How many total jumps should you take?

[agapit]

I have always started 2 height below my PR...so about a foot below.....that way you get one easy height.....one height that is relativly easy but you can't just go through the motions, a jump at your PR (or a couple inches below it depending on what height the starting was) where you need to put it all together, then you have only had 4 or 5 jumps before attempting a new height.

At the highest level it is probably 4-5 jumps, where 4th or 5th is for your PR, WR or other records.

At the level where only 3-4 jumpers remain there is not enough time to recover for 8-9 jumps, even with 4-6 min between. You have to use tricks with officials to increase the time.

Let’s say you open at 5.70 – 5.85 – WIN – Record. If you take 3 jumps on 5.70 it would be very hard to get the record and difficult to win in real competitions.

The idea that a vaulter should use several attempts to adjust to the conditions and other variables is detrimental for winning in modern competitions. A vaulter should perform at the highest level from the first jump and the reason a vaulter that wishes to clear 6m in the competition would start at 5.70 is simple. 30cm or a foot is enough slack to adjust the run up on the first height, then a Win on the second or a third height and the record on the fourth. Imagine the progression with 5.50. Sure one can win but what about 6m? What about 6.15m with 5.50 opening? See the picture!

[saraf]

my last 2 PRs were on my 8th jump

[OUvaulterUSAF]

ok, how many warmup jumps? I average 4 but at different length approaches, increasing to my long run by the 4th jump. I understand not to take too many if you're coming in opening height but what if you have an hour wait.

[saraf]

i would take about 8 or so.. 2 from a shorter approach (12 steps) and the rest from 16 steps

[LHSpolevault]

It might just be me, but I usually find it easier to just take 1 warmup jump... 2 run throughs total. 1st to catch my step, then the 2nd one take a jump getting my knee drive and hips up.

[ec1vaulter]

You should track the number of jumps you take in competition for a while to see what works best for you. Note the number of warm-up jumps, run-throughs and competition jumps you take and after a few weeks you should get a good estimate of what you can do. I have done this with the vaulters I am currently coaching and they have learned to live by it. They know the exact number of jumps to take in warm-up, if they need a run-through and based on clearance or miss they can approximate the height they should clear. The general number of jumps they take is 7-9 and then 3 jumps at the final height they fail to clear.

An example would be one of my vaulters always takes 2 full jumps in warm-up and one run-through to get his steps. He can take 9 jumps successfully and 3 after fatigue. He generally opens at 4.60 (3 heights shy of his PR - 4.96) with 6 quality jumps remaining. If he makes all jumps on his first attempt he will make 5.10 (using our predetermined crossbar progression). For each jump he misses, the best outcome decreases.

I started using this chart this year and it has become a major part of our competition preparation.