The Pole Vault has been an olympic event for Men since 1896, and women since 2000. This article will examine the development and evolution of the Pole Vault.

Pole Jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, Cretans and Celts. It was used in warfare sieges to get over obstacles such as enemy walls or used to vault onto animals such as bulls and horses. Poles were used as a practical means of passing over natural obstacles in marshy places such as provinces of Friesland in the Netherlands, along the North Sea, and the great level of the Fens across Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Artificial draining of these marshes created a network of open drains or canals intersecting each other. To cross these without getting wet, while avoiding tedious roundabout journeys over bridges, a stack of jumping poles was kept at every house and used for vaulting over the canals. Venetian gondoliers have traditionally used punting poles for moving to the shore from their boat.

In 1775 Poles were introduced into gymnastic competitions in Germany, for a vertical event.  more

The Pole Vault has been an olympic event for Men since 1896, and women since 2000. This article will examine the development and evolution of the Pole Vault

One of the earliest pole vaulting competitions where height was measured took place at the Ulverston Football and Cricket Club, Lancashire, north of the sands (now Cumbria) in 1843.^[2] Modern competition began around 1850 in Germany, when pole vaulting was added to the exercises of the Turner gymnastic clubs by Johann C. F. GutsMuths and Friedrich L. Jahn. The modern pole vaulting technique was developed in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. In Great Britain, it was first practiced at the Caledonian Games.

Initially, vaulting poles were made from stiff materials such as bamboo or aluminum. The introduction of flexible vaulting poles made from composites such as fiberglass or carbon fiber allowed vaulters to achieve greater height. Physical attributes such as speed, agility and strength are essential to pole vaulting effectively, but technical skill is an equally if not more important element. The object of pole vaulting is to clear a bar or crossbar supported upon two uprights (standards) without knocking it down.  more

The Pole Vault has been an olympic event for Men since 1896, and women since 2000. This article will examine the development and evolution of the Pole Vault.

Competitive pole vaulting began using solid Hardwood (Ash or Hickory) poles. Were used in the mid 19th Century when Pole Vaulting began. The athlete would climb the pole after he planted and jumped, and throughout the jump the pole remained rigid and had essentially no bend. In 1889 American vaulters banned the pole-climbing technique and implemented the swing-up technique, an early version of the modern method, which added height to the vault. Despite the advancement in technique the hardwood poles were limited as they had no bend. As a result, the poles could not transfer horizontal motion into upward motion efficiently as a large amount of energy was lost in the plant and vaulters were constrained to lower heights. more

The Pole Vault has been an olympic event for Men since 1896, and women since 2000. This article will examine the development and evolution of the Pole Vault.

Around the same time that the swing-up method was introduced as the definitive technique in the vault, bamboo poles began to replace the hardwood ones.  The swing-up necessitated a new type of pole that had some bend, and bamboo fulfilled that need.  Also, the box was introduced into the plant stage (previously vaulters had simply stuck the pole in the ground), which required the pole to have some bend as well.  The swing-up technique can be seen in Fig. 6, where a vaulter uses one of these new poles to clear a height.  Bamboo poles were much lighter than the solid ash or hickory poles due to the fact that bamboo is naturally hollow, which allowed for a faster approach.  Additionally, these poles had a lesser degree of stiffness and thus had a minor ability to bend when stressed.  For these reasons, vaulters were able to carry more energy into the vault and convert more energy into an upward motion. By 1942, the world record, set on a bamboo pole, was recorded at 4.77 meters [2].  However, the bamboo pole still presented limitations to achieving higher heights.  The pole still did not bend enough to significantly increase the efficiency of the vault and a large portion of energy was wasted once again on the plant.  Additionally, bamboo is weaker (can take less stress/bending before breaking) than both the hardwood poles used before it and the fiber-glass poles used after, so vaulters could not put as much force into the poles, thus limiting the heights that they could achieve.As the heights increased Bamboo poles gave way to Aluminum which was tapered at each end.  more

The Pole Vault has been an olympic event for Men since 1896, and women since 2000. This article will examine the development and evolution of the Pole Vault.

While steel and aluminum poles made a brief appearance in the world of pole vaulting in the 1950s and 60s, the next major advancement in pole technology came in the form of fiber-glass and carbon-fiber poles.  A cross-section of the design of these poles can be seen in Fig. 7, which shows the different layers that allow the fiberglass pole to be so versatile and effective.  The poles were first introduced in the U.S. in 1956, and immediately made an impact on achievable heights, evidenced by the new world record set in 1961 at 4.83 meters [2]. With minor adjustments to the structure of the new poles, and the addition of carbon-fiber layers, these poles have become significantly more efficient at transferring and converting the vaulter’s energy.  Refinement of the swing-up technique has also augmented the effectiveness of the fiberglass pole, and vaulters are able to go higher with the same amount of energy put in.  These poles are substantially stronger, lighter, more flexible, and more responsive than any other pole used before, and have allowed pole vaulters to launch themselves to even greater heights.  As technology enabled higher vaults, mats evolved into bags of large chunks of foam. Today’s high-tech mats are foam usually 1–1.5 meters (3 ft 3 in–4 ft 10 in) thick. Mats are growing larger in area as well to minimize risk of injury. Proper landing technique is on the back or shoulders. Landing on the feet should be avoided, to eliminate the risk of injury to the lower extremities, particularly ankle sprains. Rule changes over the years have resulted in larger landing areas and additional padding of all hard and unyielding surfaces. more

By Mike Rosenbaum

Your balance on the pole as you take off and swing upward is another key aspect of the pole vault. If you’re off balance on the way up you waste some of the momentum you’ve built during the approach run. The following discussion of balance and lifting issues is adapted from a February 2013 presentation given to the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association’s annual coaching clinic by U.S. indoor pole vault record-holder Jeff Hartwig

Assessing a Vaulter’s Balance:

Oregon City, OR–Each week The Clackamas Print features a step by step breakdown of techniques from different sports. Players and coaches give their experienced advice and explain the developmental process of building competitive tools. This week head track and field coach Keoni McHone gave insight into some specific pole vault drills. Freshman pole vaulter Chase Davis provied an example of vaulting technique. “A lot of it is swinging activities, rotating from the hands, a whole body swing like gymnastic rings or high bar. They do a lot of what’s called ‘stiff pole’ drills, when they takeoff and the pole bends. They work with the pole straight, swing up right where legs don’t swing underneath, so they takeoff, start and stop the swing, the pole flexes to the outside and body swings straight through the hole. A mistake would be swinging to the outside. Takeoff leg should hit the pole to stop the legs.” McHone described another possible mistake: “Helicopter swings around pole or swings off to the side. They are making sure they are straight on takeoff.” McHone explained another drill that helps prevent mistakes: “Inversion, going upside down, the whole body goes straight up and down then they land on their back, getting them use to swinging fast, they want to swing fast to keep pressure on the poles and it gets them inverted. Also helps them to be completely comfortable with being completely upside down.”  more at The Clackamas Print

Junior Seth Shuster sprinted across the gym floor on Wednesday, stabbing the end of his pole vault into a hole and launching himself into the air. After landing on a mat he walked his way over to volunteers Andrew Boucher and Annie Goetschel, where they sat with an iPad and laptop. Seconds later Shuster was breaking down film of the jump he had just completed, showing in the procees one of the ways digital tools can help athletes and coaches improve in today’s high school athletics. “It helps me a lot personally because if I see myself I can adjust to it visually, and know specifically what I’m doing wrong,” Shuster said. “It’s kind of hard when [coaches] tell you a bunch of things and you think, ‘What exactly am I doing?’ But then when you see it, it helps a lot.” A few feet away long-time track and field coach Jerry Larson watched with approval as his technologically-savvy assistants gave his athletes the tools they needed to learn in a different way. “I wish we would have had this years ago,” Larson said. “I coached diving for many years, coached track and field for many years, and in the field events this would have been huge. Huge.” Larson and Northfield High School’s pole vault crew is far from the only group using digital tools to enhance teaching and learning experiences. Raiders in multiple sports are picking up on the idea that digital resources — relatively cheap ones — are available right at their fingertips. “There’s only going to be more as technology continues to move along. There have been great uses of it,” NHS activities director Tom Graupmann said. “We definitely promote it. If it’s there and there’s a use for it, let’s go get it.”  more