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Basketball players know the rules, football players know the rules, baseball players etc etc etc.............why the heck is it that when pole vaulters DONT know the rules its the rules fault?!?!?!?! THEN we all complain about the rules. I do NOT agree with the validitiy of all the rules BUT i know them and live by them..........If you are a coach or an athlete in FIELD and you do NOT know the rules to your event then shame on you. Dont blame the rules for your failure..........at the worst blame your coach for not teaching you (yes athletics IS a part of education unless your good enough to make it after college) the rules AND shame on you for letting your coach be responsible for your failure. Get a rule book, its cheap, and carry it with you. The section on pole vaulting is rather short and then you can stop pointing the finger at everyone. Its funny how in todays society its always someone elses fault (not our own) when we mess up.

Done with my rant...........I feel much better now.

PVJ,

I agree that we can all improve our knowledge of the rules. It is simply remarkable how many people profess to know them but are woefully misinformed. I see high schoolers scurrying to exit pits before the bar falls all the time.

Yesterday, I had a coach tell me that a vaulter has 10 minutes to vault when there's only one vaulter. I bet him $1,000 that he was wrong, and he actually shook on it with 4 other coaches standing there. Of course he was chagrinned to discover that it is 6 minutes (7-2-5b). I told him I'd have my lawyer call him in the morning.

But like baseball, it seems that new situations are always coming up that need interpretation; no matter how well we learn the rules.

How's this one. Yesterday at the CT state HS Open:

There was a significant tailwind all day.

The referee did not appoint someone to catch poles - even though there was a significant tailwind...see 7-5-25 which says that the referee "should" appoint a pole catcher when there is a tailwind. Why the rule says "referee" instead of "event judge" I havn't the foggiest...how often does the referee actually appoint a pole catcher? Someone please respond if that's EVER happened in a high school meet.

One of my vaulters cleared 12-6 on his first attempt, and pushed the pole back.

Because of the wind, the pole stood straight up, and then began to fall towards the crossbar.

The vaulter had time to get out of the pit and grab his own pole as the wind was blowing it toward the bar.

According to 7-5-25, no one is allowed to touch the pole unless it is falling back and away from the crossbar.

Ruling?

I argued that it should count as a successful jump, pointing out 1) that there had been a tailwind all day; 2) he clearly pushed the pole back since he had had enough time to get out of the pit and catch his own pole which had been suspended upright due to the wind conditions; 3) according to 7-5-25, the referee "should" have appointed a pole catcher in the first place; and, 4) he was permitted to touch the pole under these circumstances because it was falling back and away from the crossbar before the wind began pushing it in the opposite direction.

The referee agreed and counted it as a successful attempt.

Like PVJ says, get a rule book, and learn the rules as well as you can.

my head coach doesent even know all the rules. I usually have to tell him things and I dont know all the rules eather.

The problem with knowing the rules is that people become SCG's (Self Certified Genius's). I can just picture it now. . . everyone go out and buy a rule book, learn the rules by heart, then there will be some disagreement. All the SCG's will reach to there back pocket, run over with "authority" and start argueing over who's reading of the rule is right. You have to have gone to Law School to understand the rules of track and field. This year's altercation for me (for not knowing ALL of the rules for pole vaulting) was that a USATF judge made me force my pole vaulters to continue in competition against each other when they were the last competitors in because of a jump off. One had an injury, while the other was a heptathelete. . . and they jumped and had won the small meet. The judge read the rule (I still don't know or understand the rule completely) to say that they were to finish the jump off or be disqualified? Not only that. . .there are three to four sets of rules one has to learn in track and field. I say learn and let live. Get a rule book, learn the basics, keep it for reference, then go out and have fun. All the SCG's can have the authority in the event for all I care.

Again with the basic problem - We keep copies of NFHS, NCAA, USATF, IAAF, WMA - because the wording is sometimes different - time between jumps is different, etc. - In the case of the afore mentioned USATF Official making them continue - there is no such rule I can find - it states how to continue the jumpoff - that would be like saying you have to take all you long jumps or throws - no such rule - it tells you what a foul is -

I really don't want to be an "SCG" (I like the term though ). Not only did I go to law school...worse...I became a law professor! Talk about a group of self-important-know-it-all's who like to hear themselves talk - that's me, right?).

But I suppose that this is as good a place as any to once again offer to share with you all an article of mine that's just been published by the Marquette Sports Law Review: "A Legal Commentary on the NFHS Rules Relating to the Pole Vault."

If you post here or send me a pm with an e-mail address (or regular mail, if you'd prefer...although e-mail is better for me), I'll send you a copy.

I'd like to read that article. In my situation, I knew what the rule said, had asked the official to explain it to me in his own words (which made him angry because my demands seemed rebellious to him). But as long as I had been jumping, I knew that there was no such rule. But out of respect to the official, I listened to him and did what I was told. Simply put, not everyone knows all. . . and to pretend that we do is assinine. Learning all the rules to be a better participant in the event is worth the work, but learning them to be a know it all will lead to conflicts. Let's not forget that this sport has its moments of heated debate.

My point here was...........when you walk onto the track you should at LEAST know the rules that pertain to you as a participant. How the tape on your pole should be, should you take off your watch, can you use your walkman............etc etc etc. The odd thing here to me is most vaulters know the basics to the "major" sports but not their own. Most of the blame here is on the coaches. In all other sports the rules are taught as the basics, unfortunatly some of our best coaches take exception to the rules and think in most cases they are above them............then in the "big" meet they use them against the other competitiors. I see this at all levels. I have seen at a NCAA div I conference championship an equip failure called because the athletes top hand slipped off the pole..............that same athlete got that same call at a USATF meet the following yr. If officials make bad calls thats one thing but if they are just running the event by the rules and you get caught...........well like i said before shame on you.

oh pvjunkie, i totally agree. not knowing all the rules sucks especially if during a meet, the official has to inform about it. i didn't even know that when the pole passes through the bar, but doesn't touch anything else still counted towards an attempt. so i ended up with a NH that day cause i wasted last attempt not knowing all rules.

blazerunner121 wrote:oh pvjunkie, i totally agree. not knowing all the rules sucks especially if during a meet, the official has to inform about it. i didn't even know that when the pole passes through the bar, but doesn't touch anything else still counted towards an attempt. so i ended up with a NH that day cause i wasted last attempt not knowing all rules.

If what I am reading here is correct.........you either stopped and did not jump and the pole passed under the bar and did not touch anything or you cleared the bar and you pole fell under the bar. In these 2 cases NEITHER is a miss....unless you ran out of time to start your attempt. You would have had to TOUCH somthing beyond the plane of the bar not just crosss under it. Its a shame that an incorrect or shot from the hip interp cost you a NH. On the plus side.........next time have your copy of the NHFS rules (borrow you coaches book and copy the section on the vault) in your bag and POLITLY show them the rule. If the official starts to play the power game get your coach and file a PROTEST............that is the coaches and athletes only recouse to poor officiating. At our conf championships this yr one of the better officails I know had an off day on day one and was asked not to offciate the next day. They brought in a new crew to run the mens comp. Not a bad idea when college coaches are reading the rules out loud from their rule book to you from the sidlines.

At a District meet last season, a freshman girl cleared 7'0" easily, but didn't throw her pole back. The pole slide along the bar and ended up resting against the left standard. She got out of the pit and grabbed her own pole. The bar wasn't about to fall. She was just getting her own pole because there was no one there to catch it. The official called it a miss since she "caught" her own pole.