PoleVaultPower.com

Please check this out for my very rough estimate of how many high schoolers pole vaulted last year: http://polevaultpower.com/docs/2008Pole ... pation.pdf

I think the numbers are a bit high, at least for GA. The ga milesplit site does a pretty good job of cataloging results from meets the last two years and the number of kids in their database in the PV are about 1/2 your extrapolations. Yes, they do have less coverage in the rural areas, but 80% of Ga HS kids are in the Atlanta Metro area or one of the smaller regional metro areas (and the small rural schools are far less likely to participate in the event). I'd guess that a reasonable correction for an undercount would be to increase the numbers by about 33%. (which means I'd guestimate that GA participation is about 1/3 less than your estimate). Still, if Ga is representative of the rest of the nation and my estimates are used to discount yours, the result is still over 50,000 competitors, more than double the NCCSI estimate.

BTW, as a side note: I'll point out that UTAH does not have separate girls PV event. Apparently girls can compete in the boys event at a meet, but consequently the girls participation in that state is almost certainly below the national average. (Isn't there any lawyer in Utah that wants to file a slam dunk winning case?)

Divalent wrote:I think the numbers are a bit high, at least for GA. The ga milesplit site does a pretty good job of cataloging results from meets the last two years and the number of kids in their database in the PV are about 1/2 your extrapolations. Yes, they do have less coverage in the rural areas, but 80% of Ga HS kids are in the Atlanta Metro area or one of the smaller regional metro areas (and the small rural schools are far less likely to participate in the event). I'd guess that a reasonable correction for an undercount would be to increase the numbers by about 33%. (which means I'd guestimate that GA participation is about 1/3 less than your estimate). Still, if Ga is representative of the rest of the nation and my estimates are used to discount yours, the result is still over 50,000 competitors, more than double the NCCSI estimate.

BTW, as a side note: I'll point out that UTAH does not have separate girls PV event. Apparently girls can compete in the boys event at a meet, but consequently the girls participation in that state is almost certainly below the national average. (Isn't there any lawyer in Utah that wants to file a slam dunk winning case?)

Utah is almost certainly below the national average because they only have PV in a few of the classifications. I looked at the numbers, and though they are probably high for Utah, it was still a small number compared to the nationwide numbers, and I KNOW my numbers are low for WA.

As for GA, usually Milesplit sites only record marks above a certain threshold as opposed to recording EVERY mark. The largest numbers of participants are grouped at the bottom, so participation in your state may be higher than you think.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:As for GA, usually Milesplit sites only record marks above a certain threshold as opposed to recording EVERY mark. The largest numbers of participants are grouped at the bottom, so participation in your state may be higher than you think.

In the past this was true, but for the last two years, the Ga milesplit site (GATFXC) has captured performances of all athletes in all events in every meet that gets submitted. (here's a link to the bottom of the boys rankings: http://ga.milesplit.us/rankings/2009/outdoor/hs/m/pv/10 One kid has a 5' pr. Here's the girls bottom of the list: http://ga.milesplit.us/rankings/2009/outdoor/hs/f/pv/7)

The bulk of the data comes from quads to mega invites, but every school participates in a Region meet prior to state (8 regions per each of 5 classifications), so they do eventually collect at least some data from every school. (Schools can only enter two athletes per event in the region meet, so unless they did a separate region JV meet, there is probably some participating kids overlooked). In fact, upon further reflection, I suspect maybe I might have overestimated the GA undercount (unless you want to count those that try it at the begining of the season and never clear a bar in any meet before they quit it).

As a parent of a vaulter, I am concerned with safety, and it really doesn't matter what is used in the denominator: I want to eliminate all unnecessary risk, and the focus should be on the numerator.

(BTW, lots of good info on the forums. Thanks for running it)

I live in New York and it seems like at the meets theres a decent group of people, but very few take it seriously.. its almost a little heartbreaking.=/ I know I live in a quite Rural area,so I can't speak for the entire state, but It kinda sucks when A) i have no formal coach, B) theres no extreme competition, and C) when my sucky sprinting team laughs at the pole vaulters who could kick their butts. Theres a serious diregaurd for Vaulters in my area.