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There is one article is the British Track & Field Athletics magazine; 'Athletics Weekly' which was an interview with Bubka and he said that a couple of his 6.00m+ attempts were scientifically measured, and he mentioned that the lowest part of his body on some of those clearances were around 6.33-6.37m.

I've also remember reading that Sergey Bubka has had computerized marks of over 20'6 in the pole vault. Does anyone have info on this? How high could Bubka have gone??

check out the picture on the back of the book "From Beginner to Bubka" the bar is set at 19'7" and he is HUGE over it. i think they talk about how high of a bar some of his jumps would have cleared in there, but i dont remember.

From what I recall they mention a figure of 20'10"

You can't measure how high he was at lower bars because there is more to making that next height both mentally and physically. We know how high he vaulted and thats as high as he was meant to vault. He made plenty of money jumping the hieghts that he jumped and thats obviously what was more important to him.
And he has come up with some great ways to secure his record by shortening the pegs, taking away holds and rounding the top of the cross bar, all things that he did not have to deal with. Maybe Athletics Weekly should do an article about that.

In Australia the media have the reprehensible habit of 'chopping down tall poppies'. However I doubt you will ever see a more pathetic, mean spirited, small minded or poisonous statement than that.

This is a sad day for this great forum, which is clearly designed to promote all that is best in this great event. Dont bother to try to start a debate with me on this topic because I do not want anything more to do with you. I just hope other folk feel the same way I do.

altius wrote:In Australia the media have the reprehensible habit of 'chopping down tall poppies'. However I doubt you will ever see a more pathetic, mean spirited, small minded or poisonous statement than that.

This is a sad day for this great forum, which is clearly designed to promote all that is best in this great event. Dont bother to try to start a debate with me on this topic because I do not want anything more to do with you. I just hope other folk feel the same way I do.

I gracefully bow down. You are right and I am wrong, your the better man and I am the bad man, you should go to heaven and I should go to hell. Bubka never did anything like that, did he? I must have made it all up..... Weird..... I sincerely apologize to everyone I offended.

PS- I sugest you save the personal attacks for the PM's, try and stick with the subject next time. Everyone is entitled to there opinion and I know that I'm not the only one on the board who feels this way.

I usually don't get involved in these types of discussions but I do have some first hand knowledge from Bubka's coach, Vitaly Petrov, at his first visit to the PV Summit in Reno. I'm guessing 1992 but I could be off a year either way. He was asked this question, "How high can Bubka jump?" Petrov smiled and responded, "for sport or money?" He answered both by saying that he has seen Bubka rep 21' in practice, but for his first 10 WRs he got $100,000 for each. Coming from a poor environment where the system that provided his living was falling apart, he had to choose financial security. Obviously, we were FAR behind the rest of the world having not won a medal in a non boycotted Olympic Games since 1968, otherwise Petrov wouldn’t be here sharing his secrets either.

In 1992 Bubka competed at the Los Angeles Invitational where he became the first man to vault 6m (19’ 8 ¼â€Â

VaultNinja

Bubka developed a craft for consistently jumping world records and high crossbars (I heard 44 times over 6.00m and 20 something over 20'). He did make a fair share of money along the way (just as Isinbayeva is), however, by all accounts he thouroughly enjoyed the experience. For most of us it is the quality of the experience that we value most, and why we vault or coach in the first place. As the location on your tag insists, "hell until 5.80" my first impression of you is that you do not enjoy this experience and can not value in your mind what Bubka accomplished. As for height over bars, I'm sure like most of us you have seen Bubka's videos. It is obvious that he could have jumped higher, even over short pegs, and rounded crossbars (therefore, this notion of a short-peg world record, as some have suggested is an argument full of holes.)

Yes, we are all entitled to our own opinion. What is yours? What are your reasons for speaking so boldly against Bubka, not only in this forum, but others as well. We would be interested to find out.

VaultNinja wrote:You can't measure how high he was at lower bars because there is more to making that next height both mentally and physically. We know how high he vaulted and thats as high as he was meant to vault.

The topic is "How high could Bubka have vaulted?" It seems reasonable to me that people would choose to look at how high he was during the vaults he made and use that as a guide to estimate what they think he could have done if that vault were made with a higher crossbar.

VaultNinja wrote:We know how high he vaulted and thats as high as he was meant to vault.

I didn't know we all entered this sport with a pre-destined "best clearance".

VaultNinja wrote:And he has come up with some great ways to secure his record by shortening the pegs, taking away holds and rounding the top of the cross bar, all things that he did not have to deal with.

I understand those conditions have changed, but neither of those come into play if the vaulter clears the bar (does not touch it). Also, on the other side, perhaps today's vaulters have the benefit of better poles. They also have the chance to reduce their technical learning curve by observing and reading about his technique (if they choose to use that to their advantage.)

Just an old guy's thoughts... - master

cougarscoach wrote:VaultNinja

Yes, we are all entitled to our own opinion. What is yours? What are your reasons for speaking so boldly against Bubka, not only in this forum, but others as well. We would be interested to find out.

My opinion is that Bubka was able to jump "what he jumped" 6.15m, thats what I said. I also do not deny that he was an amazing athlete and the greatest pole vaulter of all time. But I like to stir the pot if you haven't noticed.
You know this thread is about how high he could have jumped, I provided my input, I don't recall seeing yours. If you would like to start a separate thread about differing opinions and Bubka, maybe I will chime in, but this thread has been pulled way off course.

Since we are off course - My other opinion is that Phil can jump 5.50 if he quits worrying about where his step is all the time. If he is not beyond 4m he won't turn anything up in practice, however his best jumps in competition have been when his step is inside 4m. You might want to think about that when he returns from his Mission. He's a good kid, I hope that the school change will be a better situation for him and he will start having fun with track and field once again.

Vaultninja

I am not sure what your point is but please let's keep this civil and honest.
Yes Bubka only jumped 20'2" but the reality of the issue is that he could have jumped much higher and if we want to take the event to new heights we should study what enabled Bubka to get his C of G so darn high up in the air. Also it is hard for us here in the US to understand how important money might be for family security with someone in the USSR as it was falling apart, so Bubka's habit of setting records 1 cm at a time makes a lot of sense to me.

The current rule changes don't make me very happy either, but blaming them on Bubka seems a little off base to me. A larger committee has decided that these rule changes will speed up the event(which may or may not be correct, but it really doesn'matter now because that's the way the committee went) and of course the hands on the bar rule happened because of some record jumps where the bar was bent down about 1 foot and somehow the bar sayed on ( i.e. a Dial moment).

One final comment these rule changes would not have impacted Bubka's record jumps as I remember it, I never saw Bubka put his hand on any bar and most of his jumps were no touch clearances.
So what is your beef.

vaultwest wrote:Vaultninja

I am not sure what your point is but please let's keep this civil and honest.
Yes Bubka only jumped 20'2" but the reality of the issue is that he could have jumped much higher and if we want to take the event to new heights we should study what enabled Bubka to get his C of G so darn high up in the air. Also it is hard for us here in the US to understand how important money might be for family security with someone in the USSR as it was falling apart, so Bubka's habit of setting records 1 cm at a time makes a lot of sense to me.

The current rule changes don't make me very happy either, but blaming them on Bubka seems a little off base to me. A larger committee has decided that these rule changes will speed up the event(which may or may not be correct, but it really doesn'matter now because that's the way the committee went) and of course the hands on the bar rule happened because of some record jumps where the bar was bent down about 1 foot and somehow the bar sayed on ( i.e. a Dial moment).

One final comment these rule changes would not have impacted Bubka's record jumps as I remember it, I never saw Bubka put his hand on any bar and most of his jumps were no touch clearances.
So what is your beef.

Well personally I prefer chicken, beef tends to give me indigestion. I agree with alot of what you are saying. Always being broke myself and never being put into a situation where I could make money or truly test my athletic ability I guess I shouldn't judge. Most of us would take the money. Its the nature of a human, self (or family) preservation.

I am still upset about the new rules as everyone is, not so much the one on holds I just threw that one in there for kicks. Actually by trying to speed up the event, I think they slowed it down, because now officials are constantly having to twist the ends back in place and they can't put the bar up half the time without it coming down.

I just loved watching Stacy jump when she was breaking the record all the time. After she broke the record she wouldn't hang up her shoes for the day, she would put the bar up to 4.90 because she wanted it so bad. Breaking the record alone wasn't enough. I got to experience it first hand on more than one occasion and even got to put the bar up for a few records. It gave me great inspiration seeing how dedicated she was to testing the full potential of her ability. Thats the kind of athlete I can truley aspire to be.