How did you get into pv?

[njvaulter]

Who was your brother in law?

[Vaulter85]

David Cox. Went to Fresno State, got inducted into their Hall of Fame last year. real cool guy.

[Peepers PV]

I started because one day in 8th grade I didn't want to do a hard workout and conveniently enough it was also a pv practice day . There are only so many events you can learn before you run out of them and have to do the hard workouts lol. So now I'm a 12 foot vaulter... doing 5 events at state. Funny how that worked out...lol

Lori

[PimpVaulter11]

My brother made me want to get into it. I watched for 2 years before i ever touched a pole.....they wouldn't let me try but then they let me freshman year

[Russ]

At age 9, I saw Bob Seagren on TV (indoor meet when he was at USC...probably Feb. 1966?) and I got inspired. I remember going out into my backyard that day and finding pieces of a broken TV antenna to use for a pole and makeshift crossbar. I was (and still am) insane, I suppose. From there I progressed to cutting down sapplings to use as poles. And my brother and I stacked up cardboard boxes to use as standards on which we balanced brooms for crossbars.

I have pictures of my at age 10 using a wooden dowel of some sort as a pole in my backyard. Then my parents ordered a 10-foot Thermoflex training pole. I can stll remember the day that it arrived at the train station from Kansas. The man at the railroad station called the house and said that he had a pacage for me that was a "long tube." I remember that even when I started on the track team in 9th grade I still used that thermoflex for practicing on occasion.

[Vaulter1080]

I first remember pole vaulting from a summer olympics game I had on the atari computer when I was areound 3 or 4 years old. Had swimming, gymnastic vaults on the horse, 4x4 relay run, and of course pole vaulting I started athletics at the end of my 7th grade year on a bet. Usually the scrawny geeky kid, I had been in karate for years, and wanted to try out football. None of my friends thought I owuld be able to last, some friends, and stuck with football. That started me getting into athletics a lot. I started running and riding my biek everywhere, but when spring freshman year came around, track started and I was hooked for life. I'm a one event guy, but PV seems to be the only thing I'm good enough for around here to get points so I stuck with it. Didn't get my better jumps in till my junior year tho, and then I got obsessed even more. Now that I'm on 14 foot poles with that ominous 15 footer looming on the horizon and districts a week away I can't wait for the chance to make it to states. Every step further I get I get that much more hooked.

[Kolber]

Im kinda a all around track guy, then in my 1st year in modified in 7th grade, my coach told me i should do PV cuz of my speed and amazing upperbody strength, so i did it

[jp1667]

I started pole vaulting when i was practicing for x-c season in 8th grade to become a midfielder lacross player. One day my coach asked bunch of us runners about joining track and said, "there are plenty of events to chose besides running like HJ and pole vaulting. And you don't have to worry about competing in bad weather. Besides, you get to jump in the air and land on a big red bed. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Well during the first week of lacross trials, it was cold, snowy/rainy and our coach was a total prick. And getting beat up to death with a solid rubber ball & hit with metal stick shafts during extensive drills in cold made it that less attractive.

Well, after 3 of 7 days of practice trials, I left lacross and jumped on a big red bed for my entire HS seasons. And my coach was right, who can really dislike jumping really high on a sunny day onto a big red bed?

[pv4life]

one of my buddies that I ran XC w/ said that I should vault. I didn't even know what pole vaulting was until he showed me

[vaulter870]

did it at a school decathalon and have been hooked ever since

[GirlPoleVaulter87]

ex gymnast = polevaulter
5 months after I picked up the pole (sophmore year) i cleared 11'6

junior year and now as a senior i've been learning to leave the gymnast mindset behind and be a TRACK athlete.

I'm in the 12s now but hopefully when i learn how to run i'll go higher.

[ladyvolspvcoach]

They had just putnew sawdust in the pit and rake the cinders. We had to wait until after noon to start because the sawdust was still frozen till the sun came up high enought to thaw it. My coach was the Rhode Island U champ of 1944. We decided to use the Swedish Steel pole instead of the Bamboo that he was used to. They'd been sitting around too long and might just break. I remember how hard it was to jump 7' for the first time. Once that little barrier was out of the way the heights seemed to come pretty easy. We had Junior High school at that time so you started High School as a sophmore. By the end of my junior year I had set a new record of 11' on my trusty (rusty) steel pole. My dad decided to spend the $60 bucks to get my first fibre glass pole. It was a 15' 150# skypole. What a cool pole!! I couldn't bend it, but it was so much lighter than the steel pole I could run and plan soooo much easier. Best high school vault was 12' 6" my senior year to set a new South Eastern Indoor High School Record. Then on to UT......They actually had foam rubber in their pit....I was in heaven.