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I was playing with IAAF top-list a little bit. I took USA, Russia and Germany - countries with more than 10 vaulters on the list.

From total of the 104 vaulters on the list USA has 29, Germany 13 and Russia 11.
USA:
average - 26.9
ten best - 29.9
five best - 30.2

Germany:
average - 25.6
ten best - 27.0
five best - 26.6

Russia:
average - 24.9
ten best - 25.0
five best - 25.2

If we look first 11 only, the average ages are:
USA: 29.0
Germany: 26.6
Russia:24.9

USA elite vaulters are the oldest. Even without Jeff Hartwig the average age of 10 best is 28.7 - still more than Germany and Russia. Russia has the youngest vaulters.

Any comments?

im planning around peaking at 29 or 33

(im 25 now )

Experience makes a difference

Its because all of our best vaulters go through the collegiate system. Look how the "best five" averages are roughly 4-5 years different then other countries (4-5 years of school). There are advantages and disadvantages to both. But in my opinion from my own experience and from what i've seen over the years, thats your answer. We could debate and go more in depth about why this happens if you like.

I wonder how many times US elite vaulters change coaches compared to non US vaulters? Could that be the answer or could it be the support systems, or the demanding student athlete life? Oh, here is one...how about the development of the US vaulter's own idea of proper technique? That one might get ugly. Basically, to me, it's really a number of variables.

Does anyone know the average age when collegiate developed vs non-collegiate developed jumpers reach the 5.80 mark? That might help explain the older age in US vaulters. I am interested to see the view of foreigners subjected to the collegiate system.

Could it be that most vaulters (at least the more athletic ones) don't really commit to vaulting until college. Most of the top vaulters I have known were really good all around athletes who played multiple sports in high school and only began to foresee a long term career in vaulting after high school. It would be interesting to look at the origins of the top 10 vaulters in modern US history including the age at which they started to receive quality coaching and when they dropped other sports to focus on vaulting.

UWvaulter wrote:
Does anyone know the average age when collegiate developed vs non-collegiate developed jumpers reach the 5.80 mark? That might help explain the older age in US vaulters. I am interested to see the view of foreigners subjected to the collegiate system.

Years ago (maybe around '00), I ran the numbers and at the time, American vaulters reached 5.80 at an average age of almost 27 while non-American vaulters reached it at a bit under age 23. More Americans seemed to plateau at 5.70 than non-Americans (psychological barrier of 19-feet for Americans versus 5.80 being a relatively insignificant metric number for everyone else? More Euros stalled at 5.90 than Americans in a reversed psychological barrier)

It's pretty interesting that there is approximately a 4 year difference. That stat correlates to (1)age at when athletes begin training in the pole vault and (2)the collegiate system. The collegiate system has many variables. According to the data we have in the Petrov Charts http://www.polevaultpower.com/6mclub.php the 6meter non-US jumpers started at an average of about 10 yrs old while the US jumpers(Hartwig and Mack) started at 14. When did Toby, Brad, Hooker and Burgess start?

Toby most likely started in 7th grade since that's the first year you can vault in Texas schools.

UWvaulter wrote:It's pretty interesting that there is approximately a 4 year difference. That stat correlates to (1)age at when athletes begin training in the pole vault and (2)the collegiate system. The collegiate system has many variables. According to the data we have in the Petrov Charts http://www.polevaultpower.com/6mclub.php the 6meter non-US jumpers started at an average of about 10 yrs old while the US jumpers(Hartwig and Mack) started at 14. When did Toby, Brad, Hooker and Burgess start?

I think Steve Hooker started jumping with Mark Stewart in Melbourne in 1998, which would have made him 16 years old.

Burgess started in 1994 when he would have been about 14.

I find that a lot of the home grown Aussie vaulters really don't start jumping until they're well into their teen years. I'm not sure about the Russian/European-Aussie vaulters though. Some of those guys might have been born with a pole in their hands.

Andy_C wrote:I find that a lot of the home grown Aussie vaulters really don't start jumping until they're well into their teen years. I'm not sure about the Russian/European-Aussie vaulters though. Some of those guys might have been born with a pole in their hands.

The Soviet system (& most Eastern European) was designed around "organized play" at younger ages that allowed coaches to identify certain athletic traits in kids at play. They were then encouraged to pursue certain sports, which some did, and that's why they ended up pole vaulting at a young age. Tudor Bompa's book Total Training for Young Champions details some of the kid games that were used to develop athletic skills starting at age 6.

Some , like Potapovich, were just around the sport since his dad was a Soviet track coach and started early because of that. His early marks certainly don't imply that he was given a pole at age 10 for any reason other than his dad wanted him to vault. Bochkarnikov, Tarasov, Ecker, Hooker, etc all had at least national class, if not world class, track athletes as parents so it's really not that unusual that they started earlier than other kids.

Brad started in 8th grade. I believe that is 13 or 14.