Tell me if this is legal

[ADTF Academy]

I hear ya, gotta love Michigan.


Good luck to you guys this upcoming weekend at regionals

[IndyCoach]

I was coaching agianst him at this meet and the event was postponed for about 45min because of the weatehr. By the time it restarted it wasn't too bad. The bar was at 11'0 at the time and my jumpers were coming in until 12' and 12'6". When the bar went to 12'6" it was raining harder than it was when they first postponed it. At this point in time the meet was completely over except for the vault. If it had worked out that the score of teh vault wouldn't have effected the outcome I am sure they would have just canceled the event or postponed it until Monday. But the meet did come down to the pole vault and unfortunately my two vaulters had to make 12'6" for us to win. My better vaulter was having trouble not slipping on the runway (wet mondo and needle spikes were not the best option) and he made it on his last attempt. At that point we had the meet won and so I asked the guys if they felt safe vaulting anymore and they said no. I made the decision to nothave either one of our guys take an attempt at 13'. One of the other teams coaches complained to the offical about this decision. Biggie 1110 took his first attempt at 13' and slid on his plant. The other vaulter made it on his first. The height was only 13' and biggie has been over 16'. He was competing in a meet that he already holds the conference record in and is working towards imoriving his finish at the state meet last year. He took one more jump at 13 and made it then he also scratched out of the rest of the competition. The coach that complained was also the coach of the winning vaulter.

[hallvaulter]

Hey Biggie...don't sweat it. You did what you had to do. Of course, you wanted to jump better, and of course you are frustrated, but that day was just not the day. You were smart to not push things for this meet and not to risk injury for the more significant meets approaching. Up here in Fort Wayne, we have not had much break weatherwise either. You go prepared (extra tape, towels, rosin (chalk), tarps, gloves, hand warmers, umbrellas, under armour, extra socks and shoes) and hope for the best. I thought all the meets here last Saturday would be called off. I was wrong. I called B Shank early that morning and he told me no one was canceling and we had better just get used to it and quit complaining. They did postpone the vault at one meet until later in the day and at another meet they canceled the vault but went ahead with everything else. I don't know who in their right mind would think that the vault competition under adverse weather conditions is not putting athletes at a higher risk of serious injury. Just the nature of how the vault works is the most high risk of any other track event. Now, don't get me wrong, we love the vault and want to see it continue and prosper, but do you see kids in any other event on the track wearing a helmet? Throw in a serious wind and a little rain and that can seriously wreck some havoc on a vaulter. I agree that they have to be mentally tough and that they have to continue through whatever conditions meet officials approve of, but hats off to the coaches who went ahead and told their vaulters that was enough for that day. We ALL want to vault, we ALL want to get in good marks, we ALL want to PR, we ALL want to win, we ALL want to do our best... BUT none of that is more important than the safety of those athletes. We are already praying for some good weather conditions for Regionals and for State. It looks as if we still may have rain for Sectionals this week. And when it is solid rain, I don't care what you do or how hard you try to keep everything dry and dried off, hands and poles will still get wet while making attempts. Good luck to all this week!

[VaultWatcher]

Okay, HallVaulter did not make that last post, I did. I did not realize that I was not signed on under my screen name. Sorry, Hunter!

[indestructo]

Personally, I think its the athlete and coaches responsibility to be prepared for the weather. a few weeks ago, we had off and on monsoon type rain. They postponed the meet to start off and I (as the official) delayed the vault for about a half hour about mid-way through. I only delayed it because the rain was falling too hard to see. The rest of the time was a steady rain (enough to fill the box every hour or two). We had one hand slip, we retaped and she was fine the rest of the way.

Its only dangerous when people aren't prepared. Yes, safety is number one, but being smart ranks up there as well. An official can not accomodate every athlete out there. If you have to retape the pole after every jump to keep things safe, then do it. There are ways to jump safe in nearly every weather condition.

You get two choices when an official isn't delaying during weather conditions.... whine and quit, or do what it takes to jump safely.

[ADTF Academy]

Yeah if the track is so covered that your footy is off then postpone cancel would be logical for any and all events.



Heck think of the High Jump when you are suppose to lead and plant the foot out in front of you. Easy to slip there.


Light constant rain vault away. Can't see rain let it be. Like everyone has said you must be safe. Go by your gut feelings.


The thing that bothers me is that if a vaulter thinks a situation is dangerous rather it is or not guess what they vault differently. Have you ever been to a facility with not so good pits. Let me guess the first thing you do is check if they are safe.


heck people how high did people jump landing in saw dust. How high did they jump when the pits were twice as small as they are now.

Just a thought.

[bayouvaulter]

Strange we're having this topic of discussion. At our state meet here in Lousiana we had rain for the girls 4-A competition. It was light but steady rain. I had plenty of tape before the meet started but since we taped our poles from the top down the officials at weight-in made us retape all our poles and it took all the tape i had plus, to retape the 16 poles we brought for both our boys and girls.
After check-in the meet officials brought the poles out for the competition and set them down on the wet ground. It had rained earlier, but had stopped for the momment but the ground was wet. They had let us keep in our poles in our bag so they didn't get wet. When I saw what they were doing I told them it would be much better to lay them across our bag to keep them off the ground. If no one would have told them different they would have left them on the wet ground. We used towels and wind breakers to keep them dry when we used them to jump. The run way collected water but the pv official was able to dry it some between jumps with a sponge roller that helped remove it from the runway. Before our competition was over the weight-in officials brought the next class poles out on a cart and left them out in the rain uncovered. I'm proud to say that one of the girl vaulters saw this a grabbed a plastic bag and covered the poles for the next group. Now these are the same people that said I couldn't tape our poles from the top down and had to retape them, but didn't have the sense to realize that leaving the poles in the rain uncovered could be dangerous. I also think that maybe if the meet officials want the vault to continue in the rain that they need to make sure that they have towels, plastic bags, rosin, tape and what ever else it takes to keep it safe for all competitors. Our state meet is held at LSU and they were about to move indoors if it got any worse but it stopped after our class. The bad thing about that is no state records could be set if that would have happen, but safety comes first!! And there were 2 class and one compostite record set, so there is a rainbow behind every cloud!!

Good Luck to everyone who still has their State Meet to come I hope ya'll
have sunshine and a kickin tail wind!!!!!

[souleman]

OK, here's the way I see it. They have rules for point awarding in the HS rule book if an event is cancelled or not offered at a meet. Go with those rules. Sorry, but my opinion is that safety has to absolutely come first in high school vaulting. Hanging on a wet slippery stick 10 to 15 feet off the ground ain't safe. Well DUH! This ain't little league folks where the Dads and coaches want to get the game in so they don't have to come back at the end of the season for a rain date. Face it folks, AD's ain't all that crazy about the pole vault. It's expensive and if one of the kids in their school gets hurt or worse, they'll (or it would be the perfect excuse for them to) pull the plug on the event lickety split. All of you rain vaulters out there can be mr. macho all you want but be that after High School. As Becca posted about the Utah High School situation and I've talked about Iowa several times, we've got to protect the sport by not allowing it to occur in anything but the safest conditions. Later............Mike

[IndyCoach]

We were very prepared for the meet. We had a bag of towels, extra tape, chalk, and a tarp to keep everything dry. But when you get to the runway and it is raining hard enough that it is your feet that slip not just your hands then it is time to quit.
The other problem was that the event was postponed for atleast 45min then once it was restarted in colder conditions they only wanted to give each kid one run through.
It was just very poor conditions and if safety was their first thought they should have postponed it to a different day like they did the Indianapolis City Track Meet.

[fchipr]

I coach a HS 11th grader who vaulted his whole competition on sat afternoon at MT SAC. was the last to start, when he opened at 14-0 on a 14-4 PR, then him and one other both pr'd at 14-7 then jumped off 4 times at 15-1 then jumped off (3 attempts per ht) every 2 inches all the way down till 14-1 until my kid ran out of gas, got the second place medal/1st place ht. THATS REAL RAIN VAULTING...but it was worth it . It was not a silly dual meet.

[Vaultref]

.... but since we taped our poles from the top down the officials at weight-in made us retape all our poles and it took all the tape i had plus, to retape the 16 poles....

NF has no taping direction rule.
However, when taping from the top of the pole down, you create the potential for ridges to develope and therefore the taping is no a longer uniform thickness. What that means is they can later be declared illegal and must be retaped.

So, by taping from the bottom up, that problem does not occur. Why risk the hassle of retaping when you might now have make a consecutive jump. Not worth it IMHO.

I always recommend taping bottom up when I check in poles and find one that needs retaping, but I can't force the issue.