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Pole vault pits are so big now that the thought of going off the back of the mat never really occured to me. Yesterday I was trying to get my step so I used one of my smaller poles so I would have no trouble leaving the ground. I did not even swing up so I did not think I was going to be anywhere near the back of the mat (exspecially since I have done the exact drill I was doing hundred of times on the same pole.) However just my head landed off the mat but it whip lashed me so hard that it made be black out for about 5 seconds as will as slightly hit my head on the ground. (Which is polyurathane surface so it was not very bad.) I have now decided that I am goind to drag a high jump pit out and put it behing the mat for extra padding. I have always been concerned with landing to close to the box and never really though of landing off the back of the mat as a threat with the modern landing systems.

---Kasey

Keegan Burnett went off the back of the pit and almost died, same for Chase Kear, those are both under the new rules systems, and as far as I know they were legal-sized pits. Both were also college guys. I think you college guys have a greater margin for error in terms of grabbing a small pole and having it be unexpectedly significantly smaller than you are expecting.

Just a reminder of how important that supplemental padding is. If you have an extra HJ mat laying around, putting it behind the pit is a great idea.

Kirk

It's definitely a good idea for you to bring that high jump mat out there, I was in practice a few days ago and crushed a pole 20 pounds over my weight and flew almost off the back of the mat, my hips were off of it in fact. Luckily I was safe, it was a regulation sized pit from a college. It's good to always think better safe but sorry, it's such a common idiom but so true, how hard is it to bring the high jump mat out? Definitely not as hard as it would be sitting out the season on a broken limb.

In my personal experience, falling off the SIDE of the pit is even more likely than the BACK of the pit, so additional padding there wouldn't hurt either. Whoops ... I didn't intend that pun ... oh well.

And if you're not going to add any padding to the sides or back, then at least ensure that there's no safety hazards ... like hurdles, poles, bar-props, or crossbars ... close to the pit. If I'm going to miss the pit and land on my back (or head - as I've done), I'd far rather land on flat concrete or mondo than on a crossbar or hurdle!

Kirk