Snowstorm Pole
Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 7:45 pm
Here's a suggestion. There will be days when the weather is terrible (headwind, rain, snow - hey I'm in New England). For days like that, it's smart for a high school vaulter to have what I call your "Snowstorm Pole." Your Snowstorm Pole is a pole that you can vault on using 4 or 5 lefts, using a handgrip 6" to a foot below your normal, full-run pole. In other words, if you had to, you could jump on it safetly in a snowstorm. It's a "pole of last resort;" the ultimate backup pole.
For a high school vaulter, the real challenge is to make sure that the pole is still "legal" under the NFHS weight-rule. The best way to do that will probably be to find a pole that's about a foot shorter than your normal, full-run pole but, probably it'll have about the same weight-rating. For example, if you ordinarily use a 13-140, your short run pole may be a 12-140 or 12-145. Experiment in practice until you can identify your "Snowstorm Pole."
If you always carry your Snowstorm Pole in the bag, you'll always know that you are prepared for the worst case scenario. While others are desperately trying to negotiate the bad weather or wind using their regular poles (and probably landing in the box or worse), you can use your Snowstorm Pole to vault effectively and safetly, using a shorter run and a lower handgrip. You'll probably jump lower than usual...yes. But you'll make decent heights, and you won't have the stress that you'd otherwise have.
You can also resort to the Snowstorm Pole even when the weather is fine if you are just having a terrible day. Sometimes we can tell from our warm ups that our run is way off, or that we're in some sort of weird funk. When that happens, oftentimes you can use the SP using 4-5 lefts and salvage something.
I hope that this "tip" can be useful for you at some point in your career.
For a high school vaulter, the real challenge is to make sure that the pole is still "legal" under the NFHS weight-rule. The best way to do that will probably be to find a pole that's about a foot shorter than your normal, full-run pole but, probably it'll have about the same weight-rating. For example, if you ordinarily use a 13-140, your short run pole may be a 12-140 or 12-145. Experiment in practice until you can identify your "Snowstorm Pole."
If you always carry your Snowstorm Pole in the bag, you'll always know that you are prepared for the worst case scenario. While others are desperately trying to negotiate the bad weather or wind using their regular poles (and probably landing in the box or worse), you can use your Snowstorm Pole to vault effectively and safetly, using a shorter run and a lower handgrip. You'll probably jump lower than usual...yes. But you'll make decent heights, and you won't have the stress that you'd otherwise have.
You can also resort to the Snowstorm Pole even when the weather is fine if you are just having a terrible day. Sometimes we can tell from our warm ups that our run is way off, or that we're in some sort of weird funk. When that happens, oftentimes you can use the SP using 4-5 lefts and salvage something.
I hope that this "tip" can be useful for you at some point in your career.
iv had a "snowstorm pole" with me every meet here, (right now probably a 14' 170) . in michigan thats part of your basic training when learning to vault, considering you have to jump on the snowstorm pole about 9 out of every 10 meets here during the spring 
