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Had a scarry moment at practice on Sat. there was a swirrling wind, which at the time became a head wind and one of my vaulters reached a little for his take off and didn't quite have the pole movement he usually gets. He swung up and got his feet tangled in the cross bar and came down head first onto the mat. about 4' behind the box. He bounced right up and was fine. I thought I would share this for any HS vaulters that vault with thier standards shallow. His standard were at 33". I still shutter to think what could have happened with a shallow standard placement

i hear ya. i feel scared when the standards are anything closer than 60. i have been vaulting at 75-80 mostly, but am now getting way upside down and need to bring them to 62 or if i am going fast 68 or possibly 72. it is scary when the standards always get brought in close. somethign i do in practice is always bring the standards, or push rather, all the way to 75-80 in practice. it is safer and makes them get faster.

Robert,
Just were did you have have the standards? You're post indicates 33" (did you really mean 33 inches or 33 cm)?
Since this is a High School section, 33 inches is too far back and 33 cm is too close. They shouldn't be jumping at these settings.

At the NB indoor nationals this past year, I must have seen four maybe five jumpers get their ankles caught on the crossbar because they came up too short. It was quite scary to see them falling headfirst into the mats on the front side of the standards. In these cases their standards were at the 40cm mark.
They tried to make a bad vault into something and only made it worse.

Robert schmitt wrote:Had a scarry moment at practice on Sat. there was a swirrling wind, which at the time became a head wind and one of my vaulters reached a little for his take off and didn't quite have the pole movement he usually gets. He swung up and got his feet tangled in the cross bar and came down head first onto the mat. about 4' behind the box. He bounced right up and was fine. I thought I would share this for any HS vaulters that vault with thier standards shallow. His standard were at 33". I still shutter to think what could have happened with a shallow standard placement

It scares me too when vaulters have their standards to shallow. I try to keep our vaulters deep and safe. Even the new 15.5" HS rule is to close for that very reason. I heard a HS girl at a meet say "How will anyone every clear a bar if they can't have their standards at 12"?" HEL-LO... Just lowering your grip a few fingers will get you in better, deeper, safer Not only will you land deeper, you will have a better arc over the bar and make more bars.

at one of my meets this year, this kid i was vaulting against was setting his standards at 15in!!! I felt kinda weird as my standards were way back at 27

my highest jump from my freshman year of college came with the standards on 33cm. which was legal at the time and is about 13 inches for those of you that dont know metric. my next jump was at a height i had never attempted before and i got hung up on the crossbar which caused me to fall headfirst toward the box, i did turn over a bot and catch the area around the box, and perhaps a bit of the front slant, but this was the year before those yellow "collars" were required so, i bumped my head a little on the floor. it was scary but i jumped the next week as i only had a few bruises. the next year they changed the standard rule to 45 cm(about 18inches) as a minimum for college and it forced me to jump safer i guess. in high school i often vaulted with standards at 12" and probably would have brought them in closer if i had been allowed. man, was i clueless about some things in high school.
of course, i do still often clear heights without my pole getting to vertical. something i need to work on.
practicing with standards burried seems to help some

Vaultref wrote:Robert,
Just were did you have have the standards? You're post indicates 33" (did you really mean 33 inches or 33 cm)?
Since this is a High School section, 33 inches is too far back and 33 cm is too close. They shouldn't be jumping at these settings.

Settings all the way back in practice are safe and encourage the right type of jump. Practice is where more irregularities occur in the vault. A vaulter might be trying to change step grip pole size and technique all in a short amount of time, so things are more likely to go wrong. The standards HS track defines as safe seem to be slightly arbitrary and change over the years. Within reason the farther back the better.’

Vaultref wrote:Robert,
Just were did you have have the standards? You're post indicates 33" (did you really mean 33 inches or 33 cm)?
Since this is a High School section, 33 inches is too far back and 33 cm is too close. They shouldn't be jumping at these settings.

The HS rule is 80cm max which is about 31.5". I am not speaking for Robert, but maybe in practice they just fudge a little on that depth.

If my standards went to 100, I'd keep them there in practice. Not only does it teach you to HAVE to move the pole, you have to finish your swing and be gripping safely on the right pole.

lonestar wrote:If my standards went to 100, I'd keep them there in practice. Not only does it teach you to HAVE to move the pole, you have to finish your swing and be gripping safely on the right pole.

100% agree

the only negative about having your standards at 80+cm is that you learn to be comfortable only when your pole releases past verticle. when this happens, some of the energy that could be used to shoot you higher in the air is being used to push you deeper into the pit.

SKOT wrote:the only negative about having your standards at 80+cm is that you learn to be comfortable only when your pole releases past verticle. when this happens, some of the energy that could be used to shoot you higher in the air is being used to push you deeper into the pit.

good point but the pole needs to be slightly past vertical for a proper release. But i guess with the standards at 40 thats a little more than slightly. Its jumping with the standards at 20 or less routinley that can lead to trouble. maybe 10% of the time you should practice jumping with competition standard settings.