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Hey I'm a highschool vaulter for Permian Highschool in odessa Texas, recently I unfortunantly no highted at a meet, and the reason for this was my consistency on the ground. My coach argues that lowering the bar would help, however I've been coming in at high bars and clearing them with ease whenever I'm on. I would conclude my problem is consisteny, and my coach from ACU tells me this is true as well. Lowering it to me, would be a waste of a jump, but I would rather not argue the point with my coach, who by the way has no understanding of the pole vault other than the basics. However instead of 12-6 i'm coming in at 11 at his insistence, I've never jumped at this low a bar, and have no idea what to put the standards at, usually around 25 gets me over 12'6 just fine, and the weather is gonna be beautiful at this meet. Any knowledge on this subject would be invauable to me, as this is my senior year, and I plan to vault at ACU next year if I can help it.

Get on a smaller pole for the lower hieghts and put the standards on 32. Work on technique for the smaller hieghts, and then when you come in at 12'6 and get on your regular pole, put your standards at 25 or whatever they need to be. If coming in at 11' is a waste of jumping, prove it to your coach by coming in at 11' and blowing up every bar until 13'.

Unfortunately i don't know the standards by inches but you want to know all this information before you get to a meet. What poles need what standards… Start to know/learn everything about your numbers, when its a nice tail wind, you need to push them back, and get on big poles, if its a head wind go down poles and pull up the standards. (If it’s called for of coarse).

If you practice jumping with your standards deep then stay with them deep, keep in mind that you might be a little more fired up in a meet and you might need them deeper. Meanwhile if you put them deep and on your first attempt you land on it you need to move them for ward a few inches. (there is always the exception to the rule BUT…) things should not change that drastically from practice to a competition.

I had a coach tell me once, not to worry about the standards but rather just fix the vault and get deeper penetration before changing the standards.

This might work for you though. If you have a fluke vault where you do something your not used to and come up short and decide to bring the in, and then the next vault you vault how your normally would and take the bar down you can get stuck really easily. Think about why you knocked the bar down and decide the best course of action.

There is nothing wrong with opening low, if your PR is 15' but 11 will win the meet and get you points for the team, take a vault at 11 get the points and then go for the PR.

Some times it stings when your coaches think you need to open lower, and you might feel like they don't know what they are talking about, but in scored meets some times a place is better than a performance, (It took me years to realize and really understand this). Hope that helps at all.

no worries i no hieghted at a meet also. my coach also knows less than a monkey would about the pole vault. im currently looking for 14ft 14 6 pr and since i had no hieghted at a previous meet my coach had me come in at 7Ft!!!!. Which is completley rediculus and advertantly dangerous. obiously im about 6 ft over the crossbar, and as im coming down i see that my feet are going to hit it.after my apex on my jump i did what every vaulter does and began rotating to my back to land on the mat, but due to such a low bar my feet were going to cause me to scratch at 7ft. i scrambled to throw my legs backwards to avoid the embarrasment of scratching at 7ft. that caused myself to rotate to far and land on my head/neck and crack myself in the face with my knee breaking my nose! as i walked off the mat (after scratching regardless of my efforts), blood pouring everywhere from my broken nose, and madder at my track coaches stupidity than you can ever imagine i hear him scream from 20 yards away. FINISH YOUR JUMP! ......... this incident caused me to loose complete and all respect for my coach, so please even though your situation isnt as drastic as mine shut your coach up by clearing big time first shot!

What is your PR?

My vaulters usually start about a foot and a half below their PRs. This way their first competition jump can be very relaxed and allows for a nice easy first jump. If they boom over it, we pass the next height. If not, we keep jumping and try to fix whatever went wrong on the previous jump. Assuming first attempt clearances, you'll be jumping at your PR on jump #4 and trying a new PR at jump #5. I like to shoot for about 8 total competition jumps (5 makes, 3 misses).

Given that you can run and takeoff consistently, standard placement is really pole dependent. If you say 25 is where you standards usually are for 12-6 and you're on the same pole, then it shouldn't change for 11'.

Another factor is the type of meet you are participating in. Dual meets and small invites, its OK to take more jumps as you're still really just actively training. Once you hit your end of the year championships and qualifying meets, that's when you need to start limiting your jumps.

Just know how many jumps you're good for in a meet and plan your starting height accordingly.

good luck!

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