PoleVaultPower.com

Hi, I'm a current high school vaulter at Riley High School in South Bend, Indiana. I'm in an engineering class where I was asked to choose a problem and solve it. I chose the questionable safety of polevaulting. I was hoping that you could take just 5 minutes from your day and help me collect data on the most dangerous element of the sport. Thanks! www.surveymonkey.com/s/S6DJMJK

Kind of a loaded survey you got there. You are essentially asking what the most dangerous part of the vault is at the beginning, and then the rest of the questions are just designed to sway your survey towards people saying that the hard box and cross bar are dangerous.

When giving an 'other' choice you should always have a write in for that one in my opinion. Because honestly the most injuries in the vault occur on the run way. These are the same injuries all runners and jumpers get: shin splints, knee injuries, pulled muscles, hip problems. The number of injuries that make you have to sit out or not vault from the box or cross bar are no where near the 'common' track injuries people receive.

Forgive my rant, because as an engineering student you are probably just trying to convince your professor the hard materials are dangerous so you can make them better for your class. But It is also surveys like this that sway people into thinking there is something more dangerous about the vault than it really is and causes people not to be able to pole vault because of liability.

The box is only dangerous if you land in it. This happens when you as a vaulter do something you were not supposed to do. Either A) using a pole that was not the right size for you or B) LETTING GO OF THE POLE! or C) Not knowing where you are in the air because you are putting your standards on 45cm and just because you touch it with your feet you think you are over the mat. All things in life are dangerous if not done properly. Crossing the street is only dangerous if you do it in front of a moving car....

Okay, we've added other questions to our survey to better understand all of the elements of the jump. Also, as a side note, if anyone has any news on pole vault clubs or resources for a jumper without a coach around the south bend/mishawaka area, I'd really appreciate it! Here's the new survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S6DJMJK

FinnTheVaulter wrote:...Also, as a side note, if anyone has any news on pole vault clubs or resources for a jumper without a coach around the south bend/mishawaka area, I'd really appreciate it!...

Try Danny Wilkerson.

He is the coach at Bethel College in Misawaka.

According to their Web-site wrote:Danny personally owns and operates a private athletic consulting company that works with the athletic development of high school, college and professional athletes in a variety of sporting events.

Danny is the current coach of Mary Saxer, 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials #4 and former coach of Mark Hollis, a former U.S. #1