Good Vaults Gone Bad

[theczar]

6 poles how?? thats so many

when i was a sophmore, i had really bad form. REALLY BAD.


after i jumped i would actually kick my drive knee down to bend the pole more.

**BTW....i dont have a coach so i had no idea what i was doing until i began to study the sport**

I broke 4 poles my sophmore season, and one that summer with that bad form. Since then, my form has improved greatly and i broke a pole a few weeks ago on a perfectly good jump (pole was probibly spiked)

[theczar]

what have you done to yourself then?!?!

let me put it this way.... I wear a helmet now.

[pv-psycho]

wow... i don't have many close calls... mainly shooting off the practice band.

[pv-psycho]

can you give me an example? i'm kinda slow because of head injuries... (from basketball... lots of shoulders to the head cuz i'm short...)

[theczar]

can you give me an example? i'm kinda slow because of head injuries... (from basketball... lots of shoulders to the head cuz i'm short...)

an example of a head injury? sure


i took a jump on a pole that was way too small for me (it was still within my weight limit, but waaaaaay too soft) and it sent me sailing to the back of the pit. my legs landed on the pad, but my upper body didn't. my head whipped down onto the ground and i was down for the count.... and now i wear a helmet

[pv-psycho]

wow... sounds fun jk
one guy on our team got crazy bend, spun around, and said hello to earth

[vault3rb0y]

6 poles how?? thats so many

Im up to
4 broken poles
2 broken cross bars
1 bent standard
1 ripped matt cover (not while pole vaulting, however)
and 1 very scratched pole after it flew 30 feet in the air and came down on a fence.
best part is im only a sophmore, haha i still have 2 years to make hell!
yep, my school loves me, haha. I should video tape my jumps more, id love to make a montague (sp?) of mess ups that make me look like i dont have the slightest idea what im doing.

[Maine Vaulter]

A couple of my less then ideal moments were

1. landing on top of the standard and rolling off onto the ground from 11'6"
2. coming down out of the air so that only 1 leg made it over the crossbar...

[tigerman]

In High School my Sophomore year I hung onto the pole and rode it all the way down after a horrendous plant, veered off to the left and missed the mat completely. I landed on the track on top of a relay runner.....during the race. Pretty humiliating but we were both OK. I also had a "vault gone horribly wrong" similar to Chris Shanks' video(Although not quite that spectacular!) when the tip of my pole somehow popped out of the box on takeoff and the tip caught the edge of the pit. All of a sudden it was a wild ride vaulting in reverse, but take it from me and.... HOLD ONTO THE POLE!!!!!

[bvpv07]

In High School my Sophomore year I hung onto the pole and rode it all the way down after a horrendous plant, veered off to the left and missed the mat completely. I landed on the track on top of a relay runner.....during the race. Pretty humiliating but we were both OK. I also had a "vault gone horribly wrong" similar to Chris Shanks' video

first of all, that first one is just ridiculously funny...good thing that both of you were alright...I wonder if the other guy ever even saw it coming

*Corey*

I had one where the pits were on top of wooden pallet/cratish type things...anyways, pole missed the box, got wedged in those (and the mud that they were on), and I had to do the turn around and land on the ground and then roll out of it deal. Worse part was that my feet were killing me, I hadn't vaulted in about a month and my run was off, that miss meant a NH, and I was super frustrated as I had to kneel down in the box and literally dig the butt plug out of the mud/pry it out from the mud and crate between which it was wedged....absolutely lovely day.

and then of course the few that scare the coaches but out of which you land on your feet...having a rope swing lead to som very inventive falls. One time we were doing a low take-off plant drill (seen here: http://elitepolevaulttools.com/Pages/statictakeoff.htm) and the person controlling the pole movement didn't get it straight. That meant that I went into the support, wrapped around it, and then did a few circles swinging down around it...the first instance of pole dancing at bv. We all thought that it was pretty graceful and funny...coach thought that it was terrifying...and I thought that it was fun.

Pole vaulters are just born crazy.

[wurster490]

About 6 years ago when I was only in my second year of pv. I brought a friend out because he wanted to try. It had rained the night before so the ground was pretty soft. For some reason he was standing really close to the mat, and on one of my jumps I went up and he slipped while trying to move and then I landed on him...with my spikes...it was sort of like a rail slide down his leg with my spikes on, and he got a bunch of stitches to fix the gash. But he lived and when it healed he learned how to pole vault.

[Vault Chick]

man, that first one in that video was the worst! That was crazy. As for me, I haven't really done anything too drastic. A couple of times, the pole was a little too stiff, and I blocked out my plant, so while in the air I lost my top hand, and it flipped me onto the pit. Its scary when I do that.

Oh, I have broken a crossbar! The sad thing is, I broke it landing on it when it was only about 6 feet high! Don't ask how! Oh, one time I landed, and had hit the crossbar, so it was coming down, and landed on my ear. That hurt really bad, and was black, blue, and purple for weeks. What's great was my coach would always try flicking me in my ear! Don't you just love them sometimes! lol Lastly, one time I jumped over the bungie, but it somehow caught on me, came down, and whipped me all on my neck, leaving me with a fat welt!