Pole Vault Helmets

[Joyful@64]

I am very concerned, my grand daughters high school has just made it mandatory for pole vaulters to wear helmets.
I've been doing some reading (Jan Johnson, Dr. Wilson Soohoo, Dr. Spencer Chang) and now I am even more concerned.
I don't understand how a high school can make it mandatory when it is still very controversal if helmets can cause more
damage then good. Is there anything I can do so my grand daughter can have a choice.

[rainbowgirl28]

You could try presenting the research to them, and tell them you would rather see the school focus on safe facilities and safe coaching.

If she must wear a helmet, make sure it is one that meets the ASTM standard for pole vault helmets. Gill Athletics sells these, I think a few other companies might as well.

[VTechVaulter]

i can tell you ive worn a helmet for 14 years now. ive had plenty of landings that were high on my shoulders in that range where people claim extra neck flexion would be detrimental, including back rolling all the way through things. On the other hand, ive hit my head on standards, crossbars, and even scary enough the runway one day (which broke the helmet). And ive never had any type of even minor head injury (at least thats what my doctors tell me ). So moral of my story... I wear my helmet all the time with zero fears of it causing me any additional injury and it has helped me many times.

ps. im not saying they should be mandator, but, dont be afraid of them.

[birdi_gurlie]

I see no problem with them. Now, I don't think they should be mandatory, but at the very least they can't hurt too much. Yes, they can make some injuries worse but I've also seen a few people get concussions. Not sure how much it would have helped in those cases but I've also seen so many people use them that I think if they were truly detrimental, we would know.