PoleVaultPower.com

here in new york many meets and invitaionals open at 8 feet (or even lower!) which results in me sitting for as many as 6 hours until the bar gets up to my opening height. honestly i think that it should be at lowest 9 feet. anyone else think so?

Meet organizers knew 100 years ago, that a track meet generally exceeding 2.5 to 3 hours would be too long and lose spectators. The event which made the meet go long was (and still is) the pole vault. Officials have been instructed since then to have an opening height that would be high enough to quickly get to the higher heights of the best vaulters.

Every season I see exceptions to the above. These exceptions are typically invitationals which try to provide all competitors with an achievable opening height.

I am sorry that you have to wait so long, but remember back when you started. Unless you were born jumping over 9' you would have been one of the one's you are wining about. It's not just about you.

i find it worse when people go from like 9 to 10 instead of 9-6. but there is no real happy medium

Usually the factor that slows the progress of the pole vault during a meet is not the opening height, but the time between jumps. If the athletes, officials and pit crew are not on the same page, it can triple the amount of time the event takes. I suspect in your case, all three can do more to speed up the event.

vaultmd wrote:Usually the factor that slows the progress of the pole vault during a meet is not the opening height, but the time between jumps. If the athletes, officials and pit crew are not on the same page, it can triple the amount of time the event takes. I suspect in your case, all three can do more to speed up the event.

If the crew is good, and the time between jumps is around a minute, starting low dramatically adds to the total number of jumps and the total length of the event.

botakatobi wrote:

vaultmd wrote:Usually the factor that slows the progress of the pole vault during a meet is not the opening height, but the time between jumps. If the athletes, officials and pit crew are not on the same page, it can triple the amount of time the event takes. I suspect in your case, all three can do more to speed up the event.

If the crew is good, and the time between jumps is around a minute, starting low dramatically adds to the total number of jumps and the total length of the event.

Does anyone else agree with that statement? It doesn't match what I've seen over the last 40 years. It seems what is being asserted is that there are more second and third attempt clearances if the meet is run well.

Example #1 Starting height 15'. Progressions 15 cm. Top vaulters are 18 footers. 30 entrants.

Example #2 Starting height 8'. Progressions 15 cm. Top vaulters are 18 footers. 30 entrants.

Example #2 cannot help having more jumps even if all first attempt clearances. More jumps equals increased event time.

Do they allow you to have warm up jumps after passing a certain number of heights. I know in New Jersey if you pass 3 heights you get a few warm up jumps in.

VaulterChick122 wrote:Do they allow you to have warm up jumps after passing a certain number of heights. I know in New Jersey if you pass 3 heights you get a few warm up jumps in.

You get two minutes of warmup time when you have passed three heights. A higher opening height means less people will get that warmup time.

Opening height and the height progression should be reasonable for the type of meet and athletes entered. Dual meets it should be low. Invites it should probably be higher, depending on the type of invite and the field. The top vaulters need to learn how to be able to sit for awhile and compete with minimal warmup.

We had an invite Friday. There was miscommunication with the bus driver and the kids got there late. Boys were vaulting first and mine showed up at the meet 15 minutes before the bar was going up. My kids don't need much in the way of warmup jumps, so rather than having them rush through their general warmup in order to get maybe one trip down the runway, I had them take their time warming up and their only run throughs were in the two minutes before they came in. They both did fine, made several bars. I think at our last home meet, my top guy had 4x100 during warmups and also took his only warmup vaults during the two minute period.

I don't like seeing top vaulters sit for hours, but I think with the two minute rule, if they pay attention and get good and warm before their clock starts, there's no reason waiting for a long time should be the end of the world.