High School Vaulting in the Rain

[illinois_vaulter]

Dan--

I have to thank you for taking the stand you describe. I've been away from the event for a long time, but I vividly remember several officials who insisted that competitions continue in the rain. They impressed me as people whose feet had never left the ground. By the time I was jumping unattached, I just told them to go to h---, but when I was jumping as part of a team, I felt I owed the group something.

The responsibility for safety clearly lies with the official, not the athlete. Thanks for taking the stand.

[rainbowgirl28]

I must note that rain in the Pacific Northwest tends to be different from rain in other parts of the country. We rarely have RAIN at our track meets. We tend to have an icky off and on drizzle that is cold and yucky and unpleasant, but still possible to keep poles dry in and vault safely.

I don't think people should vault in RAIN. But can you vault safely in a drizzle? Yes, if you take proper precautions.

It can be difficult out here to make that judgement of when it is too wet to vault because the line between a drizzle and a medium rain can be a fine one (and the level of rain tends to change constantly).

[master]

I agree with Becca's description of rain here in the NW. But there have been times when I as a coach have told the kids to close up the pit because it was raining hard and therefore was unsafe. I have also delayed competitions where I was the official, until a heavy downpour was over.

[Barefoot]

Rain, or its near cousin "drizzle", creates some special problems for vaulters in dry areas like us here in southern California precisely because we see so little of it and our vaulters don't seem to know what to do in wet conditions.

In the last three years my high school athletes have encountered rain or drizzle at only three meets... Once at an early season meet, so its easy for the kids to pack the poles and walk away. Once at the county championships, so only pride and medal or two was at stake, again easy enough to walk away. The third event was drizzle at the girls State Prelims (a rare rain for June in Socal)... That was the 20 or so of best vaulters in the state of California trying to qualify for the state finals. Not easy for a kid to walk away from that runway. What occurred there was only a handful of the "southern California" vaulters made the cut for the finals. The Norcal vaulters appeared to have had better experience of how to keep their poles and hands dry, of how to adjust pole size, grip, and run length for less than idea conditions.

I have encountered vaulters who are ill prepared to vault in anything other fair weather with a tail wind, in part because their home pit is situated for a prevailing tailwind, and when the wind is not just right, they go lift weights. Safety is in part a function of knowing what adjustments to make for ill weather of any description. Ultimately meet performance is likewise dependent upon those adjustments in less than ideal circumstances. Learning to vault safely, by "practicing for safety" in wet conditions (or less than ideal conditions) is one of the things we try to do with our vaulters when we do get the wet weather sometimes early in the season.

A big downpour is in another category... like hurricanes... best batten down the hatches and flee to safety.

[tsorenson]

I was forced to vault in a cold, windy, heavy downpour in my conference championships my senior year in HS. I placed 1st with a mark 1' below my PR, beating my nemesis (who had vaulted slightly higher most of the season), because he wasn't able to put it together in the bad conditions. So I thought vaulting in the rain was cool, until...

After I left college, I went to watch a meet where my old teammates were jumping. It was "drizzling." Everybody was vaulting on their big poles, no big deal, until a big fella came flying in and had his bottom hand slip on the pole, just as he was swinging through the chord and the pole was at maximum bend. I'll never forget the sound that pole made as it smacked him between the legs...sounded like somebody slapping the water with an oar! The impact was enough to stop him in midair, and he dropped on the runway in front of the box. About 75% of the vaulters in the meet dropped out right then...

Tom

PS. I think the guy was OK, although he didn't talk for quite a while and spent a long time with an ice bag in his lap.

[rainbowgirl28]

I will say that it gets tough when you get to qualifying meets... there is a lot more pressure on the officials to run the event off if the conditions are borderline. At our district meet, it was miserable. COLD and rainy. We had a few delays, but for the most part the rain was borderline and we went with it. None of the vaulters was unsafe, but those were some awfully miserable cold, wet, and shivering kids and coaches!

In our district, some teams are traveling 2-3 hours to the meet, so it's a very EXPENSIVE proposition to reschedule anything. We'd do it if we had to, but if the weather is borderline and the kids seem to be vaulting safely...

I sure hope we have better weather this year

[drcurran]

I'm hearing lots of reasons to vault in the rain / drizzle. We traveled a long way, it is an important meet, we know how to keep our hands and poles dry, and so on. None of these reasons are reason enough to put an athlete in danger. Wait 'till the rain stops, take in indoors, postpone 'till tomorrow, anything but competition in the rain.

Dan

[Barefoot]

Dan,

Unfortunately coaches and athletes are rarely consulted at CIF level events here... actually, you should have seen the row with the security guard to allow coaches to even talk with their athletes from a "coaches box" at last year's cif southern section finals.

So if the State level meets are gonna be held in a drizzle... I want my athlete to be as safe as possible, or make the informed choice to NOT vault. Safety is always first, but conditions are seldom perfect for every meet. And it's actually possible at evening meets on the California coast for the poles to get wetter than in a drizzle. Keeping your pole safe to jump on and adjusting for weather are part of the event.

[Bubba PV]

These are all great stories and responses and perhaps my few can add to the food for thought. I know that the 1976 Olympic Games were held in the rain with a headwind. Earl Bell, the #2 vaulter in the world did not do well. The legend has it that after that day he jumped in all conditions with the mantra that “they are still going to vault and give out the medals. There will be a winner and it might as well be me”.

After hearing this I too went out and vaulted at least once a semester in massive headwinds and pouring rain. I took it so far as to tell my athletes at UC Irvine that “today is the day”. This would be on a day when 40 mph Santa Ana headwinds came in, or just torrential rain. “Today is the day” meant that we were going to have a meet and that no one was allowed a warm up jump. Pick up a pole, get a starting height and let’s have a meet. To this day we have never had an nh in those conditions. Hey, I didn’t care if they started at 8’, just compete. What was first intimidating became fun and it really built our kids confidence in off conditions. They felt that they had the edge when everyone else was stressing.

On a personal note, in the 1997 World Masters Championships in South Africa, we had to jump into a 40 mph wind. Get this, the pit on the other end with the tailwind would be unsafe because the standards were not bolted down – hence the headwind is safer? While everyone else was complaining I ran down and jumped 4m on my first warm up jump. Game on! I got the bronze and strained my hammy on the jump but the message was sent – there is no wind. This happened again in Sydney, Australia at last year’s World Masters Games – HORRIBLE wind but I ignored it to win. I couldn’t have survived either of these without Earl’s mantra, “They still have the meet and give out the medals. There will still be a winner so it might as well be me”.

Back to the kids. In 1994 we had the Junior National Championships in Tallahassee, Florida. It POURED so much that they would briefly stop the meet to empty the box when it became full. The pit was a lake. The only time they would stop was when there would be lightning in the area and we would all huddle underneath an awning. The meet was won by Dominic Johnson with Scott Slover getting 2nd to advance to the international competition. Both jumped over 16’ in the flooding rain. That was just a reminder that you can safely prepare yourself for the worse, have some fun and give your kids the edge mentally. We may be nuts but it was sure fun knowing that when others were scrambling with the conditions that we were actually hoping for more rain or wind because we knew it would favor us. Weird I know. Have a great day. Bubba

[26mi235]

Well said - Don't vault in the rain. As an official I will hold up or cancel the event if raining. If over ruled by the field ref. I will decline to officiate. I don't want to see an athlete hurt, and I don't want to try to explain in court why I thought it was a good idea to continue vaulting in the rain. OK my .02

Dan

I officiate at college-level meets (U Wisconsin-Madison). It is often a bit of a crap-shoot for the one outdoor meet the UW now has (since the Regionals moved the schedule up) because they do not have a meet until May. However, the high schools start outdoors here not too late into April and the weather can be 'problematic'. For instance, last week the weather on Tuesday was 33 and mix of rain and snow with high winds. They postponed the meet, but only until the next day, when the temperatures were still only in the upper 30s. My daughter, who has just started vaulting as a freshman said that it was so cold that she had trouble keeping warm and when trying to vault she had trouble holding the pole because her hands were so cold (and a bit wet) and the crosswind made it difficult to negotiate with the pole as well. The kids just wanted to get an attempt out of the way and get out of there.

Of course, it is made worse in Wisconsin because they have a rule that I dislike which is that after a miss the athlete must immediately make a second attempt and may take a third thereafter. There is no chance to go back and get warm nor is there a chance to recover (everywhere else they give you extra time when you take consecutive vaults. I would like to fight this rule and if people have suggestions, I would like to see them. The first meet I officiated I wanted to conduct the event using 'standard' rules but got immediate push back from the coaches and from the head referee. Since I do not consider it safe I am not sure what to do. Do I refuse and let them deal with it? If they have an alternative, they will use another official, probably someone that does not really know how to conduct the event and will likely make it less safe. I can be reached by PM if they have it on this board or on the Track and Field News board where I use the same name -- 26mi235 (as you might guess, I was a runner not a vaulter in my competitive days).

[atlegu]

If we should follow the

Don't vault in the rain

rule, there would be very little vaulting were I come from (and a lot of other places as well). In some areas we have rain 50% of the days. We typically share the stadium with soccer, which means that the track is available for i.e., 3-4 days a week. National and international championship will never be cancelled because of rain.

For those that want to compete in the London Olympics 2012, there is 30% probability for rain. I.e., the probability for rain either during prelim or the final is 50%.

However I agree with Becka that there is different versions of rain. And sometimes the competition should be stopped. Of course you need proper equipment, possibilities to keep the poles dry, good spikes etc. Those that can not handle some rain should probably practice much more in nice weather first.

[CaptainKelly]

I am a Washington vaulter as well and this season seems to be particularly wet. Because of all this rain I have seen maybe kids sliding down their pole. Worse even, a team mate of mine slipped on the runway and brake his ankle. Personally when ever it is raining I don't have a good competition. I get too wet and can't stay warm. I think some safety regulations would be nice but then again with Washington weather we might never get to jump1