PoleVaultPower.com

I'm looking for comparable data from those of you who "steel" or "straight-pole/non-bending" vault in your training. Specifically, I'd like to know your highest jump over a crossbar (not a bungee) from 6 steps/3lefts, your grip to bar ratio (or pushoff), and your long-run pr on a bending pole for correlation.

Reason being: we are currently doing a lot of steel vaulting from 6 steps in my club, and one of my girls cleared 9'0 on her biggest competition long-run pole, non-bending from 3 lefts. I believe she was gripping somewhere around 10'3. Her long run pr is 12'9 with about a 12'6 grip on a pole 25lbs over her weight. We're trying to figure out some goals to set in this process. I believe she's capable of jumping 9'3-9'6 in the next 2 weeks as she learns to be more elastic during and after takeoff, but what should we expect and/or hope to clear?

FYI: I heard from a reliable source that a certain unknown NCAA DI sophomore with a 5.20pr cleared 13'0 from 6 steps on steel last week.

lonestar wrote:FYI: I heard from a reliable source that a certain unknown NCAA DI sophomore with a 5.20pr cleared 13'0 from 6 steps on steel last week.

UFO enthusiasts are impressed.

Matt Phillips (5.65) jumped 13'6" on steel from 6 lefts before the pole started to bend alittle (it was an old red steel pole). Decided to quit after that because even tho it might have bent, it would NOT return to straight hehehehe. I heard Steve Smith gave it a try aiming for the 15' mark but never got close. We have had straight pole comps often at club with most of the guys going 12' from short approach.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

Seeing that I didn't get on a fibreglass pole till half way through my 9th grade, I managed 1 foot higher than my grade from 7th grade on. That means, 8 feet,- 7th grade, 9 feet,- 8th grade, and 10 feet as a 9th grader. Even with the fibreglass poles (which started as a sophmore with a 1450 skypole), I basically straight-poled throughout high school. I had a 1550 Cat (junior and senior year) that I held on at about 12'6" tops, and did 12' 7" as a senior. (That was back in the day where I'd move my grip up to match the crossbar and....Oh yeah....we slid our lower hand up during the plant) So I hope that gives you a few benchmarks for your "straight-polin' ". Later............Mike

P.S. in high school I was around 5'7" and weighed about 145 for track season.

Thanks for the input. We don't intend to go past 8 steps/4 lefts straight poling as the sheer forces get too intense and the takeoff angles flatten, but are really essentially wanting 3 and 4 left data non-bending in proportion to long run pr bending for correlation. For example: if a girl can jump 10'0 from 4 lefts/8 steps on a non-bending pole, what should she be able to jump from 8 lefts/16 steps on a bending pole?

Girl A jumped 9'0 from 3 lefts non-bending - 16 step bending pr is 12'9

Boy A jumped 13'0 from 3 lefts non-bending - 16 step bending pr is 17'1

Girl B jumped 8'0 from 3 lefts non-bending - what should her 16 step bending pr be?

I don't think you can just tack a measurement difference to it, like 4'0.

I think it would be more accurate to go off of a percentage of height. In Girl A's example, she jumped approx. 29.4% lower from 6 steps non-bending than long run bending. In Boy A's example, he jumped 23.6 % lower from 6 steps non-bending than long run bending. Rumor had it that Bubka jumped 4.30 from 6 steps non-bending with a long run pr of 6.15 bending - a difference of approx. 30%.

If Girl A and Bubka jump roughly 30% under their long run bending pr from 3 lefts non-bending, and this would represent a reasonable median correlation, then does that mean that Boy A is a severe underachiever who should be jumping around 5.65/18'6? It would logically follow that Girl A at 30% should have a long run pr of about 12'11, and Girl B should have a long run pr of about 11'5 (actual meet pr is 9'0 (10'1 over a crossbar in practice), but she is a beginner and only jumped for 8 months).

Make sense?

We're trying to set goals, and it would be great if we could simply determine the long run goal for the end of the season, then work the percentages backwards to set up benchmark goals for our non-bending vaulting that would demonstrate whether or not we're making adequate progress towards the long-term goal or not.

lonestar wrote:Rumor had it that Bubka jumped 4.30 from 6 steps on steel with a long run pr of 6.15 on fiber - a difference of approx. 30%.

I thought it was Bubka gripped ~4.30 on an unbending pole from 6 steps not that he jumped 4.30. I could be remembering that incorrectly though.

achtungpv wrote:I thought it was Bubka gripped ~4.30 on an unbending pole from 6 steps not that he jumped 4.30. I could be remembering that incorrectly though.

I have seen video of it, and with simple measurement techniques, it was AT LEAST a 4.30 grip.

Sick.

achtungpv wrote:

lonestar wrote:Rumor had it that Bubka jumped 4.30 from 6 steps on steel with a long run pr of 6.15 on fiber - a difference of approx. 30%.

I thought it was Bubka gripped ~4.30 on an unbending pole from 6 steps not that he jumped 4.30. I could be remembering that incorrectly though.

I've heard the same, that his 6 step max grip was around 4.30. I had also heard his best non-bending jump from 6 steps was around 14' or 4.30 as well, but likely with a lower grip as it is doubtful he would have had enough pole speed to jump a bar with a 4.30 grip from 6 steps.

Just to further cross-reference the data, I have 2 other girls, let's call them Girl C and Girl D that both jumped 7'9 from 6 steps non-bending. That is roughly 30% of 11'0, which just happens to be both of their long run pr's.

Former NCAA Vault Champ from USC/Israel, Denis Kholev, used to come out and jump with us at UC Irvine. He would start with a bar at 4m (13' 1 1/2") and come down from a short run and swing over it by a foot gripping very low on a 5.10m (16' 8 1/2") pole. That pole wasn't even thinking about bending and he had speed off the top. Someplace I’ve got all of his pole/run and push off PRs that he sent me. Pretty amazing. Bubba

It could be fun and interesting exercise to practice on the steel poles, however, I think “straightâ€Â

Even though I'm a huge advocate of stiff poling, I think that's going to be a hard equation to figure out. I'm curious to see how it goes.