PoleVaultPower.com

So I was just wondering who in the past, and present has the best push off as far as bar height to pole length.

There have been some threads on this earlier, so you might want to check the archives.

I saw Joe Dial make 18'10" with a 15' grip with my own eyes.

Yeah..i looked around..but a lot of other random stuff came up and I really could not find what I was looking for...

Tim McMichael wrote:There have been some threads on this earlier, so you might want to check the archives.

I saw Joe Dial make 18'10" with a 15' grip with my own eyes.

3'10" which is.... 46" wowww

Don't forget about the 8" in the box. 18'10" holding 15' would be a 54" push-off.

That is just sick!!! Awesomely sick!!!

AVC Coach wrote:Don't forget about the 8" in the box. 18'10" holding 15' would be a 54" push-off.

8 inches shy of a 5 foot push off.

I don't know if there is a word to describe that, but WOW.

I might just have the record for lowest height with highest grip. 15 to 15-3 grip for a height of 15'6. Anyone ever jump lower with that high a grip? Anyone willing to admit it?

Haha that will take some marbles...but in High School there was a kid on a 14' pole holding at about 13'6 jumping 9'6...

It is hard to describe to other people how good Joe was without sounding like you are telling Paul Bunyan tall tales. I cringe at how I sound when I hear myself try to describe the things he could do on a pole because they sounds so untrue. But, the fact is for my money, "Joe Dial was the best POLE VAULTER ever." Joe could make Bubka look like an over-powered clod. He made Vigneron look short and fat.

Adding to his accomplishments was the fact that he was making it up as he went along. Joe was basically self-coached. And in the 70's and 80's when Joe was learning to vault, knowledge was not easy to come by. It was pretty much trial and error. In high school he had his dad, Dean and high school coach, Gary Boxley. After high school he used lots of people to be his eyes, mainly Dean or his training partners, Tim and Terry, but really he was coaching himself.

The sad part of the story is that like most self-coached athletes, Joe was not very good at managing his training. He had a difficult time staying healthy. He never seemed to be at his best when he needed to be. After being 4th at the 84' trials as a 21 year old, he never made the US Olympic team. He won a Silver at World Indoor Champs once, but that was his best international performance. Had he recieved the same type of coaching and support that other vaulters had access to, this part of the story might have been different.

But the bottom line is this. Joe Dial could POLE VAULT. I mean really POLE VAULT. He could make 16' on 14' poles. He could jump 18'10" gripping 15'. He could make 15' LEFT HANDED. I have seen every 6m jumper in history up close and personal and none of them were as good as Joe.

my 2 cents

jumpbackin wrote:I might just have the record for lowest height with highest grip. 15 to 15-3 grip for a height of 15'6. Anyone ever jump lower with that high a grip? Anyone willing to admit it?

We've had that discussion before: http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/vie ... php?t=5205

skyhigh0024 wrote:Haha that will take some marbles...but in High School there was a kid on a 14' pole holding at about 13'6 jumping 9'6...

Dang, beaten again!

....but I'd like to see him jump 9'6 holding 15 feet.