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At the PV summit last year they had all the HS vaulters do a bunch of physical test. And they asked what your PR was height, age, weigth all that stuff. I was wondering if they were trying to create an equation where you can plug in your info/times/distances of the test and it could result in telling you how high you should be jumping with your skills. MAbey they were just doing research but it would still be sweet if tehre was an equation out there. Is there?

yes there is an equation based on speed. I will try to find it, give credit to the author, and post it. It give a theoretical max based on world class vaulters and how high they jumped. There speed for each jump was measured over the last 10m of their approach.

Ive seen that equation. They take the speed in mph of your run, and they also take your height. Then they determine how high you should vault. But I think in order for an equation to be even close to accurate their needs to be more elements then just height and speed. ie. power, upper and lower body, reaction times, endurance, abs, work under pressure, every thing like that. But think about it, if they tested say, 100 people, then took how high everyone is vaulting and find a happy medium they could say, with your speed, height, power, and thought mechanics you should be jumping this high! Because this guy over here has all the same results as you in the test and he is jumping this high.

Peter's research is done well. There are alot more variables than the two you are thinking about. He doesn't leave anything out. You would be suprised how accurate it is. Lon

The name of the article is "Velocities from Video" by Peter M. McGinnis Ph.D. and the research was done at SUNY Cortland in New York and was presented at the 1994 USA Track and Field Convention.

Velocity is - Average velocity = distance/time

his reseach starts with how to determine velocity from a normal VCR

for a 30 Hz VCR - time = fields counted x 1/30

for a 60 Hz VCR - time = fields counted x 1/60

Counting fields means you pause your VCR and use the frame advance feature. Each time you advace one frame you count it. You have to have a set distance (marks in the background of the video) and count the frames in that area only. When the athletes body passes the first mark you begin your count and finish at the end of the set distance. If the athlete is just in front or behind the mark you add or subtract 1/2 a field accordingly.

You then plug the info into the formula from above
Average Velocity = distance/ time

in his study he graphs speed with successful attempts at heights. Using this a theoretical slowest velocity to jump a specific height can be determined. He uses world class athletes with the assumption that their technique is the best avail. Thus the limit based on speed. It also tells really fast athletes that they have technical deficiencies.

Now, I evaluated the chart..........and using his theoretical limit line tried to make a flow chart based on his calculations. What I am giving next may not be fully accurate. I used mathmatical calculations from the slowest, highest jump in the study.

These are the theoretical max heights you can attain at a certain velocity speed expressed in meters per second.

10.00 mps = 6.42m (21'0 3/4")
9.677mps = 6.22m (20'4 3/4")
9.091mps = 5.84m (19'2")
8.571mps = 5.50m (18'0 1/2")
8.108mps = 5.21m (17'1")
7.500mps = 4.82m (15'9 3/4")
6.977mps = 4.49m (14'8 3/4")
6.522mps = 4.19m (13'9")
6.000mps = 3.85m (12'7 1/2")
5.556mps = 3.57 m (11'8 1/2")
5.000mps = 3.21m (10'6 1/4")

Again, these are my calculations and may be flawed. They do not say that you cant travel faster and jump lower, they say if you are traveling at that speed that is the theoretical max you can jump.

Chew on that for a while.

later, B

I read a paper about this physics major that has calculated what he believes to be the max heights for guys and girls, who knows, it could be defied. I don't remember the guys name, but the equation had something to do with speed, and distance, and well, you all seem to have it covered, but this guy said that about 21' is the max for guys and about 17' is the max for girls. I'm out to prove them wrong.

Peter McGinnis was my coach at Cortland and his velocities studies are dangerously accurate. I use them constantly and have a vaulter who is running consistent 9.3m/s on an 18 step approaches, and only has a pr of 5.55. This data tells us that he has serious efficiency problems in his vault, particularly with reaching his takeoff step, thus negating most of that speed. He weighs about 190 and is only on a 4.90 15.4 - so obviously he is losing a lot of energy in the transfer to his takeoff.

The study done at the Summit last year was done by Rick Baggett. I never did hear the results of that one, but I'm interested if anyone else has.

Kris

Kind of off the subject but,
When I was in undergrad on my physics final we had a question were we had to calculate how high a pole vaulter could vault based on his approach speed and height. Any way it still really pisses me off because it is the ONLY question I got wrong on that final.

the problem with trying to find an equation to describe how high you should be jumping using your speed, height, weight, pole, etc.. is that vaulting is too much of a mental sport. You have to have the right mindset to get anything accomplished. You can probably use some speed conversions to get a really general idea, but as for getting a reasonable appriximation, you have to factor in technique... That's one variable I don't know how to classify. I'm a pole vaulter/mechanical engineer and I've been thinking about this for a while now.
My best ever was 5.25m on a 5m 16.2 flex. I never was that fast, but I had a good takeoff angle and rockback. I think it'll be a while until someone figures this thing out.

When and where did you jump 5.25 because i never seen or heard of you jmping that. the media guide fron 2000 list you with a PB of 16'8" or 5.10

Robert schmitt wrote:Kind of off the subject but,
When I was in undergrad on my physics final we had a question were we had to calculate how high a pole vaulter could vault based on his approach speed and height. Any way it still really pisses me off because it is the ONLY question I got wrong on that final.

Yeah that was off subject, but i was looking through my physics book at school and there was a picture of a pole vaulter and i was telling my friend that i hope we don't get that far, because i want to still like vaulting by track season and physics might ruin it for me.

lol, in my physics class, thats the only reason i care to learn physics (well for now cause it's not calc based) but i want to know how physics works with my vaulting