HS Rules - wind blowing pole into bar

[rainbowgirl28]

KB, you clearly have not attended many meets in the middle section of the United States. Under your rules, a significant percentage of pole vault competitions would have to be canceled!

Even at our little state meet in WA, we had a tailwind during the 1A boys competition that gradually grew stronger and stronger. The first boy that had a pole knock the bar down, the official deliberated and called it a miss, unpopular with the coaches. But then boy after boy had poles knocking the bar down As the wind grew stronger, there were some ridiculous cases of the athlete pushing the pole PAST vertical, and the wind blowing it back! The wind did blow the bar off the pegs a few times, but (at least while I was there), they were not holding it on.

After the first time the official ruled it a miss, he generally called it a make if the athlete did not touch the bar and the wind clearly blew the pole back into it.

KB, I take it you would call this jump a miss? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plfaqc5xgJ4 There was a strong tailwind.

[KirkB]

RG, I'm merely suggesting how the rules might be fairer for everyone ... without subjective rulings. As a further idea, I'm not opposed to the ends of the bars being stickier when set on the pegs. Perhaps rubber on rubber ... or something like that. Then human holder-uppers wouldn't have to hold them in place in a big wind. And if the wind still blows the bar down, then that's a TORNADO ... and you better head for cover!

I'm not referring to the current rules ... I'm saying "what-if". The advantage would be that there's no human intervention, thus no subjectivity.

... I take it you would call this jump a miss? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plfaqc5xgJ4 There was a strong tailwind.

Yes, by my hypothetical rule, that would be a miss. Why? Becuz she let the pole knock the bar down. Weather is an act of god, just like rain. All sports have an element of luck, and weather affects all sports. The winner is the one that performs best under any conditions ... with a little bit of luck.

It's up to the athlete to conquer the weather. Not much different than if rain made her hand slip down the pole and she missed. That would be a miss too ... of course!

To be totally fair to everyone and ensure that MOST of the time the best vaulter is going to win ... especially in championship events ... you should also try to remove the "luck of the draw" as much as possible. So the jump order should be based on rankings (worst-to-best) OR on a random draw. It should certainly not be anything else ... like alphabetic order, or the order of arrival at the meet.

I'd rather have a sport where weather and luck predict the winner ... rather than a subjective (controversial) call by a human official. In ANY sport!

Tina's pole was short enough to go under the bar. If she was afraid of her pole jarring the standard (which in turn caused the bar to fall), she could have used the technique where you toss the pole TO THE SIDE and FORWARDS ... under the bar. This technique works even if the pole is a few inches above the bar. To me, this is a better, safer technique anyway, which prevents the pole from impaling you.

Yes ... she had a bit of bad luck (had the jump been ruled a miss). But she'd learn from that and improve her "high-wind technique" as the competition went on ... or in next year's NCAA meet. Champions find a way to win ... even under adverse weather conditions.

Kirk

[PV Official]

BTW, a little off-topic, but I question the sanity of human bar-holder-uppers in a heavy tail-wind. PV doesn't have a wind guage for records (does it?), but in light of that, if the wind is so strong that people need to manually hold the bar in place, then I say the wind is too strong ... at least too strong to recognize any records set.

I say this not just becuz the holder-uppers can be considered a rough guage of a maximum wind speed, but also becuz it becomes problematic to determine if they let go of the bar JUST BEFORE or JUST AFTER the vaulter passed over the bar ... especially if he SCRAPED over it (I would venture to question the impartiality of some holder-uppers - some are obviously there to help the vaulter clear the bar, and have a vested interest in the outcome).

In that scenario, how can an official differentiate between the wind blowing the bar off or the vaulter scraping it off?

And how can you tell if the holder-uppers didn't hold the bar in place whilst the vaulter scraped over it hard enough to dislodge it?



Kirk

When it is windy enough to hold the bar in place, I tell the bar tenders to push the bar against the standards until the vaulter leaves the ground. The bar tenders do not have contact with the bar when the vaulter is going over it (and their poles are out of the pit so the vaulter can't get impaled on them). This works in most cases unless you get a really strong gust as the vaulter is leaving the ground and blows the bar off (I have seen it happen).

[belmore]

When we get tailwinds in Texas, the vaulters are ecstatic, the officials know they have to go to work. We try to take the "bar tenders" off the cross bar when the vaulter leaves the ground. We also try not to be leaning against the outrigger with the bartender, it is a tough thing to do.