PoleVaultPower.com

Well here it is, my first pole break while attempting 14 feet. The pole was a 15' 175 Spirit. I was holding at the top, right below the pink stripe, the highest high school allows.

The pole broke into four even pieces with clean breaks for the most part. I was fine and got right up after the break. The only injury was some cuts on my hand with some small bits of fiberglass in there.

My plant looked dead on, does anyone have a clue on why the pole decided to explode?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8jxpV7XeA8

Thanks!

i bet all the people that lived in those houses came outside to see what happened lol must have had a spike hole or crack in it

the pole actually began to uncoil before it broke. Someone must have stepped on it or something.

yeah, thats what happend to me, as it began to uncoil, it snapped. my coach said it probably had a stree fracture or a spike hole.
after is snapped i landed on my head and slid into the box....

While we're here, how did my vault look until the pole exploded? This is actually the first time I ever taped myself vaulting.

The pole was over loaded!!
what was your weight?
If you are on a 15' pole and your PR is 13'?
Why are you holding 14'8" and jumping only 13"?
Why did you try 14' did you clear 13'6"?
You have so much potential if you can learn to select your pole size correctly.
Based on what we know, you should be on a 14' 190 or a 14'7"-182 lbs pole unless there are varibles you have not given us yet to consider.http://www.therightpole.com

Thanks for commenting, ESSX.

I'm 6'1'' 180lbs. This 15-75 is the biggest pole my school had and it's the only one I wasn't blowing through.

My PR is actually 13-6, and I cleared that holding down at about 13'10'' on this same pole.

I know I have horrible efficiency, but I have only been vaulting for one year and I haven't had an hour of real coaching in my life. I decided to have someone tape me, so I could post a critique video here and get some help with my vault. Instead I broke the pole. Maybe I weighed too much more the pole, but I am playing both football and track in college next year and I need to carry a lot of muscle & weight for football.

Next year in college I will actually have a competant vault coach (I hope) and I will be able to develop some technique. I think I could clear some decent heights, given my speed and strength, once I figure out how to vault the real way.

I know you know a lot about vaulting. Do you have any more advice or comments that I should know?

ESSX wrote:
The pole was over loaded!!
what was your weight?
If you are on a 15' pole and your PR is 13'?
Why are you holding 14'8" and jumping only 13"?
Why did you try 14' did you clear 13'6"?
You have so much potential if you can learn to select your pole size correctly.
Based on what we know, you should be on a 14' 190 or a 14'7"-182 lbs pole unless there are varibles you have not given us yet to consider.http://www.therightpole.com

hey

just curious.. was their a cap on the top of the pole?

the pole actually didn't look overloaded and the swing/vault was pretty good..

the break seemed to be in the middle... so it wasn't a "standard" injury... ; )

check for scratches near the break... looks to be at a point that a toe spike could have hit it on some previous vaults.....

also see how the break looked on the compression (takeoff side) compared to the stretch (front of the pole next to the pit) side on the middle break...

your technique looks pretty good...

dj

The run looks very sloppy, work on sprint technique, talk to a sprint coach to get your form better. Then learn to do that with a pole. Leg extension and the knee lift are so important with the vault I would really suggest fixing those things. Get those knees higher and run!! Your pole carry looks very low. Try and get it higher closer to your core to help with running form.

Your plant is a big late, when training work on training your nervous system as well as your muscular system; learn to get your arms all the way extended before the last step. This will help with a few of the problems your having. If you get your plant a little more early then your step with be back and you might be able to get a free take off. It will then let your body hit the pole rather than the pole hit your body.

But i agree with the above, try and be more aware of pole choice, getting to a better choice, so you can vault more efficiently.

This is just a thought, but we all noticed it recoiled a little before it broke, but was it really recoiling?
I think that maybe you were "rowing" out your hands a little bit, kind of just keeping pressure by moving your hands forward a bit as you swing. In the slo-mo i got the feeling that all you did was put too much pressure in one section of the pole compared to another. as your swing starts there is pretty much equal bend from your top hand to the tip of the pole in the box. But then it looks like when you start rowing, the top of the pole straightens out and the bottom actually keeps bending. And the point where it is bent the most, obviously is the point it broke. Theres not much you can do about that, because a little rowing is ok i think. You just needed to grip lower and jump with more angle off the ground.

yes my advice is to get a good coach who can help you with proper pole selection as you have a lot of potential.

The pole was overloaded:
1. It could not hold your load from the rowing you did!
2. you weigh to much for the pole rating.!
3. You pressed far too much with the bottom hand it killed your swing and your weight overloaded the pole!
4. The swing you have has potential as it added load to the pole plus your weight.
5. Your grip is over gripped for your ability today but can be an advantage later as you progress.
6. If it was nick as someone said in this thread then it would break into 2-3 pieces.
I wish you luck you can be a 16' vaulter today with help
Bruce

Awesome analysis!!