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well, at a meet, you have three attempts at each height. you can clear the bar on any one of those attempts to move on to the next height (usually the bar goes up in 6" increments), but if you miss all three attempts you are out. so basically you just keep vaulting until you run out of attempts.

if you don't want your legs to be knocking the crossbar down, make sure you are getting a fast swing up and try to get inverted best you can. also make sure that you have a good approach and a good plant and that will help your vault too.

that's a bummer that your coach isn't helping you out too much, but there are a lot of posts here that you can read to learn more about technique. i know you're just starting out, but don't get discouraged. these things can take some time. good luck at your meet tomorrow! let us know how it works out!!

for most beginner vaulters, you do not want to be bending the poles. it's good to get basic technique down before you learn how to really bend a pole. you might be getting a little flex, where the pole gives a little when you vault, but it is not a problem to be vaulting without a bend. vaulting with no bend is called straight poleing.

also, if you're not yet that experienced in the pole vault, make sure you know there are a lot of circumstances that may cause you to question whether an attempt was a miss or a make for instance:
The wind (definately if you're doin outdoors!!!):::: say the vaulter while clearing the bar, throws the pole away, and there is a strong gust of wind that effects the fall of the pole and causes the pole to come back and knock off the crossbar. This is a tricky one but watch for it, especially tail winds, however, it wouldn't count as a miss. That would be considered a legitimate attempt....there are others but this one i think is the trickiest..

And also(since this happened to me one time) make sure that if u run thru but stop before u break, or cross, the plane of the box, that it isnt counted as a miss. i wish i woulda learned this earlier cuz last season i was counted for missing a few times.

there are a lot of things that can constitute a miss. i don't know them all, but here are the major ones:

1) knocking the crossbar down. this can be with any part of your body, or if the pole falls back and knocks the bar down.
2) crossing the zero plane with your pole. this is what TigerVault was mentioning. if you decide to abort your vault at the last second coming down the runway, your pole cannot go past the back of the box (called the zero plane) and touch on the other side. although you have not vaulted, this will be counted as a miss.
3) jumping but not completing the vault. this is similar to breaking the zero plane. say you again decide to abort your vault after you have already planted the pole in the box. by planting the pole, you are ok because it is in the box and it has not crossed the zero plane. however, if you plant and leave the ground, even though you are not trying to vault, it will also be counted as a miss. so if you plant but don't want to go through with the vault, just make sure you stop.
4) time limits. although this is not enforced all the time, each vaulter is supposed to have 90 seconds to complete an attempt. the time usually starts when the standards and crossbar are set. if you go over this 90 seconds, it will be counted as a miss.

these are the big ones, but there are more which escape me at the moment. you could also ask the coach or official that will be running the pole vault at your meet tomorrow.

hobo334 wrote:So where do I drop the pole, it is only 5 feet.

Push it back towards the runway.

yep, you always want to push the pole back toward the runway so it won't fall on the crossbar.

good luck at your first meet!

Hey, go out and have some fun. I tell my jumpers to be serious on the runway and enjoy the meet.
Also, let us know how you did!!!
Good luck.

i have an away meet on tuesday. i've already participated in 2 meets at home.

cleared only 7' the first meet and then 8' the 2nd.

i've been vaulting about 2 weeks now.

i'm straight polling, or whatever it's called, by the way.

i just want to get sooooo good at pole vaulting, it's quite a satisfying experience.