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Top Tier Pole Vault, 263 S Euclid Street, La Canada Flintridge, CA (2025)

12/09/2023

So happy to announce that will be sharing her pole vault wisdoms and experience with Top Tier Pole Vault and the La Cañada High School Pv team on December 20th!

Hana was recently selected as the 2023 High School Female Athlete of the Year, set the national U20 pole vault record and finished 9th in the World Track & Field Championships hosted in Budapest with a PR jump of 15’3”.

Hana made history this year becoming the FIRST and ONLY high school female to jump 15’ 🔥

I reached out to Hana because history is also being made at La Cañada High School, with both Mia DiConti and Erin Makhanian ._quynh taking turns breaking the school pole vault record ✨

Since I began working with the LCHS pole vault team, we’ve nearly tripled the size of the pv squad, inspiring and motivating athletes to try a sport that is mostly known as scary and dangerous.

Pole Vault is SO much more than that… it’s become a space where we learn to succeed by learning to fail, where we learn to fly by learning to fall and where we learn that talent doesn’t matter as much as hard work and determination does.

To give my team a chance to understand that pole vault is more than just running and jumping with a pole, I reached out to Hana to schedule her for a Guest Talk because sharing space with leaders is as important as going to practice.

One of my favorite quotes says: “If I have been able to see across great distances, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”

Sharing space with Hana reflects this quote.. I’m so honored and humbled by her willingness speak to my team. I’ve heard that good character is how you treat people who have nothing to offer you, which says everything about Hana saying yes to us.

This will be a Zoom presentation designed similar to a Ted Talk, sprinkled with questions from me and several vaulters from our team. The motto of Ted Talk is “Ideas Worth Spreading” and Hana’s impact on the next generation is indeed worth being shared.

Because this is a Zoom presentation, you do not have to be an LCHS student to register but space is limited so please contact me for registration as soon as possible!

12/07/2023

Re-Introducing Myself : Proud Pole Vault coach at multiple schools in the Pasadena | La Cañada area.

Dedicated to teaching “The Professor’s Sport,” as Pole Vault is known as.

Building my club Top Tier Pole Vault into an ethical, dependable resource for athletes to learn and improve their skill.

My Pole Vault Training curriculum is embedded with principles of Neuroscience, such as neuroplasticity and executive function regulation, in order to create a whole-body approach to each athlete’s growth and development.

My pedagogy, the way I teach my curriculum, is rooted in principles of mental health and Education frameworks; such as, creating safe spaces for expressing one’s self as well as creating dynamic learning environments for optimal skill acquisition.

I was originally hired by Westridge to build a Pole Vault program for their school. Since then, I have come to realize that Pole Vault coaching is in short supply in the San Gabriel Valley and beyond. There aren’t enough Pv coaches to staff the number of schools wanting to have a program.

It’s my mission, by establishing the Top Tier Pole Vault Club, to teach and train as many Pole Vaulters as I possibly can. I want to add my contribution to the history of this noble sport.

I want to teach athletes about Neuroscience and Mental Health and how they can improve their overall academic and sports performance by learning these things. I want to train athletes who eventually become college vaulters and after that pole vault coaches.

By training future coaches, we ensure that future pole vaulters will in turn be trained, keeping Pole Vault alive and well.

09/18/2023

Happy Birthday to my Original Day 1
La Reyna De Mi Vida ✨

You taught me so many things in life but none as powerful as the impact of a Mother’s Love ❤️

08/19/2023

This week against Rosemead was my first game as a Football coach, we won 55-13.

Coach Dave took at chance on me hiring me to coach Wide Receivers and I’ve devoted everything I have to building our Receivers into a group of leaders that we can depend on to help win games, not just through skill but through Character and Integrity.

Against Rosemead, we had 322 yards Receiving along with 4 touchdowns and a School Record 90 yard Receiving Touchdown 🔥

Would they have performed like that without me? Maybe? Probably? During the game, shortly before the 90 yard touchdown, Coach Dave asked me if I trusted Hayden (WR #9) to beat his Defender and without hesitation I said absolutely. Hayden then broke the school record beating his defender on a short pass that he turned into 90 yards.

I think my greatest gift as a coach is the way I believe whole heartedly in my athletes. I didn’t play Division 1 football but I make my players feel like any of them can go D-1.

I know we won’t score 55 in every game this season but I BELIEVE that we will have the BEST Receivers in the Rio Hondo League.

ain’t nothing to play with, we’re bringing the heat all season 🫡

08/18/2023

New Pole Vault Squad who dis 🔥

I got hired to coach Varsity Football at but once they found out I coach Pole Vault, they snatched me up 🫡

Today we had our first Pole Vault practice jumping into the pits, getting the youngsters to realize they aren’t made out of glass and they won’t break if they fall funny 🥴

La Cañada has a great history of Pole Vaulting and I’m proud to now be part of adding to their legacy!
tier.pv

08/17/2023

It’s game day baby you already know we bringing the flame tonight on our home field 🔥🔥

First game of the year, don’t wait to be great we going out there Fearless and Focused 🫡
and .reuben.pv_ is for da kidz 😎

08/07/2023

FALL POLE VAULT REGISTRATION
Top Tier Track & Field Club is NOW ACCEPTING Fall Semester Registrations!!
NO Experience Necessary - Book a Single session or take advantage of our WEEKLY and MONTHLY discount packages.
Coach Reuben created Top Tier to serve the La Cañada and Pasadena area after being contacted by multiple schools during the Spring Track season, asking if he could help coach their Pole Vaulters.
The answer is YES, it would be his honor and pleasure to coach any athlete who is interested in growing their skill as a Pole Vaulter 🫡
Hosted at La Cañada High School
Contact Top Tier Today to get Started ✍️
Reuben.Pv@iCloud.comreuben.pv

08/03/2023

Today marks another milestone in my journey as a Sports Performance Coach, as I am now officially the Wide Receivers coach at La Cañada High School 🏈
Many didn’t know that I have a background in football, mainly because at this point in my life I’m known as a Pole Vault coach. This will be my first year as a football coach but I’m not new to the game. I was awarded 2nd Team All-League my Senior year at Colony High School and had a brief stint as a Semi-Pro WR before injuring my hamstring.
I want to thank for believing in me and giving me this amazing opportunity to serve the La Cañada Football Team. I’m beyond excited and ready to work!
Rio Hondo League is ours this year 👑

06/24/2023

He came, he saw, he conquered 🫡

06/06/2023

I was today years old when I discovered United Stated Track & Field has an old man division and now my new ADHD project is to become its Champion 😂

03/08/2023

If I was a poet, I would write about this picture being taken in 2013 at Cal Poly Pomona, when I was a Spoken Word Artist representing my hometown of La Puente.

I would write about how La Puente is not known for Poets when you read about it in textbooks under the section "at-risk community."

I would write about how I got paid to perform at a university that would not accept me as a student.

I would write about not being accepted by institutions, yet being made to feel at home by the students who represented those institutions.

I would write about how institutions inadvertently empower agency, how they inspire action, how they motivate movements to take root in between the margins where the marginalized survive.

I would talk about how the people in that picture kept me alive, giving me a safe space to express myself when it sometimes felt like my hood was a prison without bars.

Growing up in La Puente sometimes felt like a night without stars, no constellations telling stories of local heroes, no drinking gourd pointing toward freedom, just me and my pen.. and something to say about something I felt.

I can hear the ink melt my memories into letters etched out as anxious penmanship.

And if I was a poet, I would write about how my healing happens when I'm heard. I would say thank you for reading, I would say you saved me from me.

02/21/2023

Dr. Melissa Springstead would probably laugh at the idea of me calling her "Dr" instead of just Melissa.

She is a friend, a mentor, who was the first therapist to work with me when I was trained in Neurofeedback, partnering with me to offer it as a treatment to her clients. As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Melissa founded Anchor Child and Family Counseling to serve the Pasadena area, with a special focus on high school age.

Through my work with Melissa, I learned how she employed Executive Function strategies for supporting mental health outcomes, particularly as those outcomes translate to school success. She not only taught her clients how to take control of their mind states and emotional processes using mindfulness techniques, she taught them practical routines and daily strategies for executing their intentions.

It was working with with Melissa that I saw how profoundly poor mental health impacts Executive Function, the very area of our brain that regulates decision-making and therefore the very choices that we make.

It made me wonder much of poor classroom performance and low test scores were the result of executive dysfunction as opposed to not knowing the content or not studying hard enough.

Testing metrics don't take into account brain health and if you think about it, it should, since the overall health of a brain contributes to its performance capabilities. Stress, sleep deprivation, nutrient deficiency, all of these things impact memory retention and skill acquisition, which are the basis of learning.

Working with Melissa made me also feel like maybe one day I could and should be a Licensed Therapist. She modeled for me (informally) the behaviors and etiquette of effective therapy because its part of who she is, it is etched into her persona. She's like a whirlwind of laughter and efficient communication, moving from charisma to constructive criticism in a way that challenges and rewards.

And that's good therapy, I think... it challenges and rewards. It involves laughter and clear communication.

02/19/2023

I was hired in 2015 at Oasis Family Medicine to manage the front office. The first voice a potential new patient spoke to on the phone and the first face a patient would see upon arriving.

"Their appointment starts when they walk into the office, not when they are in my room," Dr. Yoshi told me.

I miss those days, when my job was to learn what Dr. Yoshi had to teach. Those daily conversations where we worked to meet the needs of our patients and create solutions to complex health issues. A big part of my job was to be able to explain areas of a patient's treatment plan to them if they were still unclear once their appointment was over and they were checking out.

Because of this, Dr. Yoshi taught me to speak like him, using the medical research and conceptual frameworks that informed his treatment plan designs. He wanted me to be able to provide details and references to patients. I sometimes felt like I was giving mini-TedTalks to our patients on the topic of what Dr. Yoshi had designed for them and I loved every second of it.

It made me feel like I was embedded in the healing process of our patients and made me feel accountable to being a high-value resource for our patients.

Dr. Yoshi sent me to hundreds of hours of health and wellness training; from applied clinical nutrition through , to oxygen therapy training, to neurofeedback therapy training and what felt like everything in between. It was like going through a cross-fit crash course for holistic health and wellness.

By the end of it, I was not the same person as I was when I started. How could I be? They say when you know better you do better, so I knew as it was happening that Dr. Yoshi was transforming me into a better version of myself. He showed me that it's not enough to know things, it's also about using what we know in ways that directly contribute to our health and well-being.

02/14/2023

2012 marked the beginning of my journey in Neuroscience.

2012 was the year I met Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Professor of Education, Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Southern California and Co-Director of The Brain & Creativity Institute.

"One needs to have a very strong stomach and very centered sense of self to handle and learn from this academic setting," Mary Helen said to me. "You have to just throw yourself in there and learn from what comes back."

She sent me three of her research papers, a gift beyond words and beyond compare.

*We Feel, Therefore We Learn: The Relevance of Affective and Social Neuroscience to Education
*Rest is Not Idlesness: Implications of the Brain's Default Mode for Human Development and Education
*Musings on the Neurobiological and Evolutionary Origins of Creativity via a Developmental Analysis of One Child's Poetry

Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang gave me language for how poetry was impactful and why it mattered. I learned the neural mechanisms involved in human expression, how the ways we express ourselves are the embodiments of our cognition and how the emotional states we experience can be leveraged intentionally, in ways that cultivate our growth and development.

She would go on to keep me under her wing for the next 5 years or so... writing letters of recommendation for me when I applied for scholarships and introducing me to her sister, Dr. Nora Feldpausch, who hosted me for a weekend with her family while I was in college, helping me organize my vision of self into potential professional careers.

More than what they taught me was that they showed me a world outside of La Puente, the hood I grew up in. But even more than that, they believed in me, a good kid in a mad city.

Top Tier Pole Vault