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What is everyones opinion on 'unfavorable' weather conditions? What is the worst weather that you ever pole vaulted in, or would pole vault in? I think it is important to vault in bad weather so that your prepared. I vaulted in rain at the Omaha junior Olympics and it was the worst weather I ever vaulted in, heavy rain.

It's my opinion that it's optimal to practice in perfact conditions...ie. no wind or rain and about 75-80 degrees. you want to practice what you will perform. if running through and not turning up, because of crappy wind and rain, is how you want to perform, than by all means practice in bad conditions. however, if you bring the confidence of good practices in good weather with you to the meet, and the weather happends to be crappy, it wont matter because you can always step up to the challenge for a meet, especially with confidence. confidence comes from good practices which happen in good weather. running through and not turning up makes you unconfident. of course you can't always have perfact conditions for practice, but i'll be the first to admit, when it's rainy and windy out, there's no chance you'll see me jumpin', even if it's a jump day. i'll go do long jump or something else that i can benifit from. but i have pole vaulted for quite a few years and don't need the jump practice as much as a high schooler or even collegate.

No im talking about going up in the rain, or a 10 mph head wind.

ill jump in the wind or rain or whatever, it doesnt matter to me!!!!!!!
one year at indi., i jumped in the rain and a hudge crosswind(it was cold too). i opened at 5.20 and the wind blew my pole into the front bun just before my plant step. the pole tip bounced off of the pit and into the box and i made the bar..............i was the only person to make a bar at that meet!!! that was the only jump i took

We had a strong 10+mph swirling wind my freshman year conference championships.... Craziest wind.... Head wind, crosswind, tailwind....you name it.... My junior year, first meet it was windy and snowing... and then heavy rains at conf champs even after a 30min delay....2 people lost their grip on the pole that day... that was about as dangerous of conditions as I wanted to see.

As for practicing in it.....no way! We vaulted year round indoors at our school, one because our runway outdoors was crap, two because we have snow on the ground until mid-may..... We can't even practice long jump until late april when we can dig out the pit....sucks pretty bad.. Anyway...

Both national meets i went to had miserable conditions. The USATF championship in Omaha was raining, like really bad, should of delayed it, it was so bad. The AAU meet in Knoxville had a 10mph head wind and I still pulled off 14'9" PR. I think the ideal conditions in the pole vault is 80 degrees, alot of sun and no wind at all. Indoor meets are also good conditions if they have the Mondo track surface (it's incredibly fast).

windy, dry and below 35. lol. but really, it suckes pretty bad. then again this summer vaulting was pretty darn bad too because it was around 98 degrees. yuck!

anybody who jumped at drake last year knows crappy conditions

A few years back - a Deca in Wisc - early April - first day was the good weather low 30's sleet and snow - nobdy even took their warm-ups off for the vault - get a height and get out - friend from Memphis came up for the meet - thought we were all insane - probably right

Complete downpour pretty much the entire day. 3 delays. it took us 3 hours to get through 3 heights. My picture on the side is an actual picture from the meet. If you see the large version, you can see the water splashing out of the box at my plant. I ended up winning, but it was a crap meet with crap jumping. I've pretty much jumped in every condition imaginable. I'd suggest making yourslef jump outside even on the days where the conditions are less than favorable so you're prepared for them when you get to a meet where they won't (or can't) move the mats or take it inside.

Hey Ash have fun dealing with the NW weather this track season

Worst weather I jumped in was Lynden Relays my senior year. It was COLD, raining, and very windy which made the previous two much worse. Yeah we had a big tailwind but it did not feel to good when you got up and were soaked from head to toe from the wet mat. That meet was the lowest height I cleared that year... 7'0". My coach pulled me out at the next height because my pole got too wet and I was slipping off... and I had already beaten all the other girls.