Automatic Standards - SHOULD BE BANNED

[rainbowgirl28]

For the $40,000 difference in price, I think that meet directors could afford to fly in the best bar putter uppers from anywhere in the world.

[Robert schmitt]

Nahh.... just make the pegs even shorter, give them less time between attempts, and less attemtps to speed things up to make up for the difference.

[polevaulter08nw]

hahaha, couldn't resist posting a laugh to that...

[vaultmd]

For the $40,000 difference in price, I think that meet directors could afford to fly in the best bar putter uppers from anywhere in the world.

That would be yours truly . . .

[LHSvaulter]

Although I haven't been to any meets where they have been used (unless they have been used at Boston Indoor Games without me noticing or them breaking), I'm on the fence with this one. When they work correctly, I believe that they allow the competition to flow at a smoother pace than with manual standards.

That being said, rather than banning them altogether, I think that they should be analyzed to figure out what is causing them to fail so often. Once the weak point(s) is/are established, the engineer should go back to the drawing board and redesign them in a more proper manner, changing what needs to be changed to make them far less susceptible to failure or eliminate the problem altogether.

Just my .02

-Bill

P.S. - I'm currently working as an intern at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, CT (the primary builder of fast attack submarines for the U.S. Navy since the early 1900s) so I have access to CAD software and such. Maybe I'll take a stab at the standards...

[Rhino]

That being said, rather than banning them altogether, I think that they should be analyzed to figure out what is causing them to fail so often. Once the weak point(s) is/are established, the engineer should go back to the drawing board and redesign them in a more proper manner, changing what needs to be changed to make them far less susceptible to failure or eliminate the problem altogether.

I agree. I also work with automation in machine tools, and I have no doubt that I could build reliable standards for far less money than is being mentioned here.

[rainbowgirl28]

I don't believe they have ever been used in the US, except for the 1996 Olympics.

Greg Hull told me today that after they broke, they swapped them out for normal standards, but no one (from Doha) had a clue how to put the bar up that high. so Hooker had to teach them.

Or something like that.