PoleVaultPower.com

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http://www.grostenquin.org/brats/pbrats-62m.html

like sand is gonna make a good landing

They should have a long jump bonus added to your overall vault for extra credit

OUCH!! looks like pole vault was cut out of the budget that year...

Does anyone who is old enough to remember, know about how much those steel poles weighed? Just wondering for reference how heavy they were....even without knowing I'm positive I wouldn't want to lug one down a runway.

I have another question that an older vaulter might know. I was down cleaning out my schools storage shed, and I found some sort of pole vault pole. It is about 10 feet long and a little more than an inch accross. It is made of some sort of metal, but the is a hole in the metal running the length of the pole. I know that it is a pole vault pole beacuse there is a covering on it that has a vaulter on it. I also found that it was made in France. It bends VERY easily. What in the world is this thing????

ouch!!! landing in the sand!!! looks like the perfect way to break an ankle!!! yikes.

that looks like it kinda sucks...tough landings...

I'm betting that is an aluminum pole. Aluminum poles were a constant diameter from end to end. The steel poles I used were tapered from a fat middle to very small ends. The bottom of the pole had a slightly fattened steel plug that went into the box. Notice the side walls of the box are straight up not slanted like they are today. We vaulted on viberglass poles with those boxes for a year or two before the slanted sides came out. Broke a bunch of poles that way.

thanks, i have been wondering about that.

YIPPEE.......a topic that an ol' duffer like me can talk about! I never did have to land in a sand pit but I did land in my share of sawdust pits. Foam pits didn't start happening until the mid 60's or so. What we did at our school and many other schools in our conference (and in my front yard for my "at home" pit) was to take several rows of old tires two to three rows high, then some schools would lay a wrestling mat or two on top or they'd have 8'X8' mesh bags ( maybe 3 or 4) filled with foam pieces and throw them on top of the tires. We had to be pretty good shots to make the pits but we all did...............most of the time. Believe it or not those aluminum poles weren't that heavey. They all were avout 14 to 16 feet long and you held on right at about the height of the cross bar. So there was always quite a bit of counter balance to make it easy to run. I might have more later if there is any interest in it. Later.....Mike

so now that i have determined that i have discovered an aluminum pole, how is it possible to vault on it. It seems to bend sooo easily.

Vaultmarq, if that pole is "bending" I'd stay off of it. The aluminun poles didn't bend (at least very much) maybe an inch or two at best. They aren't like the glass pole where it will recover and thus give you a boost. For the most part, a metal pole will fold over much the same as a drinking straw does when you bend it too much. Back in the aluminum and steel pole days, your main manufacturer was Gill and the pole will be either orange or red. Those swedish poles (the ones with the fat center and tapering at each end) I believe were tan. Because they didn't bend, that's why we slid the left hand up to the right hand at the pole plant to get as high on the pole as possible. Much the same way you guys and gals work on the smoothness of your "free take off" we used to work on the "hand slide" when we took off.What you might have is a crossbar if it's really easy to bend. The pole that you have,( in order to be a vaulting pole) would have at least a 1 1/2" or 2 1/4" diameter. Now I'm working off of a 40 year old memory but I think I'm right here. What do you think, Dave. I am right here aren't I? Later.......Mike P.S. As to how to vault on a metal pole, Becca had a link up some time back showing Bob Richards pole vaulting in the Olympics. That's how you do it.....just like Bob.