“My name is Jose San Miguel and I pole vault at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, North Carolina,” says yet another talented high school vaulter we were fortunate enough to catch up with. This young vaulter has been working as hard, if not harder, as any of the talent we have spoken with.
“There are a lot of issues I’m currently struggling with,” San Miguel continues. “I take off about
18 inches inside, no matter how much we move my step back. My left arm completely collapses at takeoff (I’ve gotten better at this recently). Driving is a huge issue for me because of this. I also struggle with moving up my grip and moving onto a larger pole. I used to go months without taking off, so I definitely had a run-through issue. When I began vaulting, I would slip my hands like crazy. My dad (who’s also my coach) eventually just duct-taped my top hand to the pole so that I would be able to takeoff holding where I was supposed to. I was, and still am, really underdeveloped, so that’s also something that has, and is, holding me back.”
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