Jenn S. Pole Vault Coach????

I watched in horror at what Coach Surh was saying. The man is abusive at best. He dictates what Jenn says, eats, drinks. At the national summit a couple years ago, they both appalled most attendees by the controlling nature of their relationship. She doesn't speak until given permission. She behaves like a robot in his presence. I may be being harsh here, but that is the impression that most came away with after watching their interactions over the course of 3 days. She made him look bad, he actually thought after the bronze was decided that Jenn had a shot at Lena. you could here him saying "now its time to go after the big dog". He was twitchy from the start. He probably wouldn't have been happy with gold unless it came with a world record. As a coach, I was disgusted by his behavior at the Summit and continue to be so. The man may be able to coach 1 (ONE) singular extraordinary athlete to the Silver Medal - that does not make him a great coach, it makes Jenn a great athlete. I agree with whoever said it above....I'd fire his ass and find one that didn't use degradation and humiliation to "motivate". And..yes they are in a romantic relationship - the more ways for him to dominate. And yes, I would definitely cut that off too. That is if she hasn't been so bullied for four years, that she can't think on her own or act without his permission.

In my opinion, i think thye have an abusive relationship, and it is not healthy, I fear for her life, if he can do what he did on International TV, who knows waht goes on at home. Now I don't think we should pry into their personal life, but I honestly feel that he abuses her (mentally) at home. For what she did on that night was special, there was no way she was going to beat the Russian, no one was and everyone coming in knew they were fighting for Silver and Bronze. So like the Russian said, she should have known her place. But back to Suhr, he needs to kno his place and stop looking and acting like a D bag and idiot. he made ALL of American Coaches look bad. And ALL of AMERICA, thanks Rick

Coach Suhr is only about the interests of Coach Suhr. Jen let him down and he had to let her know that. Very sad indeed. But she did get a siver in the Olympics which certainly was not a possibility before he found her, so it was probably worth it. She is a great talent and hopefully will continue to improve.

I think there is a time and place for giving feedback. I am not sure that was the best time or place. Let her enjoy the moment.

Was he really telling her anything useful?

tissue box wrote:

i think he had no right to say that, but thats my perspective. i know nothing of their relationship.

the flagrant foul in my opinion belongs to NBC for broadcasting that.

Why blame NBC for broadcasting it? That was actually a very good thing.

I had an entirely different impression of this whole exchange while I was watching it. It appeared to me that Jen walks over to her coach disappointed with her silver. She really believed that she could win. Then NBC broadcast Suhr explaining to Jen what went wrong. (I think she simply got beat by a superior vaulter). And then he points out that a silver medal for someone who has been vaulting for 4 years is pretty good.

I hope by now she can recognize what a great accomplishment that silver medal represents.

Oh please. As I noted above, there is a time and place for critique. I think he chose a poor time and place. Silver is pretty freakin' good. Plus, was he really giving her anything useful. For one thing, the competition was over! It is not like what he was telling her was going to help.

Also, he looked and sounded very irritated. Perhaps a more calm and private approach might be a better coaching philosophy.

What if Sevene had berated Flanagan like that after her race?

The words he said were bad or constructive depending on the interpretation. It was the way he said them that was absolutely wrong.

Jenn's coach has done a great job teaching her to this level, but shame on him for putting down such a great athlete in front of millions. Which other vaulters has he coached at the international level? which other jumpers in that competition or the world could hang with a very pissed off and motivated Isinbayeva? Some reality check please!!

They had been going around saying that they would be taking down Isinbayeva at the Games and other nonsense, and once Jenn was beat by 15cm (more than 6 inches) someone had to pay the piper.

Suhr has given a sport which desperately needs all the positive coverage and image it can get yet another black eye. This further tarnishes the images of coaches as egotistical self serving and self centered monsters and that is a direct slap in the face of all those who work hard to make the best for their athletes.

At this point in her career Jenn should jump ship to another camp with a more positive outlook and maybe she can have a better chance of possibly competing with the great Isinbayeva.

luv2run wrote:

What if Sevene had berated Flanagan like that after her race?

That would have been uncalled for since Sevene doesn't coach Flanagan. He coaches Blake Russell.

Age? wrote:

Did any of you people actually listen to the WORDS he said?

Apparently not. He told her, look, 4 years ago you were not vaulting and now you have the silver medal, losing to the best vaulter in the world. He was telling her something POSITIVE, to cheer her up. What, because he doesn't hug her he's negative?

It seemed that it dawned on him that he should say something positive because you always end feedback with a positive. The problem is that the minute before that carries a heck more weight.

"Meatgrinder" is my new term. I think I will use it several times this weekend during Hood to Coast.

but.... wrote:

When you see her clear huge heights day in and day out at practice then you don't do what you can do easily when it counts is failure. Yes, she got the silver but had it in her to be much more of a gold medal threat. Coach said what he had to say.

If that's true, then the reason she didn't clear those same heights in the final, is because the coach was thrashing her all through the competition. Would you feel you were the best, when someone was constantly thrashing you???? Hell no.

She either felt she deserved to be beaten - meaning BY THE COACH - or she would have told him to get lost, right there on the spot. That's the ONLY way she could have refusen to get beaten. Otherwise she had to accept her behavior, and to accept getting beaten in the final. What goes around comes around.

This being said, I am glad that Isinbayeva won, instead of that creep trying to live vicariously through Jenn. She will only deserve to win after getting rid of the loser.

Abuse Counselor wrote:

In my opinion, i think thye have an abusive relationship, and it is not healthy, I fear for her life, if he can do what he did on International TV, who knows waht goes on at home.

I feel the same way, she is in danger. What I would do in her position is toss an escape bag together at her first opportunity, leave - and leave everything else behind. It would be helpful to plan for this, and to have a few different places to go, one of them the focus of the moment.

When you get there, the primarly focus is keeping him away from you, and rebuilding your life somewhere else. You will get a LOT of support! Most of all, make sure your story is PUBLIC, so people can be supportive of you, including whoever you choose to be your next coach.

It reads like you are ignoring the importance of the olympics as a universal, shareable, self-betterment model: Citius, Altius, Fortius.You seem knowledgeable about running and sports as far as some posts I have read on these boards. Yet, if you think the Olympics is about getting the gold I would have some very strong reservations about you offering any advice.I suggest you reconsider your position.

Runningart2004 wrote:

.... If you are happy, and if your coach is happy, with anything other than first then you have no business in the Olympics.....

Alan

I haven't read this entire thread, but it looked like she was fighting back tears after talking with him. Class act that she is, she gave a very poised interview moments later, expressing her joy with getting a silver medal.

Anybody who has ever been around Rick in a competition knows that he was not being constructive here, he was just being a prick and establishing his dominance. I heard a story about him, I think it was at the Pan-Am games last year that he was raising a huge fuss about not being able to stay with Jenn in the same hotel room claiming that this was who she was most comfortable with and she could not compete unless he could room with her. He even threatened to pull her from the whole competition if the organizing committee wouldn't put them in the same room. This was not an example of a hard nosed great coach such as Vince L, Bobby K, etc this is a guy that has given a bad name to Jenn and its not fair because Jenn should be proud of her perfomance. I agree that it could have been better, but she lost to a better vaulter and still represented her country with a silver medal. Rick ruined this and that is a shame.

Someone posted on polevaultpower.com suggesting that there's more than an athlete/coach relationship between Jenn & Suhr:

http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=15922&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=288

(towards the bottom)

"I have received several emails informing me that Jenn and Rick have a relationship beyond that of athlete-coach. ( I was not aware of this)

His style obviously works for her.

I may have been too judgemental in my prior post concerning his criticism about her performance.

If it works for them far be it for me to be critical.

I am glad that my daughters never had a coach address them in that matter in a public forum. I have never done so in 30 plus years of coaching.

I wish them both continued success."

Yeah, she was fighting back tears for a few reasons, maybe disappointment, maybe her coache's harshness. The way he spoke to her after winning an Olympic silver medal was totally inappropriate, and then in the interview she says she wants to go and see her familys, friends and her, get this, 'coach'! Maybe she's in a psycho co-dependent abusive relationship where she likes the punishment?

OldXCguy wrote:

I haven't read this entire thread, but it looked like she was fighting back tears after talking with him. Class act that she is, she gave a very poised interview moments later, expressing her joy with getting a silver medal.

There is a world of difference between complacency and acknowledgement. A champion does not have to be unhappy about a silver medal to acknowledge the difference between silver and gold. For that matter, they generally do not look upon their silver and bronze medals with shame.

Champions never stop striving for first, but acknowledge, with gratitude and respect, all of their accomplishments. Stuczynski's coach failed to respond appropriately to her accomplishment.

Four years after touching a pole for the first time, Stuczynski not only made it to the Olympics, but won a silver medal. Four years after touching that pole, the only person to outmatch Stuczynski is a world record holder, with many more years experience. And Stuczynski has no reason to be unhappy about that.