PoleVaultPower.com

Two years ago, I had made a post on the Hovepen Sports Website, making inquiry as to why the top ranked vaulter in the Kansas City area had been disqualified at the Kansas State Track meet. There several “lessons to be learnedâ€Â

Vaultfan, alot of times athletes never see a real track official during the season. Most of the time atletes work with people that may not know the rules or do not care to enforce the rules. So by the time they get to a meet where they have an official, both the athlete and coach maybe surprised to find out what the rules really are! Also, do not be surprised that coaches rarely ever read a rulebook. That goes for both USATF age group and high school coaches!

I know that when I officiate a vault, I try to explain the rules before a competition. This avoids the problem of disqualifying an athlete during a competition. On occasion, I have had to explain a rule to an athlete during the competition so that they get clued in on what is really happening! This might even include the situation where a kid has a cell phone or a coach/parent is video taping the competition!

Heaven forbid that an athlete would try and confer with his/her coach during a competition! (how assinine) especially at a state meet, where trying to find or talk to a coach is sometimes impossible because of facilities and seating logistics. SOMETHING might need to be looked at and changed here with this rule huh?

I love rules and I love to follow rules. But you know what I hate. I hate it when officials try to STRICTLY enforce moronic rules without a warning!
and when other people say that certain things like that are the coaches fault especially when they themselves have never coached.

Natdog, better be careful, very few officials have ever coached.

BTW, I forgot one rule I would like to see added to high school, NCAA and USATF rulebooks. It would allow for disqualiying a coach from a meet for bad coaching! I think you have seen it a number of times!

the only problem with this rule is, at who's discretion is it at that determines what coaching is "bad". Many people have different opinions on how to vault. Some opinions are dangerous, but sometimes dangerous is what wins meats. It's kinda scary. You see a kid pull out a huge 5 meter pole and all you can say is, He's gonna kill himself. But sometimes its the kid with the five meter pole who ends up blowing everyone else away, even though no one thinks he should be vaulting on that size of pole.

I personally think there are too many rules in the book, most of them pointless and not in the best interest of the athlete.

Take for example the 2 layers of tape rule? What does that solve? And how about in NCAA that you have to tape bottom up instead of top down? If you're going to allow people to spray adhesives, use sticky tape, chalk or any other resin on their hands, who cares if theres a few knurls in the tape?

I have a few rules suggestions of my own - make the standard movement from 50-80cm instead of 0-80, so we can keep those things back and have people landing safely in the pit. Here's another one I put together awhile back to promote safer grip heights and controlled landings:

The 3 Strikes Rule:

Every part of the vaulters body, including limbs, must land "in-bounds" on the landing surface. In bounds is defined as all areas within 24 inches of the back edge, the sides, and behind the plane of the box.

If a competitor lands within 1 foot of the perimeter of any side of the pit, they receive a verbal warning. This includes during warmups and during the course of the meet. A check will be placed alongside their name on the formchart.

If the same vaulter lands out of bounds a second time, they will be charged with an attempt at the height they are attempting. If the vault was unsuccessful, they are charged with both the unsuccessful vault and the penalty attempt. If it occurs during warmups, the vaulter will be charged with an attempt at their opening height and thus receive 2 attempts at that height. An additional check will be placed alongside their name on the formchart.

If the vaulter lands out of bounds a third time, they will be disqualified from the competition, and will not be credited with any heights cleared prior to the disqualification. An third check will be placed alongside their name on the formchart.

Prior to the start of competition, the "in-bounds" area of the landing surface must be marked with chalk, tape, or any suitable visual marking.

I think this rule would better protect our vaulters than increasing the size of the pit or requiring helmets, which are both good ideas, but unnecessary if this rule were in place.

they had come up with something similar to that not long ago...they were going to literally have a target marked on the top mat, if you landed outside of the target three times you were out of the competition.....just thoguht i'd throw that out there....i'ts not a bad idea though...safer vaulters make a safer sport....not that safer equipment wont help, but there is too much emphasis being put on that....vaulting wont get safer until the people running the event, coaching it, and participating in it become safer

Exactly, it's the vaulters, not the equipment. I hate how everyone is so worried about pole vaulting, pretty soon they'll be making rules that you can't eat because you might choke on your sandwich. I think some of the rules are pretty stupid, like the landing one, and the not being allowed to talk to your coach sometimes, it's not like you can cheat by talking to them....I dont' get it.

yeah, does anyone know how that no talking to coach rule even came about? like what are they going to do to help you cheat just by talking to them? just curious, i mean i know most rules are there because something has happened, just wondered why that one came into play

Regarding the coach talking to his athlete on a cell phone, I know most of the high school meets I've been to have banned people from using 2-way radios. This is usually because the meet management uses these same radios and it can interfere with the meet. I know one year at the biggest invite in WA the meet management was talking to the officials over radios asking what kind of pizza they wanted and the coaches from a school close to mine had their radios on and decided they would order themselves some free pizza. So, I guess a rule like this could result from abuse of priviliges.