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I have a problem with some of my vaulters landing on their feet.

I would like everyone to post their horror stories about injuries they have witnessed/experienced from vaulters landing on their feet in the pit. Get into detail. I want to have some good ones to print out and make my kids read.

Two world class careers ended because of landing on their feet:

1. Dave Volz landed on a crossbar that was under the top pad during practice and broke his foot. He did come back years later to make the OG team.

2. Maksim Tarasov broke his foot (and tore his Achilles I think) when he landed on his feet during a meet.

Coached a girl years ago that landed on her feet and tore her ACL. She jumped for one more year but about 2 feet lower.

On the mediocre vaulter level, I broke my ankle running through when my spikes snagged the top pad but my body kept going. Never. Run. Through.

i blew though a pole and landed on my feet on the back of the pit and went face first off the end and landed on my chin and it swelled up and got a bruise but that is all i have ever seen, if i landed on my back i probably wouldnt have falen off the back i felt really dumb doing that in font of people

I can't tell you how many times I should have twisted my ankle on the pit, but lucky for me my ankles are really strong yet really loose at the same time. Thank you skateboarding!

One of my friends landed on his feet broke his ankle and ended his vaulting career in his junior year...

[quote="achtungpv"]Two world class careers ended because of landing on their feet:

1. Dave Volz landed on a crossbar that was under the top pad during practice and broke his foot. He did come back years later to make the OG team.

Dave broke his ankle(s) by jumping from the rafters onto the mat and missing half way. His upper body made it to the mat but lower body wasnt too lucky. JCOOV......correct me if im wrong.

multicard18 wrote:Dave broke his ankle(s) by jumping from the rafters onto the mat and missing half way. His upper body made it to the mat but lower body wasnt too lucky. JCOOV......correct me if im wrong.

Maybe that injury didn't end his career?

I remember reading in T&F News when he made his comeback in '92 that he'd broke it training in Zurich when he landed feet first on a crossbar stored under the top pad. I could be hallucinating. probably not the first time.

After training for some time in arkansas while living in NY, i had 1 final practice before going back up to NY for the Empire State Games. I got stood up on a vault, and started drifting toward the standard. So as soon as i was over any part of the mat (the right side) i let go. My right spike got caught on the slope of the front bun, but i still had my speed coming down from 14 or so feet, and my toes came up and to the right of where they should be, twisting my ankle bad enough to keep me sitting in the pit holding back emotion from my new coach!!! LOL but when i got up and tried to step on it, i got a shot of pain like almost nothing ive ever had, and i ended up with 3 ligament strains in one foot. I took 10 days off before the Empire State Games where i could only jump 13'6. P.S. my right foot is my take off foot.....

NOT FUN!! Problem is, i had to learn for myself. Landing on your side or back is more fun anyway, just do that!!

I have tore my ankle up twice landing on my feet. The first time was in college. I had to play a basketball game the following night and I couldn't tell the b-ball coach because I wasn't supposed to be PVing. The second time I was showing some kids a drill on a pit I had never jumped in and it was bad I was out for a couple of months. Don't do it!

Back in Florida at the Bob Hayse inv. a girl (jumping like 8 or 9 feet) landed on her feet and ended up getting wip-lash and was pulled out of the meet in a stretcher.

Didn't the russian girl who broke her leg at the Olympics in '04 land on her feet?

Bill Payne tore his ankle up so bad his sophmore year landing on his feet. That we had to tape it up for the next two years. I wouldn't be surprised if it's still swollen!