I am a high school athlete and compete in just about avert thing for track including pole vault I can clear 7 and 8 but struggle with 9 but I jump sprint do distance and throw you don't have to be specifically a pole vaulter you just have to be able to commit to it and see it through also practice makes perfect that's not a saying for nothing I practice pole vault almost every day and practice any other event for a few minutes it's all about time management.
When this thread started, I was still "good at pole vault". Damn...feeling old now.
maguilard wrote:
I am a high school athlete and compete in just about avert thing for track including pole vault I can clear 7 and 8 but struggle with 9 but I jump sprint do distance and throw you don't have to be specifically a pole vaulter you just have to be able to commit to it and see it through also practice makes perfect that's not a saying for nothing I practice pole vault almost every day and practice any other event for a few minutes it's all about time management.
This is a joke right?
Good times are killing me wrote:
maguilard wrote:I am a high school athlete and compete in just about avert thing for track including pole vault I can clear 7 and 8 but struggle with 9 but I jump sprint do distance and throw you don't have to be specifically a pole vaulter you just have to be able to commit to it and see it through also practice makes perfect that's not a saying for nothing I practice pole vault almost every day and practice any other event for a few minutes it's all about time management.
This is a joke right?
+7/10 for catching that.
To rephrase what maguilard said:
I am a high school athlete and compete in Averthing for track including da pole vault---I can clear 6 and 7 and 8 and sometimes 9 depending on how many qualudes my mommy gives me.
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I know very little about pole vault, but is it the type of speed that matters? The run-up is short (often only a few paces for beginners), so is it acceleration that matters, not top-end speed?
Also, it's interesting that several people have mentioned vaulters doubling up with the decathlon. I've heard of other decathletes who chose the pole vault as the individual event they'd also try to compete in. Is that because the physical attributes that make someone a good pole vaulter are similar to those that make a good decathlete, or because the decathlon scoring system assumes people won't be good at the pole vault so those that are tend to do particularly well?
One way of doing that would be to look at the proportion of points top decathletes usually get from the PV - is it more than 10% of their total?
Woodsman wrote:
I know very little about pole vault, but is it the type of speed that matters? The run-up is short (often only a few paces for beginners), so is it acceleration that matters, not top-end speed?
Also, it's interesting that several people have mentioned vaulters doubling up with the decathlon. I've heard of other decathletes who chose the pole vault as the individual event they'd also try to compete in. Is that because the physical attributes that make someone a good pole vaulter are similar to those that make a good decathlete, or because the decathlon scoring system assumes people won't be good at the pole vault so those that are tend to do particularly well?
One way of doing that would be to look at the proportion of points top decathletes usually get from the PV - is it more than 10% of their total?
Acceleration isn't so important as top end speed. More specifically, how well you can run near your top end with the pole. If your acceleration is lacking, you can just take another stride, there is no rule against taking a longer run. The only real limit is that longer runs are more likely to be inconsistent.
I do think that pole vault and the decathlon tend to award similar athletes to some extent. Most of the decathlon events are rewarding to explosiveness, some for mostly lower body, some for both Upper and lower body.
The pole vault is also rewarding to explosiveness in the full body.
Some decathletes do tend to be above 10% of their total score for the decathlon in the pv. However, I think that is more of a product of some events usually being lower scores. Discus, shotput, and the 1500 tend to be low scores compared to the other events. 110mh and pole vault can be particularly big scores for some decathletes. The other events tend to be in between.
Some of this is likely do to the status of the world records at the time of the decathlon scoring tables first being set up. Improved poles mean decathletes can be close to the old world record from when the tables were created.
As a middling decathlete, nowhere near nationally competitive, pole vault was one of my highest scoring events (mid 14 feet).
Thanks for the detailed and interesting reply. I'd suggest that the event most decathletes are LEAST suited to is the 1500m - it's arguably the only one where explosiveness isn't a key factor.
The lay person would probably assume that high jumpers would be more likely to be good at the pole vault, but as far as I know that isn't the case. From what people have said here, it seems likely that, with proper training, a 100m runner might beat a high jumper at the pole vault. Does that seem likely?
Mondo broke bubkas record!!!