How high could Bubka have vaulted?

[VaultNinja]

Thanks for knowledge. I would post some of my own video, but I don't have any. If you have seen some, then I guess there is some out there, but I don't video my workouts or competitions. I have seen myself on other peoples videos a few times, but I never wind up with the footage myself. I guess that is another one of the disadvantages to training and travelling alone most of the year.

[izzystikchik]

Altius, i'm confused, are you saying that the USA is eventually going to ban pole vaulting all together due to accidents? Because I've never heard of it ever being an endangered sport...if anything...at least here in Northern Illinois its dangerously popular...I guess I don't even know where i'm going with this statement, but aren't other peeps from other countries just as vunerable as we are? I mean if death tolls from vaulting happened (heaven forbid) in like spain or something, don't you think that their government might ban it too? Or is the US, just big on liability?.......

[Mecham]

Well, im not sure about the situations with high schools, but lots and lots of junior highs have banned their pole vault. But i can understand why they did that. Alan is right about injuries. There is a lot going on and there have been a lot of fatal ones. But you need to look at a lot of things before you can just ban the sport like that. There are a few reasons that i could think of to cause injuries. Lack of sense in the vaulter. Lack of coaching (no offense to good coaches). Minimal pole selection. and their technique (which kind of relates to coaching.) So yeah...

[BigStick Club]

Altius, I agree with you. Many states and HS AD's are looking very seriously at the pole vault in a couple of ways.

1.) Accidents. My AD has let me know that if anything serious (Requiring hospitalisation) ever happens to me or one of my vaulters, it is a very real possibility that pole vault, such as it is here, will be yanked quickly. Many consider pv'ing to be a very dangerous sport, too dangerous for kids, jr high or high school. The problem is that it isn't. PVing is not an extreme sport.

2.) Money. Everyone knows it's expensive. The pits, the poles, the coach if you get one. However, some schools don't see a lot of return off of all that money. Why spend 15,000+ if only one or two kids a year are going to be benefitting?

Anywho, that's my bit.[/u][/i]

[izzystikchik]

so i guess that my next question becomes:

1. How come other countries don't have this problem or at least "supposedly" at our level

2. How do we fix it i guess?

[rainbowgirl28]

Altius, i'm confused, are you saying that the USA is eventually going to ban pole vaulting all together due to accidents? Because I've never heard of it ever being an endangered sport...if anything...at least here in Northern Illinois its dangerously popular...I guess I don't even know where i'm going with this statement, but aren't other peeps from other countries just as vunerable as we are? I mean if death tolls from vaulting happened (heaven forbid) in like spain or something, don't you think that their government might ban it too? Or is the US, just big on liability?.......

If we have many more catastrophic accidents, we would probably see many states start to ban the pole vault. That's why people like Jan have worked so hard to try and make the sport safer.

Other countries do not have nearly the participation rates we do. I believe in most other countries it is a club sport. As Alan has pointed out, not just anybody can coach it, they have to actually get training and such.

It's not like the US government would ban pole vaulting. You just have to look at the different governing bodies. USATF would never ban it, but the high school federation you never know, and if they banned it, we would lose most of our participation.

[izzystikchik]

thank you becca, i get it now

[PVPhD]

VaultNinja -

Thanks for knowledge. I would post some of my own video, but I don't have any. If you have seen some, then I guess there is some out there, but I don't video my workouts or competitions. I have seen myself on other peoples videos a few times, but I never wind up with the footage myself. I guess that is another one of the disadvantages to training and travelling alone most of the year.

I've finally dubbed and copied about 50 DVD's of this year's USATF Championship - just started sending them out. I'll send one directly to you rather than to Dave if you send me your address!

As far as the rest of this thread goes - I think USMC has summarized it best (hey - he's from Delaware and that's where I grew up)!

Anyway, here's my two cents - just wish I had time to contribute more:

Bubka's highest vault in competition was 6.15 m.
I think he was capable of vaulting at least 6.30 m in competition. If Petrov said he vaulted 6.40 m in practice, that is not unbelievable to me.
No one has come close to his record in more than a decade.
His technique was awesome - but not flawless.
His physical attributes and mental toughness made him a great pole vaulter (the greatest?!) - but he was not unflappable. Remember his NH in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992? His only Olympic medal (gold in Seoul, 1988) almost didn't happen (I think he missed once or twice at his opening height and hit the bar pretty hard on his winning jump).

So, Bubka is human - an extraordinary one, no doubt, but he was not superhuman. I think his record will eventually be broken by someone with similar physical ability, motivation, coaching, and opportunity that Bubka had. The recordbreaker will need to have some luck as well!

[Mecham]

So, Bubka is human

Really?! Shoot, i just lost 50 bucks.... lol j/k

[advath]

How high do you think he is over this bar?
The bar is at 6.11 meters or over 20 feet.

Hi Bubba.

[Bubba PV]

Hey Tim. Good point. As your photo so clearly shows, this is one of those parabolic type clearances where there's space all of the way around the bar. If you're going to have a little fun and speculate from a photo, this is a more accurate prototype than a hit it on the way up AND/OR down with big hip height. Don't you just love those types of jumps?! Thanks for the photo brutha! Bubba

[altius]

Part of the problem on this forum is that every now and then myths are presented as fact. In his otherwise good post PVPHD states that in Seoul Bubka hit the bar pretty hard on his winning jump. Well the video evidence provided by the official IAAF film is that he did not touch the bar on that jump, although he got pretty close on the way down! However that performance does again confirm his mental toughness because it was a third attempt at a new Olympic record of 5.90m/19'4" (in 1988 remember). If he had missed it he would have finished fourth. This story -along with what happened in Barcelona are detailed in BTB.

Again i return you to his record of six consecutive World titles. On the last one he stepped on the runway having to jump 6.01/19'8 1/2" to win -after Tarasov had jumped 5.96m to move into the lead. His clearance - mentioned above, was measured by sports scientists as a 6.40 jump but i realise that no matter what is said or written many are not going to accept that -they are more likely to believe that an alien space craft crashed at Roswell or that 'War of the worlds' is a true story.

However I would like to say that perhaps the most important statement in this whole forum was made by Master. it probably got missed in the rush to contribute, but he said that one of the biggest advantages modern vaulters have is that THEY CAN COPY HIS METHODS -IF THEY WANT TOO! That goes to the heart of what I - along with agapit - have been saying all along. Bubka not only showed it could be done -this is in itself important - but he and his coach have showed HOW it can be done. Why many folk continue to ignore their methods - which are demonstrably and biomechanically the most effective technique for pole vaulting - at pretty well every level of vaulting, is one of the mysteries of modern science!. In my view this method is also the safest way to jump- the key issue in this whole discussion as I see it.

However as ol' granny Launder used to say "A man convinced against his will, remains of the same opinion still" so take it - or leave it and, as an even older Don Hood says - 'be condemned to mediocrity'.