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Not only do pole cutters not respect the pole, but they put their vaulter at a risk and this is unacceptable. Cutting poles to achieve a desired high/low bend is not what the pole was manufactured to do. It puts stresses on parts of the poles that were not intended to be stressed and puts a vaulter at risk.
Why am I upset? Last weekend at an all-comers meet, a kid broke his pole (and his ankle) when his pole snapped in four pieces. If I'm not mistaken, they're designed to break in three! Anyway, as he lay in the box, he made mention that this "teaches him for cutting his pole."
Either way you look at it, you put people at risk- SO STOP CUTTING POLES, try COACHING instead!

StickJumper wrote:Not only do pole cutters not respect the pole, but they put their vaulter at a risk and this is unacceptable. Cutting poles to achieve a desired high/low bend is not what the pole was manufactured to do. It puts stresses on parts of the poles that were not intended to be stressed and puts a vaulter at risk.
Why am I upset? Last weekend at an all-comers meet, a kid broke his pole (and his ankle) when his pole snapped in four pieces. If I'm not mistaken, they're designed to break in three! Anyway, as he lay in the box, he made mention that this "teaches him for cutting his pole."
Either way you look at it, you put people at risk- SO STOP CUTTING POLES, try COACHING instead!

They're designed to break?!?

lol, we all know what he meant....typically when poles break, from my understand of it, it breaks right above and below the sailpiece, hence the 3 pieces....just my understanding, someone please elaborate if you can.....i know if you sit on the pole, it will break low, but typically, the 3 piece breaks are cause by the sail piece.

lol...i think what he means is that with the way poles are designed, IF they should break, they're supposed to break into three pieces...lol

Why do poles break?

Does the location of where a pole breaks give any insight as to the cause of the break?

Does the nature of the break (ie: horizontal or vertical - clean or splintery) give any insight as to the cause of the break?

Does the number of pieces that a pole breaks into give any insight as to the cause?

If so, then what causes a chopped pole to break any differently than a stock pole?

Just questions, not opinions. Jeff, Bruce, Bryan, Lon, Dub - any insight here?

GOOD QUESTIONS

Does the location of where a pole breaks give any insight as to the cause of the break?

In most cases I would say yes: a single break with two pieces in most cases is caused by a nick, a spike, a ding of the pole against the standard, the crossbar or the ground.

Does the nature of the break (ie: horizontal or vertical - clean or splintery) give any insight as to the cause of the break?

Most breaks should be HORIZONTAL, accept when you nick a pole or crack the surface of a layer or two then you will get some strips of glass in the vertical.

Does the number of pieces that a pole breaks into give any insight as to the cause?

Yes , usually 3 pieces to 5 is an over stress and this is general because abuse can cause overstress in areas that result in 3 to 5 pieces.

If so, then what causes a chopped pole to break any differently than a stock pole?

[color=red][b]Chopping the pole off forces energy to be loaded in areas that might not be built into the pole to hold that load. If you cut off 6â€Â

My thinkin' is that breaking poles is bad. It makes them shorter and harder to jump high on than when they come from the factory. Even if you put them back together, they never work right again.
As far as I know if a pole broke in four places it was because it was OVERBENT! Not because it was cut. If it were damaged it would have broken in the damaged area, not in four places. It would appear to me, correct me if I am wrong boyz, that a pole that broke in four places was recieving stress more evenly than one that broke in three places. The force was more evenly distributed along the length of the pole, resulting in four overstressed areas, rather than three. It seems to me that if a pole bent perfectly even it would shatter into a lot of pieces.
Either way, cut off or not, the broken pole that opened this thread was more than likely the fault of the vaulter, not the pole. Chances are that this pole, cut or not, had been jumped on before, and had not broken until this jump. If it had broken before it shouldn't have been jumped on again. In short, not the arrow, the indian.

F.Y.I. I'll be here in N.J. until the 22nd running HIP athletic while Tom is away. If any of you are in the area send me a note and I'll be happy to work or talk with anybody.

Dub, connected to Jonesboro Via' Remote, from New Jersey.

dubjones wrote:My thinkin' is that breaking poles is bad. It makes them shorter and harder to jump high on than when they come from the factory. Even if you put them back together, they never work right again.

"drugs are bad - breakin poles is bad - mmmkayyy"

I had a pole get runover on the top and bottom (don't ask), so I trimmed 6 off the top and 8 off the bottom. It was the best 13'8" pole ever after that. I jumped 15'8" on it. It was money, of course, I know what I'm doing so don't randomly try it.

I am gonna try to piece together a broken 17' 220 with a broken 14' 150 to see if that will work. Dub, you be good in NJ and bring the band with you next time. We would rock New Jersey!!!!!!!!!!!! Later, LB

lonpvh wrote:I had a pole get runover on the top and bottom (don't ask), so I trimmed 6 off the top and 8 off the bottom. It was the best 13'8" pole ever after that. I jumped 15'8" on it. It was money, of course, I know what I'm doing so don't randomly try it.

I am gonna try to piece together a broken 17' 220 with a broken 14' 150 to see if that will work. Dub, you be good in NJ and bring the band with you next time. We would rock New Jersey!!!!!!!!!!!! Later, LB

i know... iknow, but i'm asking, "what?" how did it get run over?

...and you can put poles back together?

It was run over twice by the heaviest pole vault pad cover ever made. It rolled over the pit to keep it covered. The poor pole got run over twice in the same day. I wish I still had that thing, it went through alot that day. LON