Pole vaulting to many people may seem extremely simple, I mean come on, it’s just running with an extremely large stick and landing on a soft mat right? Wrong! Pole vault is a complex sport that requires countless hours of practice and discipline and incorporates physics as well as athletics all into one. So, if you’re ready to begin your long, and at times disappointing, journey in order to attain the metaphorical “biscuit” then below is the basics of how to pole vault. If all goes well, by the end of this article you will face the pit with the confidence and skill essential to success.
Why should you believe or trust anything I say? Because I am a pole vaulter myself and, after speaking to multiple coaches and doing this sport for 4 years, I have picked up a couple of things along the way. My goal is to prevent you from injuring yourself and hopefully save you from some of the common mistakes new vaulters make as they learn this sport. Also, I hold the junior school record at my high school and am on track to break the school record during my senior year.
The next crucial piece of equipment that you will need is the landing area and standards which hold up the crossbar that you will need to practice with as well as to use during competition. The landing area is usually compiled of multiple mats that are soft and a larger top foam cover is added on top to make the landing area even softer. While this might sound over-the-top it is very necessary seeing that no one really wants to land on the solid track or whatever surface you are pole vaulting on. The standards are what you will use in order to change the depth of the crossbar which will come in handy when you are knocking the crossbar over because it is too close to you and you do not have enough time to reach the peak of the jump. The standards are only allowed to move back a certain distance from the front to the back. It is typically allowed to move 80 cm either forwards or backward in order to give you more time to clear the crossbar or to bring it closer to you so that you do not have to stretch out and kill your momentum which will stop you from clearing the crossbar. The crossbar is set at a certain height depending on the level of experience of the pole vaulter. The crossbar will not be set at 7 feet if the average Olympian opening height is 19 feet. While everyone wants to avoid hitting the crossbar because it will knock them out of the competition, they also want to avoid hitting the crossbar because it is typically made of carbon fiber and leaves a nice-sized bruise if you do hit it. The final piece of equipment you will need is the plant box however most schools and practice facilities will already have this built-in for you to use. The other option is to have the landing area and the runway you are running on placed on a raised platform and have a plant box inserted in front of the landing area so you have somewhere to place your pole.
(This is what the landing area, crossbar, standards should look like when completely assembled.)
Congratulations! At this point, you now have all of the equipment you will need in order to begin learning and practicing pole vaulting. Below are the steps on how to pole vault.
Step 1: Run very fast while holding the pole up. The distance in which you will be running depends on the height you are trying to clear as well as the size of the pole you are using. You will not need an 18-foot pole if you are running 11 feet as that would be almost impossible to push far enough to land safely. When you are holding the pole, the distance between your hands should be around an elbow-length apart. To correctly hold the pole, you should have the correct pole grip and rotate it so that you are holding it up with the pole tip pointing in the air. This will make the amount of force that you use to plant in the plant box stronger and will help with your overall jump.
[Image from https://www.comsol.com/blogs/reaching-new-heights-in-pole-vaulting-a-multibody-analysis/ ]
Step 3: Jump. This is by far the most deceiving part of your vault. It sounds so simple but it contains the most work and you have to do it all in the 2 seconds that you are in the air. First, you need to make sure that when you are about to take off you are standing straight up, your hands are roughly at a 90-degree angle in order to make the pole easier to bend, and you need to make sure that your drive knee is pushing into the plant box while your trail leg is getting ready to swing up so that you can begin your inversion. Right when you take off, you need to push the pole forward towards the landing area. This is because the drive knee and trail leg is what is going to propel you to safety. Next, you are going to swing upside down with your trail leg and shoot off of the top of your pole like an arrow. This inversion will be what gets you to clear higher crossbars and is crucial to becoming an elite pole vaulter. Then the next step of the jump is to turn so that you are looking down the top of your pole while you are inverted. This is because it will be easier for you to bend at the stomach than it will be for you to bend at the back and it will benefit you by making crossbars easier to clear. The final step of the jump is to make sure that when you have begun your descent from what feels like 4,000 feet you land on your back instead of your feet in order to prevent any foot/ankle injuries. ( The image below depicts the diagram of the complete vault).
I found your piece to be very in-depth and I learned a lot about pole vaulting. I did not before like specific heights and how your body weight and height matter in how you are meant to approach going over the bar.
ReplyDelete-Matthew Madrigal