Clinics Help These Athletes Reach the Upper Limits

Anthony Curran had just demonstrated how to vault 11 feet in the air with one arm behind his back, then flopped off the mat at Foothill High School last Sunday afternoon and quickly got back into the routine.

“OK, stay relaxed! Have confidence!” Curran shouted to one of his young students who was charging down the runway. “Drive the arms and . . . reeeeeeeach. “

Gary Van Sluis, a 5-foot 110-pound freshman at El Modena High School, cleared the height with little problem. As Van Sluis got off the mat, Curran praised his technique, and sent the beaming youngster down to the end of the runway for another try.

It’s obvious that Curran, a four-time All-American in the pole vault at UCLA, enjoys the moment as well. Curran, who has held pole vault clinics for the last five years, has developed an enthusiastic, highly knowledgeable coaching style that keeps kids from all over Southern California coming to see him each weekend.

Curran’s weekly clinics might be a saving grace for the pole vault, an event that is on the decline not only in Orange County but across the nation. “What he’s doing is the greatest thing in the world for kids,” Edison Coach Rick Foster said.

At the clinics, at which Curran charges $20 for sessions that run from 1 1/2-2 hours, vaulters warm up and stretch before working into various technique drills. Then, the bar is raised and the vaulting begins.

“I always start them off as beginners,” said Curran, who was one of five vaulting brothers who competed for Crespi High School in Encino.

“I’ll do clinics wherever I’m needed, whenever coaches call me,” Curran said. “When I was in high school I was lucky, I had a coach who understood the vault pretty well. But there aren’t a lot of coaches well-versed in the event. There are basic technical things they need to know. Some who don’t understand the event, don’t want to deal with it. I would be the same way. If I didn’t know anything about croquet, I wouldn’t want to coach it.”