Sieg Lindstrom
Scaling 19-feet in the pole vault, especially in career terms, can be more like climbing a mountain than clearing a bar. Few vaulters understand that as personally as 29-year-old perpetual late bloomer Mark Hollis.
On July 16 in Naimette-Xhovémont, Belgium, Hollis cleared 19-¼ (5. 80) to become America’s oldest first-time 19-footer.
“For every American pole vaulter, every foot increment is a big goal,” Hollis says. “Every time you make that new foot you kind of check it off and it’s a celebration.” Exactly 29 years, 7 months and 16 days old on his big day, Hollis surpassed vault legend Earl Bell for the senior firsttimer honor.
LA Olympic bronze medalist Bell was 28 years, 9 months and 16 days young in ’84 when he cleared the same setting, an American Record at the time.
So how did Hollis celebrate? “I got a tattoo when I jumped 17 feet,” he says, “and when I started jumping professionally my brother said he would get the same tattoo when I jumped 19-feet.
“It took 7 years but this year he finally got his tattoo. It’s a pole vaulter that my other brother drew right under the armpit on the right side.”
Illinois native Hollis, who stands 6-1/190 (1.85/86), has soared a long way from where he started. “I jumped 14-6 in high school,” he says, “so it’s kind of funny to be the oldest American to break that barrier.
“It just goes along with the rest because I really didn’t get my growth spurts until I went to college [Olivet Nazarene]. I think when I graduated high school I was, oh, probably 5-8, 145 pounds, just a scrawny little kid. Then I went off to college and I started to see what hard work in the weightroom could do.”
With no NCAA exposure, Hollis won NAIA titles in ’06 and ’07 and graduated with a 17-6½ (5.35) PR. So, yes, he shocked the U.S. vault community in ’08, his first year out of school, when he improved all the way to 18-10¼ (5.75).
Working with coach Danny Wilkerson in South Bend, Indiana, Hollis won USATF crowns outdoors in ’10 and indoors in ’11, but Olympic and World Championships teams eluded him as did personal bests.
“I never would have thought it would take this long,” says Hollis, who finally climbed a centimeter higher in Austria two days before his first 19-footer.
“But after the majority of those years you start to think, ‘Well, maybe It will never happen,’ and then it becomes like this mythical—’How does anyone jump 19 feet!?’ It really became this huge barrier: if it hasn’t happened now, what can I really do that much different?
“In my head I thought it had to be this perfect jump, all the stars would align, perfect day, and when it actually happened—I remember calling my wife before the meet and telling her I hoped I could jump because my hamstring was really bothering me.”
Rather than a celestial event, what got Hollis over 19—eventually 3 times, including a 19-1½ (5.83) PR in August—was coaching from ’04 Olympic champion Tim Mack. Long a friend of Mack’s, Hollis moved with his wife Amanda to join the former Tennessee star’s training group in the summer of ’13.
Mack won his Olympic gold just 20 days before his 32nd birthday, and, according to Hollis, has coached a vaulter used to persevering to even greater attention to perfection of his craft.
This is obvious as Hollis distills the technical changes Mack has introduced for a non-expert. “For a few years I’d always been one of the faster guys on the runway,” Hollis says. “I came in thinking, ’I’ve got that down.’ ”
Not so, Hollis continues: “That’s one of the major things that we changed, just the way I was running and, rather than just strictly turnover, a lot more power coming through the hips and building the speed in a way we can control it as I come into the takeoff.
“That kind of led into pole drop and shifting the pole, being in the right position so everything’s kind of working together as the hands are coming forward and you’re planting the pole.
“Then just being in a powerful position to move the pole off the ground to vertical. And that leads into adding pressure with the hands moving up and being able to swing long to go to vertical and just being on the topside of the bend so that you’re in the right position to receive the energy from that bent pole.”
Hollis adds, “I’ll be figuring out the pole vault for the rest of my life,” but the three championships years ahead will be about “remembering that feeling of what’s worked this past year, building on it, making it stronger, just reproducing it, being consistent and having that confidence.”
On July 16 in Naimette-Xhovémont, Belgium, Hollis cleared 19-¼ (5. 80) to become America’s oldest first-time 19-footer.
“For every American pole vaulter, every foot increment is a big goal,” Hollis says. “Every time you make that new foot you kind of check it off and it’s a celebration.” Exactly 29 years, 7 months and 16 days old on his big day, Hollis surpassed vault legend Earl Bell for the senior firsttimer honor.
LA Olympic bronze medalist Bell was 28 years, 9 months and 16 days young in ’84 when he cleared the same setting, an American Record at the time.
So how did Hollis celebrate? “I got a tattoo when I jumped 17 feet,” he says, “and when I started jumping professionally my brother said he would get the same tattoo when I jumped 19-feet.
“It took 7 years but this year he finally got his tattoo. It’s a pole vaulter that my other brother drew right under the armpit on the right side.”
Illinois native Hollis, who stands 6-1/190 (1.85/86), has soared a long way from where he started. “I jumped 14-6 in high school,” he says, “so it’s kind of funny to be the oldest American to break that barrier.
“It just goes along with the rest because I really didn’t get my growth spurts until I went to college [Olivet Nazarene]. I think when I graduated high school I was, oh, probably 5-8, 145 pounds, just a scrawny little kid. Then I went off to college and I started to see what hard work in the weightroom could do.”
With no NCAA exposure, Hollis won NAIA titles in ’06 and ’07 and graduated with a 17-6½ (5.35) PR. So, yes, he shocked the U.S. vault community in ’08, his first year out of school, when he improved all the way to 18-10¼ (5.75).
Working with coach Danny Wilkerson in South Bend, Indiana, Hollis won USATF crowns outdoors in ’10 and indoors in ’11, but Olympic and World Championships teams eluded him as did personal bests.
“I never would have thought it would take this long,” says Hollis, who finally climbed a centimeter higher in Austria two days before his first 19-footer.
“But after the majority of those years you start to think, ‘Well, maybe It will never happen,’ and then it becomes like this mythical—’How does anyone jump 19 feet!?’ It really became this huge barrier: if it hasn’t happened now, what can I really do that much different?
“In my head I thought it had to be this perfect jump, all the stars would align, perfect day, and when it actually happened—I remember calling my wife before the meet and telling her I hoped I could jump because my hamstring was really bothering me.”
Rather than a celestial event, what got Hollis over 19—eventually 3 times, including a 19-1½ (5.83) PR in August—was coaching from ’04 Olympic champion Tim Mack. Long a friend of Mack’s, Hollis moved with his wife Amanda to join the former Tennessee star’s training group in the summer of ’13.
Mack won his Olympic gold just 20 days before his 32nd birthday, and, according to Hollis, has coached a vaulter used to persevering to even greater attention to perfection of his craft.
This is obvious as Hollis distills the technical changes Mack has introduced for a non-expert. “For a few years I’d always been one of the faster guys on the runway,” Hollis says. “I came in thinking, ’I’ve got that down.’ ”
Not so, Hollis continues: “That’s one of the major things that we changed, just the way I was running and, rather than just strictly turnover, a lot more power coming through the hips and building the speed in a way we can control it as I come into the takeoff.
“That kind of led into pole drop and shifting the pole, being in the right position so everything’s kind of working together as the hands are coming forward and you’re planting the pole.
“Then just being in a powerful position to move the pole off the ground to vertical. And that leads into adding pressure with the hands moving up and being able to swing long to go to vertical and just being on the topside of the bend so that you’re in the right position to receive the energy from that bent pole.”
Hollis adds, “I’ll be figuring out the pole vault for the rest of my life,” but the three championships years ahead will be about “remembering that feeling of what’s worked this past year, building on it, making it stronger, just reproducing it, being consistent and having that confidence.”
