Athlete vaults to lofty heights
Aidan Hagerty clears the bar. Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
Aidan Hagerty soars to great heights figuratively and literally. The pole vaulter defies gravity and expectations.
The California college student explained why he favors the event over other athletic endeavors.
“A lot of the events are highly dependent on your genetic potential,” he said. “Vault is one of those things where it requires so much technique that it levels the playing field compared to other events. I may not be super tall or super fast or even super strong, but I can use my brain and get reps in over time and focus on the technique.”
Aidan, 20, also savors the physical aspects of the sport.
“Pole vault is all back and biceps, which are my favorite muscle groups,” he said. “I get to fly, and I can maintain a nice-looking physique without harming my athletic ability in the event.”
Aidan, who attends the University of California, Davis, contrasted vaulting with running.
“You put in the weight training and the speed training, and you see how fast your body will let you go,” he said about running. “For pole vault, more of the limiting factor is your ability to pick up technique and to be able to perfect your movements. That was one of the reasons why I was drawn more towards pole vault as opposed to one of the other events.”
Despite the appearance of requiring a cat’s flexibility, Aidan said going over the bar isn’t the arduous part of the vault.
“Surprisingly, that's the easiest part,” he said. “Once you're in the air and you're about to go over the bar, all you really have to do is relax your body, and you don't even really need to be able to touch your toes to go over it. The difficult part is right when you get off of the runway and you're trying to put yourself in a position that you'll go vertically and straight up instead of towards the pit or back on the runway. Almost all the technical part is at the takeoff and the next second after.”
Aidan explained the bar’s ascent as the event progresses.
“Let's say the opening height is 15 feet,” he said. “Everyone will make an attempt at that. Everyone has three attempts to get through. If you clear the crossbar, then you go on to the next height. If you don't, then you're out. In the beginning, it can be as much as six inches or three or four. But when you're the last man standing, you can usually choose the bar progression. So if you're jumping at 17 feet, you can choose to skip to 19 feet. Or you can choose to do 17 feet and one inch or half an inch.”
Aidan said the landing is the easiest part.
“If you're going over the bar correctly or even somewhat normally, then you'll naturally land on your back,” he said. “That was pretty instinctive for me and almost any other jumpers. We don't have to be taught how to fall because we just fall. That's not a technical aspect of the pole vault. That's more of after you pass the bar, then it's you relax and you celebrate on the way down.”
Aidan said a vaulter doesn’t know if the bar will be reached until it happens.
“You never know until after you are on your way down and you clear the bar,” he said. “You can do everything right, but if the standards are in the wrong place, then you can still knock the bar down.”
Aidan explained a vaulter is permitted to jostle the bar as long as it doesn’t fall.
“You can touch the bar and it will stll be a make,” he said. “All that matters is that the crossbar stays on the standards. Sometimes, the bar can jump off the standards completely and land back on the pegs and it’s still a make.”
Some of the drills Aidan does, including swinging his body upward repeatedly while holding a pole, almost look more difficult than an actual vault.
“So that drill, which they're swing-ups, it helps us get used to the movements of right after you take off, you're swinging and trying to get upside down decently fast and put energy into the pole,” he said. “That drill helps train the same muscles and then also helps us with technique of the perfect moments of going from right side up to upside down and trying to get as far back vertically as you can.”
Aidan said the drill and vaulting itself is about propulsion.
“A lot of it is momentum,” he said. “If you can swing right, then it makes all of the motions a lot easier. Muscle-ups, for example, if you have the right technique, you can be decently weak and still be able to do a few in a row. So much of it is technique and getting the right momentum at the right time.”
Aidan doesn’t fret about working too much on his grip.
“Grip isn't too much of a concern,” he said. “I used to compete in arm wrestling. I also have hand grippers, too. A lot of the stuff that I've done has been bar work of some sort, almost like gymnastics. I have pretty strong grip strength, but it's not that necessary to specifically train for vault. That won't really limit you in any way, because as long as you can hold onto it, which is the same as if you're swinging upside down on a pull-up, it's not too much of a limiting factor.”
Aidan said most of the time a pole breaks during a jump, it’s an equipment malfunction.
“If you're at a track meet and someone else walks with spikes on and they spike your pole, then it makes it very easy to break,” he said. “That can happen. Or if the pole is old or it's been exposed to weather too much, then it can be more brittle. If you're bending it a lot, it could break. Or if you're just on a pole that's weighted too small for you. If I'm normally on a 15-foot pole that's rated at 180 pounds and the pole that I'm currently on is a 15, 120 pounds, then I will definitely shatter the pole because it's not strong enough for me.”
Aidan said pole breaks are infrequent.
“I've only broken three so far, so it's pretty rare,” he said. “Most of the time, it's an equipment thing. If you are keeping your equipment nice or taking good care of it, then it's not really a problem. It's just bad luck.”
Aidan witnessed a pole break during a meet.
“Last year, a guy was at our first opener meets, and he broke the pole and cut open his head,” he said. “We had to stop because his head was bleeding. He had to put gauze around it, and then he jumped one more time.”
Aidan said the ideal build for a vaulter is lean and statuesque.
“It's better if you're somewhat tall and slender,” he said. “You don't usually see people that are built like throwers or linemen doing pole vaults. If you're too heavy and you can't run that fast, then you're not going to put enough energy into the vault to do well.”
Aidan has sufficient height at 5 feet, 11 inches and, despite looking like the one of the most jacked pole vaulters in history, within the right weight range at 180 pounds.
“For my height, 155 to 180 probably would be the range,” he said. “I think the world record holder right now is 170 pounds or 175.”
Aidan said a vaulter can’t be too big or too small.
“Not super heavy for your height and not super light because you need enough weight to move the pole, but you don't want to have too much to where it will weigh you down,” he said.
Aidan already developed his physique before pole vaulting.
“Before I started pole vaults, I did almost exclusively bodybuilding and hypertrophy training from when I was 12 to 18,” he said. “I had a good foundation already and a pretty good physique. When I got to Davis, most of it was just focusing on gaining weight, putting more muscle on me and strength and speed. It doesn't really affect vault that much.”
Aidan started pole vaulting a few years ago.
“I started pole vaulting junior year of high school,” he said. “I got a late start to it. Most guys that are at my level now started when they're a freshman in high school or even before.”
Aidan did have a head start on his education.
“Academically, I'm a senior,” he said. “Athletically, I'm a sophomore.”
Although Aidan has years of sports eligibility left, he won’t extend his undergraduate education.
“I plan on graduating on time and then pursuing a master's degree at another school at the same time as athletics,” he said. “If I can pursue athletics and use my eligibility, then in theory, I should be able to get my master's program paid for.”
Aidan’s vaulting goal is to reach the highest level of competition.
“My goal is getting to the Olympics,” he said. “I got three years to get there. That is definitely my goal, but I'm not going to pass 2028. If I don't get there, then I will pursue my business endeavors and just focus on making money.”
Aidan formerly did shot put as well.
“Last year, I did the decathlon,” he said. “I was training to be a decathlete last year, and then pretty much my senior year of high school where I was working on other events. Shot put is one of the events. But in the future, I will only be doing pole vaults because I'm better suited for that. I'm way better at pole vault than I am at any other event. It would be unreasonable to pursue the multi-events because I can go a lot farther in just doing pole vault because I'm already good at that.”
Aidan is content to put bodybuilding on the back burner for now
“For the longest time, I wanted to compete in bodybuilding and do men's physique or compete in shows, but right now, the smartest thing for me to do is focus on pole vaults,” he said. “I would be willing for my physique to take a hit as long as I would do better on pole vaults, because I'm confident in my ability to get my physique back to where it was or even better. Most of my focus now is on pole vault and sports, so I'm doing my best to let the physique aspect and bodybuilding part of me to stay backstage.”
Aidan said years of training left him with his current physique.
“I pretty much just followed what other bodybuilders did,” he said. “I would copy Arnold's workouts or another Mr. Olympia, Frank Zane, because he's built similarly to me, except a little bit bigger. I copied them and their training strategies for six years or so and was always in the gym. I had a solid background. It's not like I'm just pole vaulting and I somehow have this good physique. It was because of all the bodybuilding training I did before.”
During track season, Aidan decreases time in the gym.
“From what my coach has said, I'll be lifting anywhere between two and four times a week,” he said. “When you're jumping and you're lifting or you're doing legs or Olympic lifting, it's very taxing on your legs, so it's harder to jump high or to have good practices when you're not recovered.”
Aidan plays lumberjack.
Although Aidan started lifting as a preteen, he seemed predestined for working out much sooner.
“I started weightlifting when I was 12 and then I've always been very active,” he said. “I have a picture of me as a baby when I was five months old and I was hanging on a pull-up bar. I've always been very active, climbing stuff, swinging upside down, getting into mischief. I wasn't a couch potato at all.”
Aidan’s gym regimen is daily during the track off-season.
“I'm in there pretty much every day,” he said. “Usually my workouts span anywhere from an hour to three hours. If I'm working out with somebody else, I like to push both of us to the limit and to see how far we can go. It becomes a mental battle between me and the other person. Who will give up faster? We can be there for an hour, or we can be there for three hours or four hours, however long it takes for us to both be completely exhausted.”
Aidan splits muscle groups by day.
“I would do chest, shoulders and tris, back and biceps, and then legs,” he said. “I wouldn't really give shoulders or arms their own day because my arms are decent-sized already, and I just throw that into my back and shoulders. I've had shoulder problems in the past, so I'm doing my best not to do too much shoulder work and wear down what I have right now.”
Aidan is an experienced rider.
Aidan rebounded from a few injuries over the years.
“I tore my labrum,” he said about the ring of cartilage surrounding the shoulder. “I got surgery for that. And prior to that, I broke my back. I had three spinal fractures. And those injuries were back to back, no pun intended. I broke my back at the end of high school from a freak accident. Right after that, I was too eager to go back to training. Instead of doing what I should have done, I did like six, seven hours a day of working out, which was too much. And then I tore my labrum. I've learned from that, and I'm a lot more recovery-oriented than I was before.”
Along with musculature, Aidan’s vascularity is pronounced.
“That is from body fat percentage,” he said. “I'm extremely lean all year round. How I maintain leanness year-round, most of it is diet. And my activity level is so high that putting on fat doesn't really happen with me. Last year, I went from 140 to 160 in three months, and I gained almost no fat, so I got 20 pounds of lean muscle. That's because of how many hours I'm working out a day. I also stay away from greasy or fatty foods.”
Aidan maintains his diet through self-control and necessity.
“My stomach gets upset easily, so the things that I eat are more catered towards that,” he said. “I stay away from greasy or fatty foods or anything I deem as unhealthy, and I'll shame myself into staying away from desserts or stuff like that. I really like meats and normal, healthy food. I wouldn't say that training in of itself has too much to do with your overall leanness, because it's not like you'll grow your veins, because they’re not muscle. You'll make them more apparent or more visible by removing the layer of fat that's over them.”
Aidan initially didn’t aspire to be a pole vaulter.
“There wasn't a conscious decision,” he said. “I got recruited for track when I was playing soccer. When I was younger, I still ran and I did cross-country. When I got to high school, I messed around with pole vault. I never really practiced. I did one meet to get us points. I picked up a pole and ran on the runway and jumped 7 feet or something, which is awful for when you're starting.”
A coaching staff change was serendipity for Aidan.
“My sophomore year, we got a new coach and he was a silver medalist for the USSR,” he said. “We got very lucky to have him. He was extremely technical in pole vault and also the decathlon. I trained with him and asked him if I could do multis, which is what he got his medal in. Then Covid happened right when our season started. I asked him if we could do private training or private lessons during COVID. I was doing four hours of training a day.”
Aidan then continued pole vault training on his own and with other coaches.
“Pole vault took over from there, and that ended up being my best event,” he said. “I just stuck with it.”
Aidan’s other pursuits took a back seat.
“Arm wrestling, I had to stop because it was unreasonable to pursue that,” he said. “A similar story with martial arts. I play violin, too. I got private lessons for that and was doing pretty well, but athletics also took over, so that switched to a hobby.”
Aidan took the initiative as a preteen to put on mass.
“I was extremely skinny when I was younger,” he said. “When I was younger, I would watch Arnold Schwarzenegger movies and Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme movies. And they all have incredible physiques. So I grew up wanting to be like them, especially Arnold. So most of the time when I was younger, I was watching his stuff or watching his bodybuilding things and trying to copy him because I want to look like him.”
Among Aidan’s numerous past activities is equine.
“When I was younger, I used to do horseback riding and take lessons for that,” he said. “My brother took that farther than me because he would go to shows.”
Aidan plans to own his own business someday.
“I don't intend on being like a normal employee because I would hate that,” he said. “There's an income cap. I like to shoot for the stars, so I think I can go furthest if I'm either running my own company or a partner in a company. There's so much more potential for income. You also have more control and a little bit more freedom, too, which is always really nice.”
Aidan’s business interest lies with science.
“I'm fairly interested in synthetic biology and biotech,” he said. “My major right now is Systems and Synthetic Biology. My brother is pursuing a PhD in chemical engineering. So we'll most likely work together and find a startup that we can create in that industry and see how far we can take things and then maybe move into equity after that.”
Aidan stays motivated to achieve every goal he has.
“It's just trying to be the best I can for fitness because I know it will help me in other areas of life,” he said. “As for making money in business, I already have somewhat of a life goal of what I want. For me, whatever it is, studying or athletics or having a good physique or working on social media or anything else, it all helps me towards that eventual goal. Nothing is really a pain because I know it's all going to help me in the future and I'm willing to go through sacrifices to get there because I know it's going to be awesome. It's definitely worth it. That's mainly how I keep going.”
Aidan dispensed advice for those wanting to start working out.
“For younger people, I would encourage them to watch ‘80s movies,” he said. “To an extent, the type of media that you expose yourself to plays a huge role in what you end up doing in life and your mindset in general. For example, if you watch a bunch of toxic media, you'll probably be pessimistic for most of your life. But if you watch motivational movies or action movies, which are always very strong masculine characters, if you're younger and you watch those a lot, I think you'll naturally want to be like them or have someone to look up to in the future.”
Aidan said those with fitness goals should scrutinize what their idols did.
“The main thing is look at people who are where you want to be and just copy them,” he said. “That's the main thing you can do. Almost any path has already been walked down. If you have an end goal in mind, just look at someone who's already there and simply do what they did and then put in more time than they did. If you want it, then you'll get fit and you'll get to where you want to be. Just realize that everything takes time. You're not going to build a physique in two months. Nothing happens quickly, especially with your body.”
Aidan advised aspiring pole vaulters to begin sooner rather than later.
“Start as early as you can,” he said. “If you start off young and you have good coaching, then you can take it very far. It's one of the few events or even a few sports, where you can go Division 1 and not have all of the athletic gifts that would be necessary for another sport. For pole vault, the limiting factor is all mental. If you're an analytical person, it'll help you out a lot in that sport. Start off early as you can, find a good coach with facilities and put in the hours.”
Aidan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aidanhagerty1/
Aidan’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aidanhagerty1?_t=8pruebfci3y&_r=1