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I was at our district meet a couple weeks ago. During the guys warm up, I took one of my vaulters to the other end of the runway where there was only a box to do some push plants as part of our warm up. We do these all the time and have never had any issues at any meet.

The official comes over to and tells us to stop, which leads to this exchange:

Official: Stop, you can't do that.
Me: Why not?
Official: You're not allowed to give taps.
Me: I'm not tapping him, we're doing a drill.
Official: You can't push him during a vault.
Me: I'm not pushing him, I'm spotting him, and he's not doing a vault. Its a drill.
Official: You're not allowed to touch the vaulter during warm ups.
Me: Whatever, we're done anyway.

So who's right? I don't really care if I'm wrong, I just want to know for the future.

That's not a tap and EVERY official in America should know that.

if they don't know thats not a tap then they shouldn't be involved with the sport.....our officials should all be ex-vaulters..it would make things a lot easier..mainly because vaulters are cooler than other human beings!

That's great. Just like when someone tells me I can't put up a bar in warm ups (not a run through during the meet).

Glory wrote:if they don't know thats not a tap then they shouldn't be involved with the sport.....our officials should all be ex-vaulters..it would make things a lot easier..mainly because vaulters are cooler than other human beings!

It would be great if more former vaulters became officials.

Glory wrote:..mainly because vaulters are cooler than other human beings!

that explains so much

ashcraftpv wrote:Official: You're not allowed to touch the vaulter during warm ups.

Walk up to your vaulter's biggest competitor and give him a handshake, then insist that the official DQ the vaulter because you touched him during warm-ups. This should get the point across that that particular official is borderline retarded.

I'm not exactly sure who the official is, but I believe he and his wife officiate at some large meets, as he was sporting what looked to be a Texas Relays warmup suit on that day.

He officiates this meet every year and I've bumped heads with him a couple of times about interpretations of the rules in years past. ..shrug..

Not sure about high school but the general implementation of the rule in college includes not allowing lift drills. I think really it is a combination of the no tapping rule and the rule (recommendation?) that created the coach's observation area. Both of these rules were added at about the same time. I think it reflects a general philosophy that the coach should be close enough to the event to communicate with the athlete but should not be physically involved on the runway during warm-up. Again, I am not sure about high school, but I haven't seen a lift drill done during warm-ups in college since the new rules were put in place.