Here is the unabridged version of Tom Crick’s Brad Walker interview seen in the June 19, 2008 (63-25) edition of Athletics Weekly. Photos courtesy of Joe Cebulskis.

Tom Crick caught up with World Pole Vault Champion Brad Walker at the Stockton Asparagus Festival Street Vault competition in California to talk about his current training situation as he prepares to win gold in Beijing - , shortly before he became the fourth highest jumper in history with a massive 6.04m jump.

So how do you come to be competing at an Asparagus Festival!?

I’ve just recently started training out of the port of Stockton with Tri-valley Athletics, which is a non–profit group that provides a home for track and field athletes after they leave college. I joined because coach Dan Pfaff is down here and he is really, really good at taking care of injuries, which I have been bad at handling over the past few years.

I’m jumping at the Stockton Asparagus Festival simply because it is a fundraiser for the club and we are struggling to keep the club operating. Today we had 500-1000 people turn up to watch the meet which is great for the US where a lot of people have never seen pole vault and don’t know how exciting it is, so usually it is hard to pull in the crowd you are hoping for. One of the main parts of the fund raiser was selling t-shirts, and training DVDs, and there were a lot of them going around and a lot of them being signed so I think for our first year it’s a good start.



Why are you training at Tri-valley rather than at a University or Olympic Training Centre?

Once you leave the college scene in the US track and field world you are kind of dunked out there to fend for yourself. In the US there are no real elite training centres except for the one in San Diago but it isn’t built for everyone and there are some coaching issues and therapy issues there that need to be worked on. So we are all here to do the best we can of a bad situation and raise money to pay for Dan as our full time coach.

Tell us more about where your current training centre?

Our training centre is an old world war II hanger! It’s big, it’s dusty but it has a lot of open space and we are very fortunate that it was given to us rent free at the port of Stockton for the non-profit. We’d love to thank the people who’ve helped us out with it and we are really happy to be there. Until we moved in it was derelict for 30 years and so we gutted it and moved our stuff in. In our facility there is a lot of steel and angle iron all over the place, there’s no insulation and no toilets or running water in the building but we do have electricity which is a step up from the previous building we used to be in. There are pigeons flying around and we are trying to get rid of those guys ‘cos they are messing up our poles and vault beds. The main problem is there is a lot of dust and when you are laying on the pit you kind of cough up a lungful of black smoke.

Where did you get all the equipment you use from?

Everything in the building we got for cheap or free off the internet or built ourselves. But you don’t have to be in a pristine building with the perfect weights kit and the perfect runway. All you really need is the motivation internally to work hard - and you can get that done almost anywhere. So we are getting it done and having so many great athletes working hard to get it done more than makes up for the other issues we face.


What’s the toughest thing about your current situation?

One of the things I find really tough is that in the USA we don’t really have a good therapy setup for track and field athletes. All the therapy we get is paid for out of our own pockets. The UST&F or the USOC don’t really sort that out for us, except actually at major events, so while training we have to go and seek people out. One of the things the group has been able to do is get local therapists to come to the building at a reduced rate to help us out a few times a week and we are grateful for them. Thankfully, Dan Pfaff is also really good at therapy as well so we are kind of lucky compared to most US athletes.

You were in the UK for the Norwich Union Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix in January but things didn’t go well for you there and you pulled out of the competition with an injury. After such an awful start to the indoor season how did you manage to refocus and get yourself back on the runway for the World Indoors at Valencia?

I came to Tri-valley after I hurt myself in Glasgow. I came down into the plant box and busted up my ankles pretty bad. They were bruised and swollen and I had to miss some meets. I was kind of at a loss, so I came back to the US but I couldn’t run because of my feet and so I came down to see Dan and he worked on me for a few days and managed to get be off the ground for one practice. So I went to Nationals and won that and then off to Spain, where I got more therapy from the team’s people, and all that helped me to come back with a Silver Medal. Having only decided to go at the last minute it gave me a lot of confidence that even injured and banged up I can still go out and compete with the best.

What’s it like working with Dan Pfaff, who most people think of as a sprints coach having coached five athletes under 10 seconds in the 100m?

Dan’s one of a kind! He not just a sprints coach, he’s worked with many Olympians and in jumps and throws as well and he’s a world class therapist on top of all that! One of the things that is really important to me is that I always want to push the envelope in terms of my training etc. So I’ll be injured and not sure if I’m injured to the extent that pushing it is a bad thing or pushing it will be ok. Now working with Dan and having him being able to run through my back or run through my ankles means that he knows how my body will react and if I can push through it or not. Having that and then the ability to build strength and power with his program has helped me to just get in more training time. Staying injury free is the key, if I can do that I will be prepared for the Olympics. With my back thing, the bulged disks and the nerve pressure make it a never ending battle. So if I can manage that I will be in good shape.

How is training going under Dan Pfaff?

Today I ran a shorter approach off of 12 steps, rather than 18 or so, and got a 12 step PR of 5.75m so I’m happy with the progression of the meet and where I am at now. Coming out this early and jumping this high is great, I’d be happy with a 5.75m off of a full approach so I’m very happy.

As much as people want to say the pole vault is technical, which it definitely is, speed and power and the number one things that allow people to jump high so you can be as technical as you want but if you aren’t running X meters per second then you just can’t clear X height and so if you are running fast and your technique is fine you will put good vaults together. For me it’s just a matter of staying healthy so I can practice and be able to put that stuff together. This year under Dan my running has definitely improved and today I was running faster from a 12 step approach than anytime in the past and I was able to move the big poles better than ever before so I know I’m in shape. And that is one of Dan’s things, he’s one of the greatest speed coaches in the world so being able to have him to work on my speed has been a big help.
Where will you be competing next?

The next few competitions will be off full approach, I’ll probably do Prefontaine and maybe something in San Diego and then the US trials come up at the end of June. After that I’ll be coming to Europe for a few meets but there is nothing set up just yet because it is all about getting through trails and qualifying for the Olympics.

If you make the Olympics who do you see as your main competition?

Two years ago if I said Romain Mesnil was going to come out and jump some incredible heights and get silver at the World Championships in Osaka then you’d say I was crazy but he did it and so you never can tell. But there are some people who consistently jump high, some Germans, some Australians and of course some Americans and so it is going to be a real battle but if I can keep these injuries at bay and my training on track then I’m sure I’ll be one of those guys.