PoleVaultPower.com

As an athlete i have always had weird superstitions and rituals i go through. In baseball, i would never walk on the chalk line and i would go through an endless ritual in the batters box. For vaulting, i do some strange things. For once, when i get new spikes, they sit in my room in front of my Buhda and burn inscence infront of it. Then i will take it to my locker room and have those who i deem good enough (any1 who works hard) to see my new spikes, as to not to hamper the Chee of my shoes. But for the vault itself, i will always start from the pit and walk down the runways dragging my pole like im a lil kid with his blanket. Then when im about to jump, i get on my tippy toes go back down, push my pole, get on my tippy toes again, go down and sprint.

Back in high school, i would yell out the word "deep" just before i started running down the runway. Any of my teammates that were nearby would echo back "deep". It helped pump me up.

i am very obsessive with my hands before i vault. i wipe them on a towel, blow on them, wave them in the air, just to make sure they are completely dry and that i will have a good grip on the pole. i feel like i'm the only one who worries about this...

Well, seeing that i'm bout to head off to another meet in literally like 30 minutes i guess i'm getting started to do my "superstitious" stuff...

So right now i'm looking at a lot of pole vault stuff, pictures, clips, tips, advice..etc. Then i listen to my music and that sort of stuff before the meet.

Now, when time rolls around to my attempts on the run way. I make sure my hands are dry too, and i like to check my grip a few times. I kinda bend my knees and get on my toes and flex the pole like once (my coach hates it when i take to long to jump and he hates that i flex the pole) but it make me feel better knowing that the pole will bend... ...and then i take a strong deep breath and kinda tell my self the word "GO" in my head really loud....

other obsessions would be:

- My knee high sox
-making sure my spikes are tied tight and the laces aren't touching the rundway
-making sure my arm band hasn't shifted...

i always do some really quick high knees in place once i get on the runway with my pole, and a couple little i guess you'd call them tuck jumps. a couple vaulters before i go, i'll be standing off to the side, doing this weird jumping thing from foot to foot, just like shifting my weight, but with a spring in it...keeps my ankles warm (they like to roll)

Aviendha wrote:i always do some really quick high knees in place once i get on the runway with my pole, and a couple little i guess you'd call them tuck jumps. a couple vaulters before i go, i'll be standing off to the side, doing this weird jumping thing from foot to foot, just like shifting my weight, but with a spring in it...keeps my ankles warm (they like to roll)

That sounds more like 'staying warm/warmed up' - I'd say thats about the healthiest 'ritual' you could have

izzystikchik wrote:Well, seeing that i'm bout to head off to another meet in literally like 30 minutes i guess i'm getting started to do my "superstitious" stuff...

So right now i'm looking at a lot of pole vault stuff, pictures, clips, tips, advice..etc. Then i listen to my music and that sort of stuff before the meet.

Now, when time rolls around to my attempts on the run way. I make sure my hands are dry too, and i like to check my grip a few times. I kinda bend my knees and get on my toes and flex the pole like once (my coach hates it when i take to long to jump and he hates that i flex the pole) but it make me feel better knowing that the pole will bend... ...and then i take a strong deep breath and kinda tell my self the word "GO" in my head really loud....

other obsessions would be:

- My knee high sox
-making sure my spikes are tied tight and the laces aren't touching the rundway
-making sure my arm band hasn't shifted...

I had the knee high socks going in high school too!!!!!

I always were High Socks that go up to my knees and I'll Run my hurdles and when I go to the polevault i change my Socks to a Specials socks that were a tad bit darker then the rest when i bought them.

I was gonna try the knee highs at our last meet but I forgot them. Oh well, next week.

all I do is go up on my toes once, take a deep breath nd tell my brain to shut the heck up.

I always go to the back of the runway when I'm up third (in the hole) so I can stand to the side and visualize. Then when I get on the runway, I plant the pole in front of me, pick it up, and go. I don't like to make a big show about it or think about too much...seems to work for me since I never ever run through (not an option!). Like izzystikchik, I also have to have my spikes tight and not touching the ground. I also use chalk indoors but not outdoors.

One of the vaulters I coach cannot do a vault unless he breathes on his hands first. What's funny is that he totally hates doing it (and the fact that he HAS to do it), but he is a prisoner of his superstition!

I smack my self in the face real hard to pump my self up. Not the greatest habit though, after a meet where I had 3 3rd attempt clearances and took 10 jumps total I woke up the next morning with a black eye