Polevault Throughout Europe?

[gibbdallas]

Hello! My name is Gibb, a 19 year old polevaulter from Lynden, Washington USA. The purpose of this topic is to try and find places throughout Europe where a person can drop in, borrow some poles, get a practice in, and experience international polevault culture.

In 5 days I will be on a plane to Frankfurt Germany then I plan to travel to... eh.. all of Europe. I figured that somewhere between the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum or the Brandenburg Gate and Big Ben there would be a runway and a club/coach/organization holding practices. If there is such a runway, or many runways, do you think the guy running them would mind having an extra polevaulter at practice? assuming there's a 14-ish foot 180-ish lbs pole lying around... (not sure about the metric system :D )

The only thing that saddens me about going to Europe is that I'm leaving behind my polevault friends and practices at home.

[dj]

good morning,

you will find clubs and training facilities everywhere you go... i didn't train my athletes in Frankfurt so don't have a "connection" there. but go to the IAAF site. Google translate and get a list with maps from Google earth.

we trained in Mannheim-just south of Frankfurt, Bocham-northeast nearer to Belgium-Spandau near Berlin, Leverkusen (vault hub) and a few others.

there is a 6 lane track and club next door to the Eiffel Tower, i think it's still there.. check Google earth,

have fun..

dj

[gibbdallas]

I have had trouble searching the internet for places to vault.

I feel as though this may be one of those things where I have to ask around wherever I am, I'll just have to say, "Excusé moi, où est le saut à la perche?" to some athletic looking French person. Perhaps after 20 awkward conversations with my less than excellent french vocabulary I could find a place. But hey, traveling is all about the experience right? lol

Maybe visitor centers would have some kind of information on them... If anyone has any hints or tips I'd appreciate anything you've got.

[canag]

Hi Gibb,
for France, there is a map of all major PV training teams with contact infos:
http://www.perchefrance.com/cartoperche ... /home.html

If you're around at that time, there is U23 french national championship 14-15th of July in Reims (where they make Champagne) and junior ones 20-22nd of July in Lens, watching one of them might be a good "french pole vault culture" experience !

Have a good trip !

[gibbdallas]

Thank you very much Canag, your link had a lot of very helpful information.

I believe I have got France pretty well figured out now thanks to all of your help.

I've got a lot of options now, and it will all depend on the route I decide to take when I start my trip. (I have yet to plan anything, with less than 3 days left before I leave, but I like to wing it and see how things go, it should work out)

If anyone has any helpful links like the one Canag posted on polevaulting in the UK it would help me out as well. I suppose local colleges would be the places to start.

[figgiesblazin]

I jump in Zurich, Switzerland. When I was first looking for vault clubs, I had a hard time because I was searching for just that! A pole vault club, just like you would do in the US. However, in Switzerland at least, you don't really get pole vault clubs. You have full athletics clubs, and the vault is just one of the events they offer. I don't know how it is in other countries, but I think it's similar throughout Europe.

You best bet is to look up athletics clubs, find the contact info of the vault coach (or someone else that could point you to them), and ask if it would be okay if you jumped with them a few times. My club has annual fees, but it's possible that the coach would still let you jump with them a few times. I don't know exactly. But when in doubt, ask!

Also, in response to the metric system comment, poles like spirits are actually already metric lengths. If you jump on a 14' spirit, it's actually a 4.30. But normally I find that the poles have the weights written on them in the English measure (though we refer to them by the kg).