Pole Vaulting Senior Project (999926)

7/30/2019 Pole Vaulting Senior Project (999926)

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Achieving Peak Performance in the Pole VaultColton Mitchell

Mr. RonaldsCultural Diversity

March 30 2012

Colton Mitchell

Mr. Ronalds

Cultural Diversity


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30 March 2012

Achieving Peak Performance in the Pole Vault

Pole vaulting has been around for centuries. Although no evidence exists that ancient

cultures pole vaulted competitively before the Tailteann games of ancient Ireland circa 1829

B.C., there are many examples of pole vaulting being used as a means to circumvent a variety of

different obstacles.

The earliest examples of this necessary type of pole vaulting is depicted on

archaeological remains from Egypt dating back as early as 2500 B.C. (American Track and

Field). These findings suggest that even 4500 years ago civilians as well as ancient soldiers

attempted to defy gravity with shear agility and a pole, but in two very different ways. In many

parts of England and Ireland stacks of jumping poles were kept at the sides of houses to jump

across streams or rivers. The soldiers of ancient Egypt did something that more resembled

modern day pole vaulting; they used poles to jump up onto or over the walls of enemy castles.

This understanding of leverage gave these soldiers a decisive advantage in battle. It took a

millennium until someone decided to make a true competition out of defying gravity with the

assistance of a pole.

Unlike today where we jump for height pole vaulting back then was done for distance

using tree limbs or large poles. In the lowlands around the North Sea distance pole vaulting

competitions continue to be held annually. Eventually though it was adapted into a height contest

when past athletes realized that they gained more favor from the crowds for going up rather than

out (American Track and Field). When the modern Olympic games were started in 1896 the

event known as the pole vault was included. The basic goal of Just how technology has


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improved in every other aspect of human life, so has it improved in sports, one of the greatest

improvements was made in the pole vault.

In ancient days vaulters used extremely heavy wooden poles, the original Olympic

competitors used much lighter bamboo and then later aluminum poles. Unfortunately both these

time periods required the athlete to rely almost solely on their upper body strength to pull

themselves up the pole. This was a very inefficient method as a lot of your energy on the ground

was lost into the pole as you planted it into the box. In 1952, Bob Mathias, a decathlon athlete,

made history by became the first Olympian to use a fiberglass pole. The flex in the pole changed

the sport of pole vaulting forever, it allowed Mathias to store potential energy in the pole and

then when it unbent at the top it propelled him into the air to unprecedented heights. On the 31st

of July, 1994 Sergey Bubka shocked the world further by jumping 6.14 meters (20 ft 1.75 in)

using nothing more than his athletic ability, willpower, and a pole. The question remains what

allowed this athlete to achieve such an astounding height. In order to achieve peak performance

in the pole vault an athlete must be strong physiologically, psychologically, and technically.

Pole vault is one of, if not, the most vigorous events in track and field. It ranks among the

top because it combines the rigors of a sprinting event, jumping event, and a throwing event all

in one. Not only do you need lower body strength to run fast like a sprinter and jump up high at

takeoff like a jumper you also need great core and upper body strength like a thrower to swing

and extend your body up the pole. With the change of material from stiff, inflexible aluminum

and bamboo to the much more pliable fiberglass and carbon fiber poles it became a greater asset

to run faster and jump higher than to have tremendous upper body strength. This is true of

modern vaulting because the upper body strength is still required to pull yourself skyward while

inverted and then to push off at the top of the pole, but a lack in upper body strength can be


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nullified by running faster and jumping harder off the ground, bending the pole further, and then

using the propulsion of the unbending pole to fly over the crossbar. Whether weak in a particular

area or not it is important to always get stronger; which is why in order to perform your best, you

must train hard.

Training your body is one of the most important aspects of any sport, but it is especially

important in achieving peak performance. Vaulters require an all-around fitness because unlike

most track events it requires the use of every part of your body working in harmony. Some of the

slightly more important muscle groups would be in the legs and in the core as they are the ones

that give the largest difference in the overall height you can jump. The key to pole vaulting

workouts though is not to become a large, strong, overly muscled person that can bench 400

pounds. A pole vaulter wants to be incredibly strong for their body weight, they want to be wiry.

In order to become stronger but not gain weight pole vaulters do a lot of exercises just

using their body weight or supplementing those exercises with some amounts of weight. Among

the most popular exercises for the core are ones that deal with medicine balls or core

stabilization. A favorite leg exercise to help build explosiveness on the jump up is to have a pole

vaulter dead lift two or three repetitions of a high weight and then do a few sprint or jumping

drills. With all of this training and competing it is important to keep your body flexible and to

train your muscles to resist injury.

It is important for a pole vaulter to train the smaller muscles in their bodies that help

support and stabilize the larger ones so that they can prevent major injuries or tears. Another

extremely important way to prevent injury is by stretching, stretching makes muscles more

elastic therefore resisting injury when stretched to their limits.


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Not only does stretching prevent injuries but when you stretch it helps stimulate blood

flow allowing more fuel and oxygen to reach muscles, which in turn lets the muscles perform at

their maximum capacity. This is why it is especially important for a vaulter to have a pre-

competition routine that includes warming up and stretching of muscles. Pre-competition

routines are not only good for keeping athletes injury free but they also help get them into the

correct state of mind to do well in the event that is coming up.

Half the battle of jumping well is being in the right state of mind and possessing the

mental, psychological, toughness required to make a great jump. The perfect state of mind for the

pole vault is that point between adrenaline fueled effort and calm serenity where everything feels

easy and actions are controlled and powerful. Experienced USATF coach Mike Lawryk, who has

coached over 22 PA state champions, agrees:

You cant come careening down the runway and expect to have a good vault. It [the pole

vault] requires too much control and perfect execution for that. You also cant be too

relaxed when you are trying to vault or you end up running flat footed and when you try

to take off you will be knocked back by the pole. The most efficient vaults happen

somewhere in between these two different approaches. (Lawryk)

In order to get to that proper state of mind it is necessary to establish routines that get you

focused singly on pole vaulting to the exclusion of all else.

The lesser in importance of these two routines is the warm-up. Not only does it get the

body ready, but if done over and over again the athletes mind starts to associate this warm up

with a trigger to start getting the mind to that before mentioned state of mind where peak

performance can be achieved. The most important routine is the one done directly prior to the

pole vault, generally while standing on the runway with pole in hand. Some jumpers will lay


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their poles down, do a few tuck jumps, put chalk on their hands, clap their hands, or even just

stare dead ahead at the pit. During these exercises a vaulter should also be visualizing a

successful jump. These small routines are important to a vaulter, or any athlete for that matter,

because it helps trigger their brains to access the stored muscle memory. Muscle memory is

created for a task when a movement or set of movements is repeated continuously over time;

eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort. This process decreases the need

for attention and creates maximum efficiency of memory and movement (Liu).

Muscle memory is incredibly important in order to jump consistently, which itself is one

of the only reasons a vaulter can reach peak performance. Being consistent in your run is a

necessity in the pole vault because the approach is 75% of the vault. If you cant run and take off

the same every time you try to jump there is no way to correct mistakes. you need to be able to

eliminate any variables you can (Lawryk). Another benefit of consistently doing well, because

the vaulter is mentally strong, is that it breeds confidence in their jump, which like any other part

of life is the key to success.

Confidence is helpful in the pole vault because a vaulter needs to be fearless when they

are running full speed down the runway and then jump up and try to bend a, in some cases

extremely stiff, pole. If there are any doubts in a vaulters mind about whether or not they can

bend the pole or complete the jump it could end disastrously. A synonym for confidence in this

case is comfort; a pole vaulter needs to be totally comfortable with every aspect of their jump.

That means they need to be comfortable with the run they are on, they need to know they can

execute that run to perfection. They also need to be comfortable with the length and flex of the

pole they are vaulting on. If a vaulter comes down the runway on a run thats longer than he is

used to and with a pole he isnt one hundred percent confident he will bend then he cant


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possibly jump up holding nothing back, without fear of something going wrong. This discomfort,

no matter how small, will lead to a jump that is less than the vaulter is capable of.

When a vaulter is physically strong, and has the right mental state, the only thing left is to

perfect the technical aspect of the pole vault. Although it sounds easy, mastering the right form

in the pole vault is incredibly difficult and more than anything else it determines how well the

vault will turn out. With the new flexible poles, technique became even more important than it

had been when aluminum poles were used. The reason for this is all in the new bend in the pole,

which allowed vaulters to transfer more of their horizontal energy into vertical energy. The

technique of the pole vault is based solely on this principle of putting as much energy into the

pole as an individual can and then being able to conserve that energy throughout the jump until it

can be used to push the vaulter up and over the bar at the top. The result of a vault now relied

heavily on being perfectly in front of the unbending pole, in order to receive the energy stored

within it. To be in position to receive this energy, technique became key. The smallest of errors

would throw a vaulters body just slightly off kilter, allowing for this valuable energy to be

wasted. This hard to master technique can be broken down into six phases.

The six phases of the pole vault are all equally important to the success of the pole vault

and therefore the maximum height cleared. If there is an error in any phase of the jump it will

lead to a weakness in another phase of the vault creating a chain reaction that will prevent a

vaulter from achieving their peak performance. These six crucial steps are: the approach or run,

the plant, the take-off, the swing, the invert or row, and finally push off the pole.

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Pole Vaulting Senior Project (999926)