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Thursday, May 1, 2008
How To... Pole Vault
Greater Louisville, KY
By: Jacob Arnold , VYPE
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Danztler/MyActionPortraits.com
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Pole-vaulting gives me a sensation that very few have the pleasure of feeling: flying.
For the brief seconds that my feet are off the ground, I soar. As the pole jerks me higher and higher, I pull myself up to the top of the pole and twist my body. With a tremendous push, I throw my body from the pole upside down and I watch the bar travel by my face as I clear the height. And then comes the fall--fourteen feet of free fall, soaring backwards to the mat below. It’s a sport that challenges you to throw yourself into the uncertainty and overcome fear.
The style of pole vaulting taught to me and used by the world leader of pole vaulting, Sergei Bubka, is the most widely accepted technique. A full vault is broken up into three key portions: the sprint, the jump, and the turn.
Pole-vaulting is actually a sprinting event and requires a quick 10-40 yard sprint. Because of the precise nature of the vault, vaulters must measure and mark their “steps.” A right-handed/footed vaulter would jump from his left foot and plant with his right hand up; a right-footed/handed vaulter would jump from her right and plant with her left hand up. The purpose of taking steps is to be able to reach the pit at the exact spot you need to be while running at your full sprinting potential.
Pole vaulting deals a lot with force: The faster you run, the better because the force created from the run is pushed into the pole as it is planted into the metal “plant box.”
Then the second portion of the vault begins: the jump. The first and one of the most important parts of the jump is the plant. It has to be absolutely perfect in form so that the jump can be successful. The perfect form is for the athlete to be grasping the pole high above his head with the top arm straight out and the opposite arm slightly bent about two handholds below the top one. The athlete’s hands NEVER MOVE until the final part of the vault. The athlete should stand very tall with the proper jumping leg fully extended from toe to waist and the opposite leg lifted to her waist.
As the force of the run, combined with the athlete’s own weight and pushing force, hits the pole, the pole will bend. Poles are made to match certain weights and should an athlete use a pole for a lighter weight, he runs the risk of snapping the pole and causing injury. But as the pole bends, the athlete jumps from the planting position. This should happen simultaneously with the unbending of the pole. As the pole unbends, it will lift the athlete into the air. While being lifted, the athlete pulls herself up alongside the pole until she is parallel and upside down with it, facing back toward the runway.
Then comes the last part of the vault: the turn. While still upside down, the athlete then twists his body while still pulling himself along the pole until he is in an odd handstand motion. Then he pushes his body away from the pole and falls in a large arcing motion over the bar and down to the mat--three-second flight.
Jacob Arnold was a pole vaulter on the St. Xavier track team. In 2007, as a senior, he tied for fourth place in the Kentucky State Track Meet with a jump of 12’ 6”.
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