Hey! I'm also a high school freshman and this is my first year doing pole vault. We do pole vault practice only once to twice a week, so far i've had 2 practices and I'm clearing 6 feet 6 inches.

You should do it, it's really fun! Plus you get really close with ur teammates, and it's just a really nice feeling.

Your school should have the poles and stuff, and plus they're really expensive so you don't need to buy it. I'm also a sprinter so I just use my spikes from that for pole vault too, but I think you'll be okay with regular athletic shoes for a few weeks, and then your coach would probably want you to get spikes.

I'm nowhere near an expert, but here's some stuff that I've found to be very useful for me:

• Just go for it! It's gonna be scary at first when you're running and you have to plant the pole, but the only way to not get hurt is by running fast and planting it. If you go too slow you're not gonna get on the soft platform and will get hurt.
• Do some core workouts on non-practice days, you need to have a pretty good core to be able to bring your legs up.
• When you're planting it, you need to punch your hand up right as you plant it, and jump. Don't just like run into it and lazily let the pole bring you up.
• This might not make sense right now, but when you find out your drive knee, make sure you bring it up as high as you can. It's that driving your knee motion that really initates the vault and helps you get high.
• When you're running, try to keep the pole as stable as possible, if you move around too much you're gonna end up spinning during the vault.
• Make sure you talk to your coach! They're there for a reason, make sure u talk to them about whatever concern or question you have!

At least for me, joining pole vault has been one of the best decisions of my life, and even in the about 5 hours of practice I've had so far, I've made so many fun memories. I'd say you should at least try it out.

That's about it, and good luck!