Olympic pole vaulter Lacy Janson gives a primer of poles, their specifications and how she uses them.Poles differ in length, weight rating and flex number.Most poles are made of fiberglass; there is also a line made of carbon fiber. Those poles tend to be lighter, but also seem to be more fragile.The flex number is measured by setting the pole on two supports at a set distance and then a weight is hung from the middle. The distance it is pulled down by the weight is the flex number, usually measured in centimeters, so, a 15′ pole that has a flex rating of 18.4 is stiffer than a 19.0.Weight ratings are assigned according to the flex number. For example, a pole might be assigned a weight rating of 150 if the flex number falls between 20.5-20.0 or a 155 if it falls between 19.9-19.4.The higher the weight rating the stiffer the pole, but the lower the flex number is, the stiffer the pole is.High schools uses the weight ratings as a way to keep athletes off poles that are too small, or too soft and bend easily. This is dangerous because instead of sending a kid up into the air by recoiling at vertical, it is overloaded with energy and ends up recoiling way past vertical and launches the vaulter horizontally. In extreme cases it carries the vaulter off the pad. Hopefully there are no chairs or concrete or unsuspecting spectators where the vaulter ends up landing.High school vaulters are not allowed to jump on a pole that has a weight rating less than their body weight to try to avoid horizontal jumping.My poles are 15′ with flex ratings from 20.2-17.2. I usually warm up on the 20.2 or the 19.7. On a day with a head wind or a day that I’m feeling sluggish, I might start on the 19.7 for my opening height. I know that it won’t work for heights over 4.30, so then I go up to the 19.0.I usually get to my 18.4. The 17.8 has been used on my best days and on those days we decided we need the 17.2 in the bag just in case. http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120803/ARTICLE/120809864/2055/NEWS?p=2&tc=pg
Daily Archives: August 7, 2012
Bring on the Men: Qualifying on Wednesday
- UKR UkraineMaksym Mazuryk – –
- GER GermanyBjorn Otto – –
- FRA FranceRomain Mesnil – –
- JPN JapanSeito Yamamoto – –
- BRA BrazilFabio da Silva – –
- POR PortugalEdi Maia – –
- POL PolandLukasz Michalski – –
- GRE GreeceKonstadinos Filippidis – –
- USA United StatesJeremy Scott – –
- GER GermanyMalte Mohr – –
- AUS AustraliaSteven Hooker – –
- USA United StatesDerek Miles – –
- GBR BritainSteven Lewis – –
- CRO CroatiaIvan Horvat – –
- RUS RussiaEvgeniy Lukyanenko – –
- KOR South KoreaKim Yoo-suk – –
- CZE Czech RepublicJan Kudlicka – –
- SWE SwedenAlhaji Jeng – –
- CHN ChinaYang Yansheng – –
- RUS RussiaSergey Kucheryanu – –
- UKR UkraineDenys Yurchenko – –
- LAT LatviaMareks Arents – –
- FIN FinlandJere Bergius – –
- RUS RussiaDmitry Starodubtsev – –
- CUB CubaLazaro Borges – –
- POL PolandPawel Wojciechowski – –
- KAZ KazakhstanNikita Filippov – –
- USA United StatesBrad Walker – –
- FRA FranceRenaud Lavillenie – –
- ESP SpainIgor Bychkov – –
- BLR BelarusStanislau Tsivonchyk – –
- GER GermanyRaphael Holzdeppe –
Steve Hooker, pole-vaulting, and the yips and why the vault is so mentally hard
Pole vaulting is not a normal activity. Nobody is able to just pick up a pole and jump high straight away. It takes months or years of training before even the most gifted athletes can call themselves a pole vaulter.That is because pole vaulting goes against all of your natural instincts of self-preservation.You know how you get sweaty palms when standing on the edge of a cliff? How your heart starts beating faster when you see a snake or spider? Or how some people are deathly afraid of flying?That is your body telling you that what you are doing is not normal and your survival instinct saying you should stop doing it. Now.Well imagine if your chosen sport meant that you had to ignore that inner voice. That is what pole vaulters have to do every single jump.But then it gets more complicated because while you have to ignore that instinct so that you can pole vault you have to listen to it so that you don’t do anything to hurt yourself.If most pole vaulters actually thought about it and broke down what they are doing, they would never take off the ground.Pole vaulting Continue reading
The Six Pillars of Olympic: Pillar 1
Try these fitness tips from the top athletes in the world
Pillar 1: Set Clear Goals
Olympic gold? That’s probably not in the cards. But a best-ever bench press, or completing a half marathon, or losing 20 pounds? Those could happen. Your first step, as it was for Usain Bolt, is to state your goal. Tell your wife, your training partner, your dentist—someone who will remember it and hold you accountable. And hold yourself accountable. Write your goal down and post it on your refrigerator. Going public with your goal creates the kind of contract that’s hard (and embarrassing) to break.
The difference between a goal and a daydream is whether you take action to achieve it. So your second step is to give yourself a deadline and count backward from there to come up with incremental benchmarks. Or count forward from where you are now.
Third step: Create a program to achieve both the incremental goals and the grand prize. “My coach, Glen Mills, splits the season into cycles with specific goals,” Bolt says. “Then he breaks down the cycles by the week and by the day, with each unit having its own goal. There is a purpose to everything we do. Each session we know what we want to accomplish.”
It’s an approach approved by Martin Rooney, P.T., C.S.C.S., creator of Training for Warriors. “I have every client write down goals. Your goals become your ‘why,’ and if that’s powerful enough, you will figure out a ‘how.’ ” Set monthly goals for body-fat percentage, strength, and performance, with weekly checkups to see how you’re progressing Read more at Men’s Health: http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/six-pillars-olympic-fitness#ixzz22FpWE7UE
Pole Vaulting: From the Olympics to Your Own Career
Watching the sport of pole vaulting in the Olympics always takes my breath away. Using a flexible pole made of fiberglass (a far cry from the first bamboo and aluminum versions), athletes hurl themselves over an insanely high bar. These athletes have been training and steadily advancing with good, better, and best coaches who teach them technique, and with it, courage. In this discipline, they soar to almost three times their own height. It takes the combination of skills from rigorous daily practice, the strength and flexibility of the pole, and the self-confidence that comes from working with coaches to be able to compete and win.I sense the same elation when I see a smart, educated, talented person turn to someone wiser and more experienced, often a mentor, to elevate them in their careering process and serve as both the pole and the coach. They lift you by giving you access to resources and strategies –introductions, new ideas, and alliances that would otherwise be out of your own reach.Strong parallels, this pole vaulting and careering. Just as you wouldn’t attempt competing in a challenging sport right away without practice and coaching, so too, in careering, you need to be technically skilled and mentally secure before taking a big leap. Like athletes practice to raise the bar, you start to build your social muscle, beginning with smaller weights in the early stages of your career. Learning to do the assigned work the best way you possibly can, you have to simultaneously develop the skill of building relationships and shift away from an old-school system of obedience and dependence in order to combine necessary technical competence with essential nontechnical social skills. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adele-scheele/career-advice-jobs-mentor-_b_1739331.html
How Annie Thorisdottir Went From Olympic Vault Contender to CrossFit Champ
Once again, Annie Thorisdottir maintained her title of “Fittest Female on Earth” when she won last month’s Reebok CrossFit Games for the second year in a row. But Annie, 22, once dreamed of a different type of glory; in 2009, the former gymnast was on track to represent her home country, Iceland, as a pole vaulter before she decided to give CrossFita try. CrossFit combines everything from simple strength-training moves to weight lifting, aerobics, and gymnastics, making us curious how Annie went from Olympic contender to being the face of this popular workout
FitSugar: What types of workouts were you doing before CrossFit?
Annie Thorisdottir: I was in gymnastics from age 7 or 8 until 15 and then I started in dance, ballet, and dance sports. Then I went into pole vaulting; I was a pole vaulter for two years and then I did CrossFit and was kind of like, either I’m going to be doing CrossFit or pole vaulting, I can’t be doing both 100 percent. I decided to pick CrossFit, and I’m really happy I did.
FS: What were your workouts like when you were a pole vaulter vs. how are they now that you do CrossFit?
AT: I was deciding if I wanted to try to make it to the Olympics in 2012 or 2016 and I really like pole vaulting and enjoyed it, but I always felt like I had to do something more with it. I’ve never felt like it was enough because it was only one thing and I felt like I really needed something else. CrossFit fit that perfect sport for me. http://www.fitsugar.com/CrossFit-Games-Winner-Annie-Thorisdottir-Olympics-24323504
Wind proves too tricky for Australian pole vaulter Alana Boyd at London Olympics
AUSTRALIAN Alana Boyd was the second competitor eliminated from the pole vault final after failing to judge the tricky conditions. Boyd only completed the opening height of 4.30m on her third attempt, with an exit in just minutes narrowly averted.
But the 2010 Commonwealth Game champion missed her first attempt at 4.45m and then didn’t get off the ground again.
On her second attempt she timed out as she waited for the conditions to settle. Then on her final attempt she ran though, dropped her pole, and performed a forward somersault on the padded mat.
The daughter of Olympians – pole vault father Ray and 200m sprinter mother Denise – had exited the Beijing Olympics in tears after failing to make the final.
Boyd could not get anywhere near the 4.76m personal best she recorded in Perth in March. Russia’s Elena Isinbaeva – going for her third straight Olympic title – had not yet recorded her first attempt by the time 28-year-old Boyd slumped from the final.
Boyd had been in the form of her career over the summer, but despite a solid clearance of 4.63m only days from the Olympics in Germany had struggled in recent months.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/london-olympics/wind-proves-too-tricky-for-australian-pole-vaulter-alana-boyd-at-london-olympics/story-fnd2erhd-1226444429575
Pole vault will put you on the edge of your seat
Nevada –Jake Dalton finished his London Olympics on Sunday with a fifth-place finish in the men’s floor exercise. The 20-year-old Spanish Springs grad was going for an individual medal.Becky Holliday, the 32-year-old pole vaulter who graduated from Reed High, completed her Olympic debut and finished ninth in the pole vault on Monday.I came away impressed by just how cringe-inducing both sports can be when you watch them live.When you’re at a football game, you cheer for a touchdown. And yes, you will groan over occasional interception. But it’s nothing like waiting with teeth clenched for something bad to happen.You don’t root for it. But you wait for it – the bar that falls in the pole vault or the foot that steps out on the floor.It’s nerve-wracking. And terribly exciting
http://blogs.rgj.com/olympics/2012/08/06/pole-vault-puts-me-on-the-edge-of-my-seat/
German pole vault failure, discus and volleyball hopes
Germany’s Silke Spiegelburg missed her chance of a medal in the women’s pole vault. But discus throwers and volleyballers are keeping German medal hopes alive in London.
German pole vaulter Silke Spiegelburg burst into tears after failing to get over the bar at 4.75 meters and had to be content with fourth place. The other two Germans in the event, Martina Strutz (4.55 meters) and Lisa Ryzih (4.45 meters) came fifth and eighth respectively.
Gold went to Jennifer Suhr from the United States (4.75 meters) ahead of Yarisley Silva from Cuba (4.75) on silver. Twice former champion Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia won bronze. http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16147724,00.html
In the Pole Vault, Consistency Through Tough Conditions: Frame by Frame Analysis of Jenn Suhr’s Olympic vault
Jenn Suhr of the United States won the pole vault with a jump of 4.75 meters, or 15 feet 7 inches. The jump was nearly 7 inches shy of her personal best, and 2 inches shorter than her silver-medal winning jump in 2008. Wind in the stadium affected many vaulters.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/06/sports/olympics/polevault.html
The Physics Of Pole-Vaulting: the wrong way and right way
Of course, with the London Olympics going on, there’s a lot of articles examining the physics associated with various athletic events.
This one is rather interesting, because it shows you the WRONG way of analyzing the physics of pole vault, and that using such a result will produce a ridiculously fast speed that a pole vaulter will need to clear such heights. Often, this is how we do physics, and when we realize that there has to be something more beyond what we currently understand. When the result of a current idea doesn’t match reality, we have to figure out what went wrong – whether we didn’t account for everything that’s involved, or that our description is inadequate. In this case, it is the former (not accounting for the flexing of the pole), while our description (Newton’s laws) is still valid. http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/08/olympics-physics-pole-vault/
Olympic Physics: How Pole Vaulters Go Over the Top
When you think about it, the pole vault is quite interesting. There is a bar 4 to 5 meters high that you want to clear. Jumping won’t cut it. Your only option is to run as fast as you can and use a long pole to vault over the bar.
Historically, the pole vault was first used to get over canals and marshes. It was simply a matter of maximizing your horizontal distance. In the mid-1800s, some bright guy thought he’d see how high he might get pole vaulting. The modern pole vault was, according to Wikipedia, born with its first proper competition in Germany in 1950. The original poles were stiff, but over time flexible poles of fiberglass and, later, carbon fiber allowed athletes to achieve ever-greater heights. The current outdoor record, set by Sergey Bubka in 1994, stands at an amazing 6.14 meters. Continue reading
DalCais sets pole vault record in her freshman year
WEST MILFORD — Just a freshman during the 2011-2012 school year, Brittany DalCais from West Milford High School has already set records for the State University of New York Oswego women’s outdoor track and field program. At the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Outdoor Championship Meet held in Troy, N.Y., DalCais set an Oswego record of 11-feet 7 1/2 inches in the pole vault. At the same meet, she was part of Oswego’s 4 by 400 relay team that set a school record of 4:01.57. She earned All-State University of New York Athletic Conference Second Team honors this spring.
DalCais also did quite well in the classroom. Her achievements include being named to the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III All-Academic Team http://westmilfordmessenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120806/SPORTS/120809971/DalCais-sets-pole-vault-record-in-her-freshman-year–
Queen of the pole vault, by a mile
But on this windy night, Yelena Isinbayeva settles for bronze behind American Jennifer Suhr
LONDON — There were no tears at the end of this reign, no face buried in her hands, sobbing.Yelena Isinbayeva has abdicated her Olympic pole-vaulting throne after consecutive victories in Athens and Beijing. But she stepped down at Olympic Stadium Monday night with laughter and a bronze-medal-winning lap of the track with the Russian flag billowing behind her, accompanied by American Jennifer Suhr, the champion, and silver medallist Yarisley Silva of Cuba.The 30-year-old from Volgograd never found her rhythm in wet, gusty conditions; she missed her opening height at 4.55 metres, cleared 4.65 and 4.70, twice missed 4.75 then took down the bar with her left ankle at 4.80, essentially giving herself the boot.Suhr, the silver medallist in Beijing, Continue reading
Olympic proposal: Holly Bleasdale’s boyfriend on one knee after pole vault event
Holly Bleasdale’s emotions have been all over the board on Monday. The British pole vault athlete came in sixth during the competition at the Olympic Stadium and she failed to medal. Extremely disappointed and even shedding tears, it appeared little could be done to salvage her rotten day.However that was before her boyfriend Paul Bradshaw got down on one knee and proposed to the Olympic athlete. Not caring if she won or lost, it appears Paul was madly in love with her and just waiting for the perfect time to ask.“6th in the Olympics and @bradshaaaw proposes to me 
epic day!!!” tweeted out Holly Beasdale from her official Twitter account only moments after being proposed to by her boyfriend.Apparently Holly Bleasdale found something much more golden than an Olympic medal at the Olympics and this type of award is impossible for anyone else to take home too. The couple who proposed at the Olympics have yet to set a date except to share that Holly Bleasdale expects to be in Rio during the 2016 Olympics. http://www.examiner.com/article/olympic-proposal-holly-bleasdale-s-boyfriend-on-one-knee-after-pole-vault-event
Brad Walker’s Pole Vaulting Coach: You’re Too Smart To Be A Pole Vaulter’
“He was tall, lanky and dorky and he never looked like he was ever going to be a pole vaulter,” University High Pole Vaulting coach Reg Hulbert said with a laugh.
The year was 1994, Walker volunteered for pole vault in the seventh grade at Horizon Junior High and that’s where Hulbert first noticed Walker. From there, Walker and a friend, Jeff Wineinger, would come over and practice at the pole vaulting pit in Hulbert’s backyard.
By 1995, Walker was training under Hulbert’s tutelage in U-Hi Track and Field program. That’s where Walker’s Olympic dreams truly began, even if his coach didn’t believe it back then”He was too smart to be a pole vaulter. We like our pole vaulters to be kind of stupid cause they have to be crazy, you know?” Hulbert said between laughs.
Indeed, pole vaulting requires a certain breed: heart-pounding, pole-bending, gravity-defying risk-takers.
But Hulbert said Walker “Was like 4.0 student and I told him numerous times ‘Brad, you need to go be a distance runner. You’re too smart to be a pole vaulter.” Continue reading
