PoleVaultPower.com

Please participate in the USATF Pole Vault Survey. We are at 272 participants already in the last couple weeks! Find link for online survey for Pole Vault here and the message below from Brian Yokoyama: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DYXXK2K
Please forward to any and all vaulters and coaches on your lists, encourage them to pass it on, and post on any PV sites. The goal is to collect several hundred survey responses for analysis by the end of March. "I encourage you to take the USA Pole Vault Survey. By taking the survey,you can help better serve the needs of pole vault coaches and athletes in the United States.Like the census, the results and analysis from the USA Pole Vault Survey will give us vital information to plan future programs and development goals for USATF Pole Vault High Performance / Development Programs."Brian Yokoyama USATF High Performance/Development Men's and Women's National Chairperson

Thanks,

Richie Mercado

Please take a few minutes to take the survey...

With all due respect, the person that said this survey would take only 15 minutes (if you didn't expand your answers with text) would qualify for a job with the government/IRS estimating time to complete forms. I may be an engineer and nit-picky for details, but this is extreme. When I get sucked in to spending this much time I get pissed.

<done venting>

- master

Sorry it took you longer. I did not take into account comment time, and since I had gone through it dozens and dozens of times, when I timed it I probably sped through. Thank you for enduring it, though. The responses of everyone will be valuable. 360 have responded so far, and I appreciate you doing it and sorry you got pissed at the end. I have probably put in a couple hundred hours over the past year preparing, writing, editing, launching, and sending it out, so I can appreciate the time issue. I will change the front page and reflect longer time. How long did it take you?

Richie Mercado

I agree with Master. And because of that, I gotta say not all my answers were thought though as well as I would have liked. More like 40 minutes w/o comments. The questions are not exactly black and white. I'd have to say it's way too long to get good thoughtful answers from most people taking the survey. I like what you are trying to do, it's just too much at one time. I assume you would not want a high school athlete to take this survey since it's very technical. I wouldn't even expect a top-level high school vaulter to understand alot of what's in it.

master wrote:With all due respect, the person that said this survey would take only 15 minutes (if you didn't expand your answers with text) would qualify for a job with the government/IRS estimating time to complete forms. I may be an engineer and nit-picky for details, but this is extreme. When I get sucked in to spending this much time I get pissed.

<done venting>

- master

I actually gave up and quit; and Richie is a friend. It was exhausting trying to keep the matrix straight.

I know - it is probably way too long and as much as I edited there is a lot there to handle. Just do what you can and I can get some responses that are useful. Thanks for trying and sorry for the length. Of the 362 that have started, most questions have at least 175+ answers right now, even those questions near the end.

Richie

Richie Mercado wrote:Sorry it took you longer. I did not take into account comment time, and since I had gone through it dozens and dozens of times, when I timed it I probably sped through. Thank you for enduring it, though. The responses of everyone will be valuable. 360 have responded so far, and I appreciate you doing it and sorry you got pissed at the end. I have probably put in a couple hundred hours over the past year preparing, writing, editing, launching, and sending it out, so I can appreciate the time issue. I will change the front page and reflect longer time. How long did it take you?

Richie Mercado

Hi Richie,

I can tell that a lot of thought and work has gone into preparing that survey. I appreciate your effort and am very hopeful it will result in some positive influence on our sport. Unfortunately I can't tell you the time it took me to do as much as I did. That's correct, I didn't finish it. I think the last time I saw a number it said I was 63% (or something like that) done. That's when I remembered reading that I might be able to exit and return to finish it another time. However, since I hadn't established an account or any identifying characteristic, I wasn't sure how that could happen. But I decided I to stop anyway. But since you did ask, I will estimate I spent at least 45 minutes to get as far as I did and that was without writing any comments.

Thanks for your work on this.

- master

EDIT: Now I remember, it did ask me for my name and address so that could allow me to return to finish the survey. My mistake.

Doc -you are just a trouble maker from way back!

altius wrote:Doc -you are just a trouble maker from way back!

That's me!

- master

It took me 45 min. and I wrote several comments. while several questions were not very clear cut and open to some interpitation or clarification by comment. I was impressed with the survey. I think that the questions have biased towards a swing non blocking techique free take off. What I mean by this is I think someone who coaches a blocking tuck and shoot type of jump or under takeoff may figure out that those answers are not what the developer of the survey thinks is the preferred technique and skew his answers to what he thinks you are looking for.