Every spring, the same thing happens at high schools all over the country. A track coach gets handed the pole vault crew — sometimes because they vaulted a little in college, sometimes because they were the last one in the room when the assignments went out — and they’ve got about three weeks to figure out how to keep six teenagers safe while teaching them the most technical event in the sport.
If that’s you, here’s some good news: there is a genuinely free, genuinely well-built online pole vault course sitting out there right now, and a surprising number of coaches have never heard of it. Let’s fix that.
What the Course Actually Is
The course is called “Pole Vault: Successful Skill Development,” and it lives on the NFHS Coach Education Program site at nfhslearn.com. It wasn’t thrown together by one person with a camcorder — it came out of a collaboration between the NFHS, the NCAA and USA Track & Field, which is about as good a set of credentials as you’re going to find for an event this technical.
According to the NFHS, the course is designed to advance the knowledge of coaches and pole vaulters at all levels — youth, high school and college — by teaching the introductory skills and safety aspects of the event.
Becky Oakes, NFHS director of sports and editor of the NFHS Track and Field Rules Book, put it this way when the course launched:
“This course is designed for both the coach and vaulter. It provides a solid foundation of the skills and techniques of the event.”
That “both the coach and vaulter” part is the piece most people miss. This isn’t coach-only content. You can point your athletes at it too — and honestly, some of your most curious kids will get more out of it than you expect.
What’s Inside: The Curriculum
Here’s where it gets useful. The NFHS Learning Center lists the course as an elective course running roughly three hours, broken into seven modules:
| Module | Sections |
|---|---|
| Introduction | 1 |
| Starting a Beginner | 5 |
| Basic Laws of Physics | 5 |
| Drills & Coaching Techniques | 3 |
| Equipment & Facility | 4 |
| The Science Involved | 1 |
| Conclusion | 1 |
Look at the shape of that. Five full sections on starting a beginner and five on the basic physics of the event — that’s more than a third of the course spent on the two things that actually determine whether a first-year vaulter has a good season or a scary one.
The Equipment & Facility module is the one I’d flag for any coach inheriting a program. Four sections on gear and facility is a real chunk of content, and it’s the area where new PV coaches most often don’t know what they don’t know — pit condition, standards, box setup, pole selection, the whole environment the athlete is jumping into.
Who Should Take It (Beyond the Obvious)
The NFHS framed this as a “must-take” course for pole vault coaches, high school student-athletes and their parents — and that last group is worth thinking about.
Here’s my take on who benefits most:
- The brand-new PV coach. Obvious. Take it before your first practice, not after.
- The experienced sprints/jumps coach who just got handed the vault. You already understand approach mechanics and run rhythm. What you need is the event-specific safety and equipment knowledge, and that’s exactly what’s here.
- Your athletes — especially the thinkers. The physics modules give a vaulter a mental model for why the pole does what it does. Kids who understand the “why” ask better questions at practice.
- Parents who are nervous about the event. A parent who’s watched the course understands the safety structure around pole vault. That conversation gets a lot easier.
- Assistant coaches and volunteers. If someone is standing near your pit, they should know the fundamentals.
Why This Matters More Than It Used To
Track and field is growing, and it’s growing fast.
In the 2023-24 school year, high school sports participation crossed eight million students for the first time in history, according to figures released by the NFHS member state associations. Outdoor track and field was a big part of that: 625,333 boys and 506,015 girls competed in the 2023-24 school year. Indoor track added another 82,248 boys and 69,466 girls.
More athletes on the track means more athletes wandering over to the pit and asking, “Hey coach, can I try that?” And more programs where someone who’s never vaulted is suddenly responsible for teaching it.
That’s the whole reason free, credible coach education matters. The knowledge gap doesn’t close by itself.
What the Course Won’t Do For You
Let’s be straight about this, because I’d rather set the right expectation.
A three-hour online course gives you a foundation. It does not give you a season plan, it doesn’t teach you to read a takeoff in real time, and it definitely doesn’t tell you which pole to hand the kid standing in front of you. Those things come from reps — yours, not just theirs — plus video review and asking better coaches questions.
What the course does do is make sure you’re not guessing about the fundamentals and the safety basics. That’s a genuinely good floor to build from. Take it, then go get your hands dirty.
One more practical note: the NFHS Learning Center lists the course as approved for three clock hours with a certificate of completion, so depending on your state and district, it may count toward coaching education requirements. Worth checking with your AD before you write it off as “just” a free course. The NFHS also runs a three-level national coaching credential if you want to keep going after this one.
Pair the Education With the Right Equipment
Here’s the part where coaching knowledge and gear meet: the Equipment & Facility module will teach you what to look for, but it won’t stock your shed.
That’s where we come in. TetonVault carries UST-ESSX, Gill Pacer and FiberSport poles — all three, because different athletes and different programs genuinely need different things. ESSX Launch poles start at $378, Pacer One poles start at $405, and FiberSport non-carbon training poles start at $460, so there’s a real entry point for a program building its first rack. On the facility side, we handle Gill vault boxes, standards, landing systems and the SafetyMax+ vault box collar.
Browse the full lineup at our pole vault shop, or take a look at everything we carry.
Go Take the Course
Seriously — block out an evening this week. It’s free, it’s three hours, it was built by the NFHS, NCAA and USATF together, and it will make you a measurably less nervous pole vault coach. Head to nfhslearn.com and search for the Coaching Pole Vault course.
Then, when you’re ready to talk about what your program actually needs — poles, pit, standards, or just a straight answer about whether that 20-year-old rack in the shed is still safe to jump on — get in touch with Coach Dopp. I’ve coached this event a long time, I’ve built programs from nothing, and I’d rather answer your question for free than watch you guess.
Go teach some kids to fly. 🏆
