USA Women's Pole Vault

Totally agree.  She looked pretty dejected, too, after the congratulatory pep talk from him.  My fav is when he says, "she had fresher legs".  Isn't it the coach's job to make sure their athletes go into competition with fresh legs!?

Andi

Wow, what a jerk.  There is a time for criticism and a time for praise. 

This was not the time to criticize her performance.  You take that back to the training room and deal with it there.  Especially if your comment are going to be broadcast like that.

Certainly not defending the guy - but the point he was making - poorly - was that she got caught up in heights that she shouldn't have been caught up in and had to make so many jumps that she had burned up her legs.  His point was supposed to be that she struggled at the beginning of the event and it cost her in the end because the other athlete didn't even do her first jump until the U.S. athlete had jumped 4 or 5 times. 

The point here is that this guy has no skills at all at delivering a message to an athlete.  There are times to be hard and there are times to be easy and there are times to accept what has happened and move on.  This guy definitely picked the wrong path.  The time for this conversation was today or the next day when she had let the event settle and he could have had a calm conversation with her.  He should have stuck to "you got the silver and you have only been doing this for 4 years".  I don't think he has that communication skill in his repertoire.  Maybe find a new coach.

That makes sense.  I agree - find a new coach.

What a buttmunch.   Critisize in private, praise in public.   She just got the Silver against one of the Best pole vaulters in the world.    

She needs a new coach.  He sucks.

orrrrrrr, maybe the coach knows what he is talking about and she comes back having learned a lesson the next time.  Maybe the coach had a plan for her (didn't understand half of what he said) that she didn't follow.  Maybe she responds well to that approach insteadof another approach?

Think Bob Bowman would console or coddle Phelps if he lost one of his races?  Has anyone paid attention to the things Bowman has done to Phelps throughout his coaching?  Could be classified as brutal

Whether it's the time or place, maybe.  Perhaps he forgot he was miked. who knows.   He sounded disappointed in her performance.  I think that's fair enough

You AND jdwright (John) bring up good points.

In many ways, pole vault and high jump are very similar.  There is more to strategy than just clearing the bar.

As pointed out, if you are good, then you can skip some of the earlier heights to keep yourself fresh.  However, you better make darn sure you clear it when you finally do get in, otherwise you are normally given the lowest high as your failure to clear.  I've been on both ends of this one.  Waited till a higher height and failed to clear and also cleared as well as jumping from the beginning and tiring out before I could get to higher heights I knew I could clear.

And it is possible she responds to this type of criticism.  You never know.  Some like the soft approach and others need the harder approach.  Personally, I'm a bit of both.  And if he has been coaching her for 4 years, and has helped her get this far (doubt she could have made it there just on her own), he probably knows how she responds. 

That being said, he probably did forget he was mic'd and does come off sounding like a d'bag. 

All in call, congrats to her for the silver and watch out for her in 4 years.  Wow!