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As a vaulter in high school(1997-2001) I would place my standards all over the place, sometimes fluctuating from the minimum 12inches all the way back to the maximum 30 inches in the same meet. this kind of made sense due to the limited pole selection that i often faced and most high schoolers face, you sometimes have to make a larger jump in poles, so you max out your standards, then bring them in dramatically for the next pole.

despite the wide variation of my standard settings, they generally were much closer to 12inches than 30, and very often were at the minimum 12 inches(heck, if they would have let me bring them closer at the time, i might have!) have any of you barely cleared a bar with standards set at 12 inches(approx 30 cm), you are almost landing in the BOX! now, my personal bests, if i remember correctly, were usually not set at 12 inches, but usually between 15 and 18 inches--not very often at 30in) so often farily shallow. when i was in the 20's of inches(20in ~ 51cm) i thought i was really penetrating!

I like to think that i was a decent vaulter in high school(15') but i was very often running through and most of my misses were "coming down on the bar" so i always thought i had lot of height over the bar on my misses. I would get off of the pole early and my pole would usually not make it to vertical.

my first year of college(2002 track season) i had similar problems, not so much running through(ok, still some but much improvement in that area), but i still came up short a lot and poles did not move to vertical all the time. my personal best that year(4.81 meters if you are interested) came with my standards set at 33cm(or about 13 inches) and i actuall brushed the bar on the way up AND the way down somehow, and the bar was hanging on by a thread on the 2002 LONG pegs. my first attempt at the next height i got hung up on the crossbar and almost landed in the box!

okay, now comes the 2003 season and some rule changes at the college level--short pegs, and the new minimum standard setting is 45cm(about 18" for you inch people) I wasnt super happy about these changes as 45 used to be a "deep" setting for me, but i thought i could deal with it.

one of my early indoor meets i was attempting what was a decent height for me, and i tried moving up poles, putting my standards at 45cm. well, in my mind i had plenty of height, but just need that extra 10 or so cm closer and i thought i would have cleared it. I was frustrated with the rule(nevermind that i wasnt even moving the pole to vertical)

indoors i managed 14cm PR of 4.95m(on a 15' pole, it was my 15'6ers that i was having the standard issues on), but finally things came together in that outdoor season and I ended up upping my PR by 25cm in the final meet of the season for a 5.20m jump(actually landing in the center of the mat!) I had finally adjusted to the 15'6"ers and moved my grip up to 15'. but i was forced to do so while still moving the pole through.

so, i guess the point of that long winded story about my high school-sophmore year of college standard placement is i thought that it was a good rule change. Now it certainly helped that i had a nice series of poles unlike high school. but the rule did help force me to become a more consistant and safer pole vaulter.

I am hoping that this can start some discussion on Standard placement rules and practices. this past year(my first since graduating college) i have tried having my standards farther back than even the past couple of years and i dont think i have had them any closer than 60cm all year. It is a lot easier to move up a pole if your standards are already back at 80!


Current rules:
High school: 40cm to 80cm
College: 45cm to 80cm
IAAF & USATF: 0cm! to 80cm

2.54cm = 1in

so, what are your feelings on stardard placement? Were you effected by the rule change in 2003? Should we teach beginners to start out with standards back.

sorry for the long winded post, i am just interested in other's thoughts on standard placement. I really wish i would have known how to make adjusments to my approach length in high school, it may have solved a few standard problems i had with pole selection then.

Any thoughts?

I've never vaulted with the standards closer than 26in.

same here...i think the closest i've ever had them was at about 23in, although i always go by centimeters so i was usually chillin in the 60's.

I have personally cleared bars from 30-80cm and landed safely into the pit. For the kids I coach I usually keep their standards between 20-30in and they seem to be doing just fine. Now, I in college had a good pole line and the kids I coach also have an excellent pole line with no big gaps. I am fine with the current rule. I did however see a girl in college that had her standards at 0 and sucessfully clear the bar and land safely into the pit.

i really think it would be cool to make it 45-95 my pr would probley be alot higher

I don't have much of a problem with the new regulations because I’ve been jumping w/ the standards back there any way....

I do have a question though...what is the reason for h.s. and college rules stating a minimum for standards? When if you go to IAAF or USATF meets you can have them as close as you want. I don't really see a real reason for this..am I the only one that thinks that standards should have the same rule straight across the board?

Maverick986 wrote:I do have a question though...what is the reason for h.s. and college rules stating a minimum for standards? When if you go to IAAF or USATF meets you can have them as close as you want. I don't really see a real reason for this..am I the only one that thinks that standards should have the same rule straight across the board?

Trying to keep kids from killing themselves. I think moving the minimum standard placement from 12" to 15.5" was one of the smarter moves the NFHS ever made.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:Trying to keep kids from killing themselves. I think moving the minimum standard placement from 12" to 15.5" was one of the smarter moves the NFHS ever made.

ok yea that makes sense...didn't think of that before...thanks

i really think it would be cool to make it 45-95 my pr would probley be alot higher

Yeah I don't see why 80 is the limit for how far back they can go, I mean at 80, you usually end up landing right in the middle, but maybe that's just at the lower heights?

fx wrote:

i really think it would be cool to make it 45-95 my pr would probley be alot higher

Yeah I don't see why 80 is the limit for how far back they can go, I mean at 80, you usually end up landing right in the middle, but maybe that's just at the lower heights?

yeah, i think at some point the danger is of flying off the back of the mat, but i do wonder where 80 came from...

what is the most efficient placement? is it 80? something a little closer or a little farther back?

I would think with the larger pits, you could probably safely vault with them at 90, but most high schools have the standards bolted down, and it is simply not possible to place them farther back.

I think the change in standard placement was a great idea, and definitely in the interest of safety. I haven't been vaulting for too long, but I have definitely seen too many kids come down in or near the box. Luckily, I get in pretty well myself, but the few times I have come up short...it HURT!! Also, when I help the officials moving the standards, I get to see where everyone puts them, and most people actually keep them closer than 20 inches, especially the girls, and I am always disappointed by these "unsafe standards". I have thought many times about what pole vaulting would be like if they forced the minimum standards back further. (the closest I ever feel safe putting mine is 18 inches...)