PoleVaultPower.com

Okay I am a guy in the eighth grade and i want to break our school record this year for pole vaulting. Its not that high 9 foot 9 inches. I am all the way back on my ten foot pole and im bending really well. My problem is that this is the only pole i can use so i have to use it. But when i go up the bend is throwing me more forward than up. I get my body over ten foot easy its just that i always hit it with my butt. any tips. do i need to get completley vertical

It sounds like it's time for you to get an 11' pole. You'd have to be incredibly short (well under 5') to vault 10' on a 10' pole.

The only thing you can do with that pole is go to a shorter run to slow down your speed a little so you don't blow through it too bad.

I did have a girl vault 9'0 on a 10'6 pole. I have vaulted 9'10 on an 11' pole.

well i am only 5 foot tall and i think it may be longer than 10 foot when i stick it in the pan it is a couple inches taller than 10 foot

Then it's probably an 11' or 10'6" pole. Either find a bigger pole or subtract a step from your approach run... It sounds like it's getting too small. Where are your standards? 31.5" I hope?

i dont know where my standards are yet because our standards are not set. We are not allowed to have track meets at our school becuz the track and field events are not regualtion

Huh? Maybe you could describe your situation a little better for us all? How can you not know where you put your standards? "Set" as in calibrated/officially measured in some way? How do you have a PR without any meets?

okay im sorry....lol....i cant really set my standards at practice because our standards are off. but at meets last year my standards were at 16 but i didnt have any bend. Now i am getting bend and i have to move my standards but i dont know wat they will be until my first meet. They are probably in the 20's im not sure

i think we are only allowed to set our standards from 16 inches to 24 inches

Has posts been deleted, or has there been a website failure (restored to a previous state)?

GD, RG deleted my post, since I quoted dated info from here:

According to NFHS RULES CHANGES AFFECTING RISK (1982-2008)
http://www.nsaahome.org/textfile/spmeds/rules.pdf you're allowed to have your standards anywhere between 12" to 24".


Restricted the location of the crossbar in the pole vault, from a position 12 inches beyond the vertical plane of the top of the stopboard, up to a maximum of 24 inches beyond the vertical plane of the stopboard, in the direction of the landing pad.

However, my newer information is that PP is correct in saying that the rule is 31.5" back. Since both RG and PP are saying 31.5", I'm sure that's correct.

But it's very strange that I could not find this new info anywhere. If someone has a link, please post it.

Meanwhile, Tyler, why don't you get a measuring tape, and go measure your pole? It makes a huge difference if it's 10' or 11'.

Kirk

OK. A 24" limit just doesn't make sense, since safety is the issue, so I'm glad it has changed.

golfdane wrote:OK. A 24" limit just doesn't make sense, since safety is the issue, so I'm glad it has changed.

Don't forget that American high schoolers have also had serious injuries (deaths?) by flying off the back of the pit too.

But I seem to recall that I kept my standards at 36", which was "all the way back" ... and I was in no danger of flying off the back of the pit.

So I not only question 24", I also question 31.5". Why not 36"? Or to keep it metric (since 31.5" is 0.80m) why not 39.5"?

I can see that if it was another foot (48"), then there might be a fear of flying off the back.

Oh well. The more important side of it is how deep in from the box is the MINIMUM. In the NFHS rules, is it a foot, or is it 16"? I think 16" would be safer - especially for high schoolers.

Kirk