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Hi, I've never pole vaulted before, but I'm going to try it in track this season. I hear that first year PVers do not bend the pole. I really have no idea how that would look lol. I was wondering if there was any videos out there demonstrating pole vaulting without bending. It seems like you wouldn't get high at all and it seems like it'd look weird. I can't seem to find any videos of that. If you know of any, post 'em :-D.

i went 9'6 straightpoling!

my first year I never bended the pole but then I started to my second year and now I do it all the time. It just takes time.

Yeah i stiff poled my frist year too..and for warms ups we do it also and it's my 2nd year now..there's nuthing werid about it.

I started bending my pole fairly early in my first year of vaulting, I was actually wearing a cast when I first bent it. Stiff-poling basically looks like a straight-up pole with someone sticking out their legs out fairly horizontaly, it doesn't look too good, but that's how you start. Keep your arms straight, plant hard, and get good invertion and it will bend no problem.

it does not matter what year you are in to start bending the pole, yes the first time you jump you will straight pole but that is just the learning curve. if you have a good selection of poles you might start bendgin the pole soon, it just depends on you. me personally i started to bend the pole right away, within a couple months. it also depends on if you have a coach that knows what he or she is doing.

All you need to worry about when you first start is that you are jumping tall and you are planting the pole high above your head.
then once you have that down you need to work on swinging your trail leg through to the pole and holding your hips close to the pole.
then once you got that down you need to work on turning your hips as you pull and turn to get off the pole.

Jan Johnson has a great series of pole vault tapes. www.skyjumpers.com
the best one to learn the basics from is sky systems 1, and the best advanced jumping and training is sky systems two.

I didn't bend the pole in my first year, mainly because the pole I had Was too long and was 30lbs to heavy for me. I probably wouldn't have bent it any ways, I wasn't that good. I still got second a couple times streight poling so it doesn't make too much of a difference. My coach vaulted 12 foot on a straight pole when he was in Highschool, so it doesn't matter too much.

I know a lot of vaulters that bent the pole in their first year. I did it and so did my buddy Dan. I was bending the pole by the first meet of the year. As long as you keep trying youll be able ot do it.

Also, almost all the time when people say that they are stiff poleing its not truely stiff poleing. Therefore it not quite as hard as you might seem.

this is very true. real stiff poling isnt even taught anymoreas far as i know. but i am sure somewhere someone is doing it right now. andways what you are probubly doing is a pop-up and a turn

I stiff poled my first year for over 8'6" mainly because my pole was to heavy and my tracks box SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS

So whats the difference between straight poling and a pop-up and turn?

I'm pretty sure that I just did a pop-up/turn my first year of vaulting, and my PR was 8'.