note before you read on: be honest with yourself about whether any of these apply to you. You need to recognize your flaws, accept your flaws, and then take steps to change them.

- Jake

Problem 1: Your legs feel fatigued during competition

This is mostly from anxiety. If you are a well-trained athlete, your legs can't become fatigued from running down a 140-foot runway a few times. Anxiety causes fatigue.

I am sometimes an example of this after I coach. I am really tired when I get home, yet all I did was watch pole vaulting for a few hours. I should not be fatigued, but I am, because of the anxiety I felt in competition while trying to help someone compete well. If anxiety can drain a coach standing on the sidelines, imagine what it does to the athlete on the runway.

Problem 2: Jumping on emotion

I love to compete against teams that jump on emotion, because I know their emotions will run out after a couple of bars, and then we will take over. I've seen it happen time and time again. Those vaulters usually make a bar and then crap out.

I'm not saying don't jump with emotion. I'm saying don't jump using emotion as your fuel. Your tank is very small on emotion. There is a big difference between jumping with emotion (good) and jumping on emotion (bad).

Problem 3: Living in the past or the future

Living in the past (comparison) and the future (what you want) is a slippery slope, and vaulters are notorious for it.

Yes, you can learn from the past. But as soon as you have identified what you can learn, dismiss the past and start pressing forward. Yes, you need goals in the future. But as soon as you identify those goals, dismiss them and focus on the present, which is what you control. You won't reach a goal by wanting it. You'll reach it by the work you do now, this moment, today.

Comparison is one of the worst things a human can do. Everyone has issues. No one is perfect. No one's family, life, or performance is perfect, regardless of how they make it look on social media. So get over it, live inside your own life, and vault, now.

Problem 4: Focusing on the outcome you want

In my experience, all vaulters want a personal best every day. I understand the feeling, but that desire is an unhealthy one. The only way to get what you desire is to rid yourself of the unhealthy desire and replace it with the healthy one.

Outcome orientation is unhealthy. Immersion in the technical process, from the first step down the runway until you hit the pit, is healthy. Chase the process and the outcomes take care of themselves.

Problem 5: Talking too much

I have seen this one undermine performance over and over in my 32 years of coaching the vault. Vaulters who nervously talk too much are fixing to have a less than optimal performance.

I'm not saying don't be friendly or communicate with me and other athletes. I'm saying don't let your energy out by verbalizing too much. That is nervous energy being released that could be harnessed and used in the competition.

And don't ever, ever say "this is gonna be the day," or anything along those lines. More times than not, after saying that, it's not going to be your day. The worst thing for me is hearing an athlete say something like that after a good warm-up, because they have just needlessly put pressure on themselves. That prediction turns into a pressure cooker the first time they get stood up at a bar, and the pressure cooker turns into self-doubt. Keep it zipped, and you might immerse yourself in the technical process instead.

Problem 6: Being tense

I loathe showing up to a meet, looking at my athlete, and not recognizing who they are. It has happened often over the years. Someone else shows up for the meet: someone with their own ideas, agenda, and orientation. This stranger is always tense, always very verbal, less likely to listen, and often has a snippy personal agenda.

I call this person the pseudo vaulter. When the pseudo vaulter shows up at a competition, it is one of the most frustrating situations a coach can face, because all my data is on the other vaulter, the real one. My vaulting intellect is of no use to the pseudo vaulter. Honestly, they'd be better off if I went home and someone else caught their step.

Problem 7: No more pole vaulting epiphanies

Pole vaulting novices and fans have epiphanies. I am neither of those, and neither should you be.

Over the years I've had many vaulters "come up with" something they think will work better than what I've taught them. It usually happens right after a vaulter reaches a good level of success, when they decide their four to eight years of vaulting experience trumps my 45 years in the vault and the thousands of young people I've instructed. I say this with all due respect: you don't know as much about all the aspects of vaulting as I do. After putting in time, you may one day know more, and that would make me very happy. But for now, learn what is being taught, bottom to top, all pillars of the temple of performance.

Here's the truth: little has been discovered about how to perform at a high level in the vault since the start of fiberglass poles, and almost nothing new since Vitaly Petrov and Sergei Bubka. Petrov's ideas about the approach run and training are what changed vaulting. Petrov had an epiphany, and it was a good one. He was perhaps the final vaulting epiphany. You are not. Learn to execute the system, which is built on the foundation of that final epiphany, and if you still have your own epiphany after you can state and execute all of it, then I'll listen.

How to spot the pseudo vaulter

The pseudo vaulter, the one hunting for an epiphany, is always:

1. Chatty
2. Physically tense
3. Outcome oriented
4. Emotional
5. Comparing himself to others
6. Looking for an easier way

What a good competitor looks like

1. Recovers and relaxes physically between jumps
2. Recovers emotionally between jumps
3. Lives in the moment
4. Immerses in the technical process of how we jump
5. Maintains a still, quiet focus that shows itself in few words
6. Stays physically relaxed
7. Immerses in the RISE level system of pole vaulting

Notice that the two lists are mirror images. Every problem above has its answer in the competitor's list. The nervous energy doesn't have to be eliminated; it has to be redirected from your mouth, your tension, and your imagination into the only place it pays: the next jump.