What to do w/ a broken pole

[Sean/vaulter/naeS]

Put your current PR on it cut it off right on the either side of the break and right the date and keep track of your vaulting career with all the ones you have, or cut it into a two foot section and get it signed by the elites at Reno or where ever.

[VaultPurple]

the breaks are usualy pretty clean so just put some superglue around the edges and rap it in duct tape for support.... you could also use a fibergalss resin to put on the duct tape to make it a little stronger and flexiable.... then you buy one of those cool pole vault skins to cover up the messy work and you got a brand new pole to sell on ebay!!!









This is a complete and total joke and should by no means be attempted by anyone!

[Rhino]

I read in Track Technique magazine in the seventies about a guy who, inspired by the prebend in the banana poles, used fiberglass and resin to join the pieces of broken poles together with an offset, kind of like this:

______/---------\_______

Imagine the dash line as being solid and connecting the tops of the slash and backslash. He claimed to get more return than on a straight or standard pre-bent pole, that is, he could bend a stiffer pole when it was shaped like my crude illustration.

I can imagine the rending of garments that will ensue when a modern audience reads the suggestion of sticking broken pieces back together, but improvisation was looked upon a little more favorably thirty years ago.

[AVC Coach]

I took the center section, where the brand name is (not disclosing that information) and chopped the ends clean with my miter saw. Then I drilled small holes and sunk some wall hooks about 6 inches apart, ran a wire through the hollow center of the pole. It hangs on my office wall at school and I use it for a key/whistle rack.

[Gabriel]

Anything is sellable.

You could sell them as-is (broken or damaged unusable) to medieval sports organizations. Some people there use the damaged pole-vault poles as spear/halberd type weaponry because they are more durable than bamboo, and rattan is not legal for use in all of the organizations. Because of their flex and durability, they are far superior to them than rattan or bamboo.

The cost of new pole-vault poles is prohibitive for many members especially in comparison to the relatively cheap but usable bamboo and rattan alternatives.

They are typically interested in anything 7ft plus. I know several people who buy them if they are cheap enough because of the damage.

Contact me if you are interested in selling to these guys.

Gabriel
everybodyhatesspam@gmail.com
972.953.7293

[dfoss]

[quote="jmpngblonde"]all the old broken poles at my school were filed and taped on the ends and used as stubbeys for running hurtles w and teaching new vaulters the plant w/o a huge pole in their hands...theres like 30 of them in a bucket in our shed...altho most guys i know who break poles keep half as a souvenir and put it up somewhere...:-)[/quote]

Here's what you should have done:

Don't BREAK POLES!!!

How can anyone break so many poles?!! You need to hold about a foot lower, run faster, jump up higher! You need a coach who doesn't teach you how to break poles, and you need to LISTEN!

Try that... then you won't have broken poles much, if ever!

[KirkB]

Here's what you should have done:

Don't BREAK POLES!!!

How can anyone break so many poles?!! You need to hold about a foot lower, run faster, jump up higher! You need a coach who doesn't teach you how to break poles, and you need to LISTEN!

Try that... then you won't have broken poles much, if ever!

Good advice, but easier said than done.

I broke poles in high school (in the 1960s) out of my own ignorance. We had to experiment to find the right flex, and also I stupidly, purposely pushed with my bottom hand to get more bend. I think poles had more flaws back then too. More brittle.

I broke poles in college due to sudden improvements in technique, or feelilng much stronger/faster on certain days and not immediately recognizing that and moving up a pole. In college, this was actually more often in warm-ups on light poles than in competition.

Long after I retired, my father-in-law took one of my 16-foot Catapoles (unbroken, but obsolete) and used it as a Canadian flag pole on top of a building at a local sawmill.

I'm sure that would work just as well for American flag poles, even with shorter, broken pieces!

Kirk Bryde

[Soar Like an Eagle]

I read in Track Technique magazine in the seventies about a guy who, inspired by the prebend in the banana poles, used fiberglass and resin to join the pieces of broken poles together with an offset, kind of like this:

______/---------\_______

Imagine the dash line as being solid and connecting the tops of the slash and backslash. He claimed to get more return than on a straight or standard pre-bent pole, that is, he could bend a stiffer pole when it was shaped like my crude illustration.

I can imagine the rending of garments that will ensue when a modern audience reads the suggestion of sticking broken pieces back together, but improvisation was looked upon a little more favorably thirty years ago.

Dr. Jim Vernon (master’s vaulter) a professor in Mathematics at USC designed and used the poles in masters meets. When I was at Mount San Antonio Junior College in 1978 I jumped 15’0”on a 15-180 pole gripping 14’0”from a short run. I weighed 143 lbs at the time. It had a foot to foot and a half pre bend and when took off there was pressure at the plant and the pole came back fast. The downside it was quite heavy due to the extra glass from gluing it back together. I had fun jumping on the pole that day because it was very easy to plant because the big prebend.

[kindyr]

Gabriel Said:
You could sell them as-is (broken or damaged unusable) to medieval sports organizations. Some people there use the damaged pole-vault poles as spear/halberd type weaponry because they are more durable than bamboo, and rattan is not legal for use in all of the organizations. Because of their flex and durability, they are far superior to them than rattan or bamboo.


I would be one of those guys and new to this forum. The 7' description is about right, as is the reasoning for looking for broken poles.

If anybody in the Illinois area has a broken pole they are looking to get rid of, please let me know.
Kindyr