Hmm... another BAD reason to do jagodins!
There's 2 reasons why a pole will break ...
1. If the bend exceeds its elastic limit (over-bending)
2. If it has a flaw ... due to a manufacturing flaw (unlikely these days) ... or due to damage done to it.
In your case, you're mostly worried about damage due to "aging". Normally, expansion and contraction due to heat fluctuations shouldn't cause any damage, but after 20 years, who knows what might have happened to the resin that holds the fibers together. Experts on PVP may tell you that the resin doesn't break down over time any more than the fibers do, but I understand your concern. If I were you, I'd want to test the pole out before I used it too.
First, check every square inch of the pole visually, and by running your fingers along every part of it, feeling for nicks or scratches. Be sure to remove any old tape and look underneath it.
Next, try to bend the hell out of the pole by putting the tip against a wall at ground level, then grip at the top with your normal "top hand", and put all your body weight into it ... HEAVING ... and PULLING ... yourself towards the wall. You should be facing AWAY from the wall when you do this. If you don't think it's bending enough, ask someone heavier/stronger than you to try. You should NOT try to exceed the elastic limit of the pole (or of course it will break), but it's unlikely that you'll bend it that much this way if the pole is heavier than you are.
If you break it this way, then there's no downside ... you've broken it in a controlled setting, and the worst that will happen is that you'll fall on your a$$. It's certainly better than breaking it in the middle of a jagodin or a real vault ... where you'll have gravity and your forwards momentum to worry about. No sense putting yourself in danger there.
If you DON'T break it this way, then at least you know it's safe enough to vault on with as much bend as you gave it against the wall. That still doesn't guarantee that it won't break during a real vault, but at least in a real vault, you're likely to have sufficient momentum (and sufficient bend) to land "safely" in the pit. I put "safely" in quotes, because there's no guarantee that you'll ever land safely ... EVER.
I've broken many poles and landed safely, but I've also cut my hand on a broken pole segment as I was landing "safely" in the pit. You have a risk of injury on every vault you take, so that shouldn't stop you.
One thing I can say for sure is that I'd rather break the pole on a full vault and land in the pit than break it during a jagodin and land on the runway or in the box! You need to realize (you too, PP) that if you break it doing a jagodin, you won't land on your feet ... you'll land on your back ... possibly hitting the back of your head ... or worse yet, you could land directly onto your head ... on the runway!
Kirk
EDIT: Deleted the sentence re an unlikely "worst-case" scenario. No sense in scare-mongering!
