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someone sent me the follwoing email about tappipng in high school:

"Hey, I was wondering what you think about the
new high school federation rules that prohibit
coaches from giving vaulters a "tap" during
warmups. There are several new rules. I was
wondering if you have any thoughts on them. I
am considering writing a letter to the committee
that constructed these rules in hopes to have
access to their research."

I have no idea myself. anyone?

I'm glad they've prohibited tapping in warm-ups. If you can't make it in the pit on your own how are you going to do it safely in competition?

The perferable alternative in my mind to "tapping" in warmups is to start with a smaller pole, lower grip and practically guarantee that you can make the pit on your own. then progress thru poles and grips until you are at competion ready state.
The guys I have seen using taps, either don't have the poles available to do the progression or the vaulter is such a head case that he believes he can't jump unless he is holding at the end of his normal competion pole.
I think the ban on taps along with the minium standard setting of 40cm was the next step at forcing vaulters to land deeper now that the pit depths were increased in 2003.
Deeper is Safer

what is tapping

its when the coach gives the vaulter a nice big tap on the back right at take off to help the vaulter roll the pole into the mats.

I'm glad this rule is in effect. Hopefully they'll enforce it. There is a certain coach here locally that is a tap machine. He taps all of his kids during warmups and had one or two kids get hurt last year because they missed the mats for some reason or another. I even attended a couple of his practices and he even taps all of his kids on every jump in practice as well. I kept my mouth shut last year because i was new, but this year is going to be different....

ashcraftpv wrote:I kept my mouth shut last year because i was new, but this year is going to be different....

Good...even though he is my old coach...I didn't know anything back then. If I ever graduate college I want to go back there and coach. So many vaulters from my school could have been way better if we had done something other then vault from the exact same run every single day of practice.

Not that this matters any more, but the NF advised all attendees at their Jan 25, 2003 ( yes, 2003) meeting that the practice of "tapping" was to be prohibited beginning the 2003 outdoor season.
All that happened for 2004 was to put it officially into the book.

Looks to me that this important bit of information failed to be passed on down to coaches and vaulters last year.

I've seen this done by a couple of coaches a lot, and I don't trust it because it's not safe for a number of reasons.

The biggest three are:

1. Unusual stress loads applied to the poles that may cause unpredictable results, but not neccessarily for the vaulter at the time. This is probably one of the reasons poles are not "guaranteed" againest breakage.

2. The need to receive " the extra boost " if you are doing everything else correctly

3. How it is applied, which could actually create a serious hazard to the person jumping, who hopefuly is concentrating on a controlled flight.

I witnessed a pole broken in just this manner, and the athlete was lucky the pole broke where and when it did. I kept both pieces as a "learning tool" for show and tell.

This method might have been alright when the poles were metal.

Here are the new pole vault rule changes as they were given to us recently...

2004 NFHS Rule Changes

The New 2004 NFHS Pole Vault rules change increases safety.

· 7-5-9: In the pole vault, the front cutout should be tapered away from the planting box to allow the pole to bend uninhibited. Rationale: This change will minimize obstruction to the bend of the pole.

· 7-2-10: Illegal aids shall include the practice of taps (pushing the vaulter on his back) at take-off in the pole vault during warm-up or in the competition. Rationale: In order to minimize risk, aids that assist athlete are not legal.

· 7-5-19l: A competitor shall have the pole vault standards or uprights set to position the crossbar from a point 15.5â€Â

Taps are like everything, there is a time and a place for them and meet warmups is not the place for them. The only time I have used them was in workout for a vaulter going up a pole and the vaulter wasn't confident they were ready. I knew the vaulter was ready but they needed some confidence. I have never given the big push I see some coaches using and never thought meet warmups was the time. I have always felt you start on your small poles and go up when needed.

CowtownPV wrote:Taps are like everything, there is a time and a place for them and meet warmups is not the place for them. The only time I have used them was in workout for a vaulter going up a pole and the vaulter wasn't confident they were ready. I knew the vaulter was ready but they needed some confidence. I have never given the big push I see some coaches using and never thought meet warmups was the time. I have always felt you start on your small poles and go up when needed.

exactly
the place is definately not in competition as you say.
but when a vaulter needs confidence and their pole transition isnt exactly smooth, then sometimes a small tap is appropriate. if you have good pole selection, however, it should not be necessary