What an individualistic sport taught me about teamwork
At the Olympics this year there was one sport that I was looking forward to more than the rest. To me, pole vault is one of the most entertaining sports to watch. The technical skill that is required for the Olympians to throw themselves to insane heights is something to behold. I might be a little biased, seeing as I was a pole vaulter throughout high school, but I do think that there is something that everyone can learn from this sport.
It may or may not surprise you to find out that pole vault is incredibly difficult. The training that we underwent was brutal and extensive. A surprising amount of muscle groups are required to get yourself into the air. We had to train our legs for that initial sprint down the track, our arms and back to not buckle under the force of the pole bending, our core to then to pull ourselves up into the strangest pull-up you have ever seen, and finally gymnastic exercises to flip and get over the bar without hitting it. Not to mention learning to jump in a very specific way so that we didn’t accidentally break the pole, not bend it enough, or get thrown backward by it bending too much.
Pole vault is a very individualistic sport. You can’t rely on anyone else to get you over that bar. Someone might look at this and think teamwork is unimportant to a pole vaulter. My high school coach, Coach Garcia disagreed with this notion.
Coach Ryan Garcia was an enthusiastic fan of pole vaulting. A talented athlete in his younger years, he knew more about the sport than anyone I have met. He coached some of Southern California's most talented pole vaulters and consistently got students to Nationals. He excelled as a coach, and it was only until I was a few years removed from the sport that I began to recognize why.
Coach Garcia believed teamwork was the true path to success - even in pole vault. While Pole Vaulting is an individual event, he felt that having a team to support you and push you to improve was the only way to ensure growth. This inspired his favorite quote: “Rise Up!”. While one would rightly assume that this was referring to the literal act of rising into the air, it also referred to stepping up and being the best teammate and athlete possible. Without someone to cheer you on and push you harder, it would be so much harder to improve.
I believe that this philosophy extends well beyond pole vault. Having people around you to support you and push you to be better, is the only way to ensure growth. We need diversity of thoughts, opinions, talents, strengths, and personalities to create change in the world, so logically the same would be true of ourselves. We need outside catalysts to create change within ourselves, no matter how individualistic our struggles may be. It is the only way to rise to the level of success that we desire