Trend towards longer, softer poles?

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Trend towards longer, softer poles?

Unread postby volunteer » Tue Jun 05, 2012 12:15 am

It appears that NCAA vaulters ( both Male and Female) are being coached to use long, light poles with lower hand grip. We have seen so Many videos of the latest NCAA jumpers that show so many vaulters with a grip 1foot or more below the pole sticker and the poles appear pretty soft. Are coaches creating safety issues by having these kids jump on poles way below their weight? some results of this technique are possitive, but is it safe ?

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Re: Trend towards longer, softer poles?

Unread postby vaultman18 » Tue Jun 05, 2012 12:36 am

volunteer wrote:It appears that NCAA vaulters ( both Male and Female) are being coached to use long, light poles with lower hand grip. We have seen so Many videos of the latest NCAA jumpers that show so many vaulters with a grip 1foot or more below the pole sticker and the poles appear pretty soft. Are coaches creating safety issues by having these kids jump on poles way below their weight? some results of this technique are possitive, but is it safe ?


Do you know the poles are rated below the vaulters body weight? I have had plenty of vaulters jump on poles well above their body weight and griping a foot down. How can you tell what the poles are rated just from a video? Or do you have other information other than videos? Just asking.

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Re: Trend towards longer, softer poles?

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:40 am

volunteer wrote:It appears that NCAA vaulters ( both Male and Female) are being coached to use long, light poles with lower hand grip. We have seen so Many videos of the latest NCAA jumpers that show so many vaulters with a grip 1foot or more below the pole sticker and the poles appear pretty soft. Are coaches creating safety issues by having these kids jump on poles way below their weight? some results of this technique are possitive, but is it safe ?


If they are consistently landing in a safe place on the pit, then there is not a safety issue.

The weight rating rule really has little effect on safety. A pole under your weight could still be too big and a pole over your weight could be way too small, it depends greatly on the length of the pole and your skills and ability level. The weight ratings give coaches with no clue a ballpark as to what size pole their athlete might need, but those coaches still get the length wrong most of the time.

As far as the poles appearing soft, most college vaulters (not decathletes) are on poles rated above their weight. They probably just look soft because the athletes are more advanced than your typical HS vaulter.

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Re: Trend towards longer, softer poles?

Unread postby dj » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:40 am

Good morning,

I haven't been to a lot of meets this season but what I saw at the men's regional in Jacksonville was almost all vaulters were using a pole at least one flex too STIFF, and still going up poles on the last few vaults.

They are going up poles that are stiff and "holding them off" so the vaulter has to force bend, stay down longer to make the pit (stay down and force too long and you "blow through) they bend more/"shorten the radius".. bend even more.. think this pole is to small… move up until they can no longer make the pit and vault..

I see this vicious cycle, and have seen it now for at least 20 years at EVERY meet.

Duplantis, Doug Fraley and I had this conversation at the regions… vaulters don't know how to vaulter on a pole that is the correct size.. and don't know how to adjust if they don't have the "next" pole.

It's very likely having "to many" poles has created this "force bend-under takeoff" technique we have today and continue to complain about and discus. We had better, overall, technique when the pole selection was limited. Take a look at the video Danny Wilkerson just posted on facebook. Looks like to me those poles on all the best jumps had very similar bend characteristics…


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Re: Trend towards longer, softer poles?

Unread postby volunteer » Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:30 am

thanks for all the replies. I will take a look at Danny Wilkerson video. I have been involved with track and field for years, but pole vault 8 years. I have kept close track of 30-40 successful hogh school vaulters as the progress through HS, USATF JO and College, and noticed this trend specifically with these vaulters that i personally know. As they progress , they go from poles that are shorter then their bar height for PR jumps to Poles that will hit bar at PR height, go from high grip on stiff pole to low grip on soft pole, etc. I then have taken the time to look at vaulters i do not know and see similar patterns from their HS, USATF days to college. my concern is simply pole breakage. As pointed out by most of you, the bend on these longer poles seems "soft" yet I have not seem many instances of breakage, and have seen many vaulters PR fairly regularly with this process. As a coach at the HS level , it just prompts question as to the processes we are coaching vs what they will see at the next level.

Having many vaulters who have worked with Tim Mack, Lawrence Johnson, Ealr Bell and more, we don't see this being taught . Maybe it is simply the HS rules that do not permit it.

So thanks for assisting in clearing the confusion on my part. I hope to stick with high grip on correct pole!

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Re: Trend towards longer, softer poles?

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:36 am

If they're landing safely and not regularly breaking poles, it's not a problem...


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