SLIPPERY ROCK - How good is Mark Hannay's Slippery Rock University pole vaulting camp?

A national coach from the other side of the world came over to check it out.

Hannay is an assistant track and field coach at SRU who has run 49 high school pole vault camps over the summer. He has been a member of the Olympic Developing Committee for the sport since 1987.

"It's the best pole vault camp in the United States, bar none," Alan Launder said.

He would know. Launder is the former Australian national team pole vault coach who retired in 2003. He coached two Olympic medalists during his career.

Launder wrote a 182-page book entitled "From Beginner to Bubka" - making reference record-setting Russian pole vaulter Sergei Bubka - that came out in January.

"I met Coach Hannay at a clinic a couple of years back and always heard great things about his camp," Launder said. "I always wanted to visit his camp and take part in it.

"This year, I had the opportunity, so here I am."

Launder has frequented many U.S. pole vault camps over the years, including UCLA, Idaho State, Fresno State and Nevada-Reno.

"Slippery Rock's is the best because it is the best organized, has the most numbers and the best coaches," Launder said.

Butler High School pole vaulting coach C.J. Morgante and former Butler boys coach and current University of Pittsburgh pole vaulting coach Curt Phillips are among local coaches who have helped Hannay at the camp.

Each day throughout the week, Hannay has the campers go through six hours of classroom work and six hours of drills and practice.

"From 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day, he has them on the move," Launder said. "That's the way it should be."

Hannay said there are three forces that combine to create the thrust of the pole vault: bending of the pole, swing of the vaulter and rotation of the pole.

"There are 17 separate movements that affect these," Hannay said. "I use biomechanics to break them down. It's my own system, so no other camp does this.

"Each camper is videotaped and goes home with a CD breaking down his or her fundamentals. No other camp does that, either."

And no other camp gives girls their own separate pole vaulting sessions.

"Every other camp throws boys and girls together," Hannay said. "I won't do that. Boys rely more on foot speed to perform whereas girls need more technique. Their points of emphasis are different and their camps should be different.

"Pole vaulting is an American sport. The United States dominated it for 70 years, then it got away from us. Since 1987, I've been working on helping us get it back. Now we're the best at it again."

Launder offered a few suggestions for adjustments at Hannay's camp.

"I use the high bar a lot to work with kids on their swing and grip of the pole," Launder said. "I expect there will be a few high bars out here (at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium) next year.

"Also, I believe in using the sand pit to work on vaulters' landings. The pole vault landing pit is much larger and kids tend not to focus as much because they believe they're safe.

"Landing in the smaller sand pit area, there is more risk of injury if the athlete isn't focused - so the athlete tends to focus," Launder said.

Butler graduate Jared Farabee pole vaulted 17 feet, one inch while competing at South Carolina University. He is one of just seven Pennsylvania boys to hit 17 feet.Hannay has had 12 high school vaulters hit 16 feet and he's coached 89 high school state champions across the country."We've had positive results," Hannay said."Yet he is always willing to try new ideas and improve the teaching of the sport," Launder said. "That's why this camp is so good."Kendall Butch, who placed third at the PIAA meet in the pole vault this past spring, enters her senior year at Butler this fall. She has only been pole vaulting for two years and is in her second year at Hannay's camp.Butch placed second in the state during the indoor season, vaulting 12 feet, seven inches."I've picked up so much information here," Butch said. "I feel lucky having a camp of this magnitude so close to home."My goal is to hit 13 feet and win a state championship. I try not to think of that, though, because that's when I don't do as well."Butch got interested in the sport through good friend and former Butler teammate Melanie Buczko, who is now setting pole vault records at Bucknell University."I'm working on achieving the same success Melanie's had," Butch said.Female pole vaulting in high school has only been around since 1991."For years, it was believed girls couldn't do this sport," Hannay said. "Obviously, that's not true."USA Today did a study three years ago and determined that the toughest things to do in all of sports were hitting a 90 mile per hour fastball for a home run, driving a race car 200 miles per hour for 500 miles, and performing the pole vault."Slippery Rock University's athletes can certainly do the latter."We had four of the top six pole vaulters in the state last year and they're freshmen and sophomores," Hannay said. "SRU has been the dominant (pole vault) program in this area."We can compete with anybody in the East. A lot of people know that."Just ask Launder."They're doing a lot of things right here," he said. "I love their technique - and I love their results."

Camp fact, figures

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Here is a look at the history of Coach Mark Hannay's Slippery Rock University Pole Vaulting Camp:

- Four week-long camps - two for boys, two for girls - are held annually.

- Hannay's girls pole vaulting camps are the only exclusively female pole vaulting camps in the country.

- Hannay and his staff work with nearly 400 high school pole vaulters each year.

- Hannay has put on 49 camps since 1987 and pole vaulters from all 48 states in the continental United States, along with Canada and Mexico, have attended.

- Approximately 40 percent of Hannay's campers are from Western Pennsylvania.

- Approximately 85 percent of all high school state medalists in Pennsylvania and Ohio in recent years have come through Hannay's camp at least once.

- Hannay has coached 89 eventual high school state champions at his camp.

- Hannay has coached 20 All-Americans and two national champion pole vaulters in his 16 years as an SRU assistant track and field coach.