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Anyone here ever bruised your tailbone on a crossbar?
If so, how long did it take to heal?

So, on Friday, I was attempting 7' from a 4-step [I had about 3 hours of sleep the night before...about 2-3 less than usual] and I landed on TOP of the bar.
And I mean, right on top of it, as in, hitting my tailbone on it. HARD. [On top, not at an angle]
{Kind of surprising, seeing as it was from a 4-step and that that week was the first time I cleared 6'6".}
Anyways, a day later, it still hurts.
And not like a bruise hurts...as in, it hurts to be in some positions, such as walking up stairs, switching from sitting/standing, sitting/laying...from sitting,standing, or laying to another of those.
It doesn't hurt to walk or stand unless I just moved to the position and I've been in that position for a while.
I think it's just bruised.

First thing I did was stretch a little bit but not too far [it helps some...again, not far-far], ice it, and take ibuprofen. Also, I didn't vault the rest of that day...I attempted, but after 2 steps I was like, "No....this isn't working..." I've been icing it since then [on/off. About every 15-20 minutes or so.] and I've only had one dose of ibuprofen today.

Also, it doesn't hurt if I turn my feet in while walking, but it hurts if they point out at all.

I'm planning on taking Monday off, at least. Maybe more, depending on how badly it hurts on Tuesday and what the athletic trainer says.

Anyways, anyone ever had this happen before?
If so, how long did it take it to heal?

Landing on the bar at some point is quite common--I'd bet most people on this forum have done that at least once. As a male, when I did it, my tailbone was the least of my worries.

It sounds like you've bruised the bone at the point where your posterior external rotators (fancy word for butt muscles that turn your feet out) attach to your coccyx (fancy word for tailbone). I wouldn't be too worried. Ice it and rest until the pain subsides enough to train again. Any impact contusion from a bar should heal quite quickly.

My coach used to have a bumper sticker that said, "It's only pain. What's it going to do, hurt?"

Tailbone bruises can be super painful, but the good thing is you most likely will not make anything worse by working through it (unlike most other injuries!). Try taking some Tylenol before practice and see if that helps.

Taking a few days off is just fine. If the pain is keeping you from running properly, then it's not going to do you any good to force it.

I think you will start feeling better soon

Yeah...it hurts about a 7 out of 10 when I jump off of it or land on it...so it really does hurt.
My coach just said that if it's PAIN and not soreness, not to vault. Its not like you have a bruised shin.
I talked with my other coach-he was our athletic trainer before we got an official athletic trainer [but if she cant be there, he does her job. He was the one who taped my finger when I accidentally cut it in class {scissors...my teacher was hesitant about letting me use them the rest of the year Least it's not like another vaulter I know [dif. school] who accidentally sanded his finger badly.} Anyways, after I described where it hurt, how bad, and he did a manual muscle test for injuries and such, he basically said I had probably bruised the muscle and the bone and [something else] to "do such-and-such a stretch 8 times tonight for 60sec, ice, ice, ice, advil, advil, advil, and sleep on the floor tonight on your back. If it hurts more than a 5 out of 10 tomorrow, don't vault."

The other issue was that it REALLY hurt when I jumped off of it, so I didn't want to risk anything. Also, there wasn't much good in doing that if it wasn't going to help any.

I just did a bunch of plant drills [that DIDN'T hurt it.] and some high knee drills [and stopped if it hurt...I landed and pressed off lightly]

decanuck wrote:It sounds like you've bruised the bone at the point where your posterior external rotators (fancy word for butt muscles that turn your feet out) attach to your coccyx (fancy word for tailbone). I wouldn't be too worried. Ice it and rest until the pain subsides enough to train again. Any impact contusion from a bar should heal quite quickly.

I think he did say something about an External Rotator cuff. He said we'd baby it for a few days to rest it. Again, ice-ice-ice, ibuprofen-ibuprofen-ibuprofen. Also, yeah, I've hit the cross bar MANY times, but that's the worst injury I've gotten from the bar. Otherwise, it's just miscellaneous bruises...I usually have 4+ bruises on me at one, sometimes occuring from just catching a pole [Ever had a pole flung onto a bone? Not fun. Especially not twice in the same place, 2 vaults after each other. Or had a pole hit you in the back of the ear while catching it. A big 160, not my tiny 110. I swear...that pole's out to kill me.]

rainbowgirl28 wrote:My coach used to have a bumper sticker that said, "It's only pain. What's it going to do, hurt?"

That was one of our girl's mottos a few years ago [well, what it amounted to]...until she hurt her back and couldn't vault anymore :/ [Didn't listen to coach]
In some cases, yes, in some cases, no.

decanuck wrote:Landing on the bar at some point is quite common--I'd bet most people on this forum have done that at least once. As a male, when I did it, my tailbone was the least of my worries.

I did that more than once and also broke few crossbars by landing on them, but don't remember problems with tailbone or vertebrae caused by crossbar.
I landed once with my back on aluminum triangular crossbars practicing high jump. It's been 25 years since then, but memories on that are still very vivid. I don't recall metal crossbars for pole vaulting, but some members older than me probably have such experience.

Well, I landed square on it.
They're plastic, but still...if you slam down on TOP of it, it doesn't slide off [because of the screws] so it really hurts.
And it's hard plastic, not a soft-ish plastic.
Actually, back hurts, but unless you really hit something [the coccyx is a teeny bone...and it can be jarred] you're probably fine.
I've only heard of people having nasty bruises from those.

OK, I have to ask. Did you knock it off with your butt because you were going over the bar with no turn and then landing on it in the pit? Or did you knock it off with any part of the front of your body because you made a turn and then landed on the crossbar with your butt and you facing the runway? The latter is really pretty hard to do so I'm guessing it's the first one. The first one wouldn't happen if you'd do what I suggested on another thread. If you bruised you coccyx, there's not much you can do but wait till the pain goes away. At your age it'll be a week or two or three. Later...........Mike

souleman wrote:OK, I have to ask. Did you knock it off with your butt because you were going over the bar with no turn and then landing on it in the pit? Or did you knock it off with any part of the front of your body because you made a turn and then landed on the crossbar with your butt and you facing the runway? The latter is really pretty hard to do so I'm guessing it's the first one. The first one wouldn't happen if you'd do what I suggested on another thread. If you bruised you coccyx, there's not much you can do but wait till the pain goes away. At your age it'll be a week or two or three. Later...........Mike

The first one, though I DIDN'T land on it in the pit...I landed on it while it was on the standards. I'm not sure if it was at an angle or what, but the bar came off, it didn't break, but my tailbone had DEFINITELY been hit hard.

I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say

souleman wrote:The first one wouldn't happen if you'd do what I suggested on another thread.

Yup, you must've been going over on your back...

You could avoid future problems with this if you'd go back to the thread that souleman's talking about and do the drill we were discussing with you. (This will most likely happen again if you don't!)

From your "bending the pole" thread I wrote;

I'd like to see a 3 to four left approach,(basically starting at the mid mark on the chart) nice bouncy run, good springy take off and swing with a turn over the bar so you're facing the runway EVERY TIME. How high to put the bungee or bar? About 5 feet for starters will do.4 feet if you can't do it right at 5. I'd like to see you do about a hundred of them too so that going over sitting on the pole with your butt brushing the crossbar would feel so weird to you there is no way you would feel comfortable jumping that way again. Good luck kiddo!..............Mike

Ah.
Well, that was one of the days our coach was out there and we were using the bar...and no bungee...so I couldn't do that.
And I've been trying to work on turning, but it's not working yet.

Also, I did vault today. It hurt about a 4 out of 10, and even less when I stretched it, so it's fine now.
That said, it still hurts
Esp. when I lay on it weird. Or sit on it weird. Or bump it against something hard, with decently hard pressure.
But it'll be fine.

birdi_gurlie wrote:Well, I landed square on it.
They're plastic, but still...if you slam down on TOP of it, it doesn't slide off [because of the screws] so it really hurts.
And it's hard plastic, not a soft-ish plastic.
Actually, back hurts, but unless you really hit something [the coccyx is a teeny bone...and it can be jarred] you're probably fine.
I've only heard of people having nasty bruises from those.

yeah, maybe this is much safe than other, besides its plastic all the way..it works


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