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There is a discussion over on the officials page of the USATF web site where an official is proposing or trying to drum up support to eliminate the 5-alive procedure from the vertical jumps.

Personally, it shouldn't be an officials decision eliminate this. Most officials don't like 5-alive because they can't do it correctly, they become confused and screw up the sequence of jumpers. That should not be a factor in the discussion to eliminate it.

Assuming the 5-alive is properly run, what do you as jumpers and/or coaches think about this? Should it be eliminated from USATF, NFHS and NCAA rule books as a procedure to use in the vertical jumps?

Keep in mind, that the field of competitors in the VJumps can be very large at the lower heights.

Well, lets here from the ones where this matters the most.

Five alive does work if done correctly. The only problem is using it with 9 athletes. I think that the rule should read 10 or more athletes. It is confusing to someone who doesn't know the purpose of the progression, event officials should see the purpose as an advangtage to the athletes.

As a coach and a vaulter, I like it. Keeps you warm and fresh while you're competing, and doesn't allow too much time for overthinking and/or losing focus. I've even seen some meets do 3-alive, which also worked well.

As an official, it may be a little more difficult to keep track of, but we're supposed to be acting in the best interests of the athletes, so it's worth the extra attention-to-detail it requires.

I had one offical at reno that didn't know how to do the five alive, so I was sitting on my rear for about 20 mins just waiting for my next turn in the five. He kept adding someone in after another one would clear the height, instead of including someone after the five go round. I think that the 5-alive should not be eliminated, but officals should be taught how to go about it properly.

5 alive is definitely worth it. I've been in competitions with 20+ vaulters, and if you have to sit around for 20 minutes between jumps, your muscles are gonna stiffen up, especially in the colder part of the season. And as lonestar said, 5-alive helps keep you concentrated between vaults. I believe I've also been in a couple meets where they ran 3-alive too.

I think it is definitely best for the vaulters to do 5-alive when there is a large number of vaulters (and I agree, 10 would be a good base number). I've run pv at a meet before (for becca :-) ), and did it 5-alive with no problem. I really don't think it takes that much more effort.

I have never liked 5-alive, but that is only because i have never been to a meet where it is ran properly. I think ur right in sayin officals need to be trained properly in it. However, just because there are more than 10 people dosn't mean u there are goin to be 10 ppl when u start jumpin, last year everyone would be out before i would start jumpin. So it all really depends on the quality and quantity of vaulters

I've often officiated at local high school meets where there are 30 or more vaulters most can't jump very high. Without utilizing 5-alive it can take a VERY LONG time to go through each height. Especially when most of the kids miss on their first two jumps. Even at the collegiate level it is truely helpful in large fields of competitors. At least it minimizes the wait time between jumps.

like everyone else says, 5 alive is great if done right. I use it when there are more than 10 kids jumping at a height. Another thing I do to speed up the comp a little is to let kids take their 2nd attempt immediately after their first miss so you more than likely won't have to move the standards again.

ashcraftpv wrote:like everyone else says, 5 alive is great if done right. I use it when there are more than 10 kids jumping at a height. Another thing I do to speed up the comp a little is to let kids take their 2nd attempt immediately after their first miss so you more than likely won't have to move the standards again.

ok, you are correct about the >10 kids thing, but 5-alive does not speed up a meet. as long as vaulters know that they are coming up in the order and are ready when you call their name, it will take just as long for you to go through the order. also, that whole 2nd attempt right after a first miss is sure to slow down a competition because they are more likely to use a bigger chunk of the time allotted to them on the runway since they just finished a vault, plus if it was a miss, that means that perhaps the standards do need to be changed, but time to move the standards can be almost nothing if people moving them are efficient.

to speed up a competition the best way is really to make sure that you know where an athlete wants his standards in advance of the jump, make sure that athletes will be ready when their name is called, and strictly enforce the time restraints on the runway, oh, and have someone efficient putting up the bar(probably the biggest determinant) and moving standards.

A coach in our area (who is perfectly capable of running 5 alive) told all 20 competitors before the meet, just to get on the run way when your ready to go, and tell him who you are after you jump. then he said when we were down to the last 5-6 vaulters he would have a specific order of vaulting. This offered some great benifits because it let competitors jump back on the runway after a miss, or wait and prepare for their next attempt after 5-8 vaulters have gone.

The meet went surprisingly fast and let each vaulter go at their own pace

Of course this sort of thing isnt fit for nvitational competitions, but its a great fast way to run a tri meet

i like the 5-alive. it speeds up meets and reduces the time each vaulter has to wait between vaults.

VaultBrad wrote:i like the 5-alive. it speeds up meets and reduces the time each vaulter has to wait between vaults.

Unless your in a very large meet, then you might wait more then an hour between jumps only to have to do all jumps at a height(if you miss) within 5 minutes.

I think that mabye the vaulters should be able to take a vote at the start of a meet it the feild is larger the 10