Regionals Blows

[crash]

Hey, have yall ever jumped in a meet with over thirty competitors? If it is run off smooth its not all that bad. A lot of people are crying about warm up “ there is not going to be enough time.” Well, I think that if you are a consistent vaulter in most cases you don’t need more than three trips down the runway to be ready to role. Get warm, get your step on and start low. And be ready to warm up again before you jump, because it might be awhile,

[swtvault]

Or....you could just wait until you come in to warm-up. I like that idea the best. Almost every comp I jump in has almost 30 competitors. For instance indoors at houston, we had 45. Last week at rice, 37. No big deal. Like crash says, you dont need more than 2-3 trips down the runway to get your step on. F-it. Take it up on the first one! Thats the only way you can really know where your step is. Running through does jackshit as far as I am concerned

[Cpvault]

Come on guys!!!! I'm not going to even talk about why I think regionals is a terrible system ( since I'm in the minority on that issue now). But I do want to answer the people who have been saying, "oh, what, 45 guys in a competition; well that's not too bad." Let's be honest, that is about 30 guys too many. I jumped in many meets that had abnormally large fields, and it always hurts the best vaulters. They sit around the longest, sometimes for hours and hours, then are expected to warm up again; take a practice jump, then be ready. If you are one of those good vaulters and you've done that sort of thing enough times, then you know that what people are saying is far from the truth (In fact, Borya and I jumped at a meet in Fullerton, CA a couple of years ago and it took so long by the time we came in that we had to stop jumping because of darkness; the men's competition started at 2:00pm in May!!!! And, we were only coming in at 17 feet)
One more thing, and I have to say this: Why do you think the USATF does not change their qualifying system for US Nationals (which presently is the same system as the old NCAA system)? I mean, considering everybody thinks regionals are so great. It's becuase professional's, as well as, good college vaulters are rewarded for jumping high (rewarded by hitting the qualifying height). If the regional system stays in place; NCAA's is going to become a regular meet. That's unfortunate.
--CPvault

[thornhillj]

Does whining and crying on here actually help anything?......no. The NCAA has made the decision for the Regional system, and there is nothing that anybody can do about it......so i say just shut up and jump your best. and if you dont make it out of regionals, dont come back here and whine about how screwed up everything is.....just shake the guys hand that beats you and move on.

[rainbowgirl28]

One more thing, and I have to say this: Why do you think the USATF does not change their qualifying system for US Nationals (which presently is the same system as the old NCAA system)? I mean, considering everybody thinks regionals are so great. It's becuase professional's, as well as, good college vaulters are rewarded for jumping high (rewarded by hitting the qualifying height). If the regional system stays in place; NCAA's is going to become a regular meet. That's unfortunate.
--CPvault

But it is not qualifying to USAs that really matters. It is the qualifying to World's and the Olympics which is done at Nationals.

[vaultguru6]

one more thing i'd like to throw out there sorta along the lines of what pvjunkie said earlier:

here at university of oregon and other northern schools weather is crap for 3/4 of the outdoor season. We've had 4 home meets, not a one wasn't in the rain. The only meet us vaulters travel to outdoors before pac 10's and regionals is texas relays. sure texas had great conditions, but thats ONE of FIVE outdoor meets. pac 10's might make it 2 of 6. Then take the southern teams, particularly those in texas where winds are probably the best in the country, and they're having almost every meet with supurb conditions. this is 3 to 4 times as many chances to have great conditions to put up a big mark. The regional system gives me an advantage b/c it evens out that disadvantage i and other vaulters in the northern states have had.

We've beaten this topic to death.

[crumpman]

I was never a vaulter, just a lowly distance runner and a poor one, but having coached the vault for some 20 years and officiated a vast amount of vault competitions I think I may have some imput into the discussion. No doubt the better vaulters suffer when competitions have a large amount of competitors...I know what it is like to coach vaulters who "warm-up" only to sit for 2+hours waiting their turn. Not only to the better vaulters marks suffer, but there are more than a fair amount of safety concerns. I enountered this in a high school free-for-all indoor competition last year in which the competition ranged from "Am I holding the pole correctly" to 15' feet for about 50 athletes. As the meet was not scored and "normal" competition rules were flexible, I made the following decision; When the bar passed 11' we took a time out for the big guys to rewarm-up. It took about 30 minutes for the better vaulters to recheck their steps a couple of times. At that point we continued the meet and everybody was happy, the vaulters who were still in kept going and the passers were close enough to their opening height that they felt confident when they came in. Did this follow the rules....no, did it meet the spirit of competition...yes, and was much safer. All in all I doubt it added much if any time to the meet as their were fewer run-throughs to recheck steps(except for jomrus, who was addicted to them at the time). I think this is a reasonable fix to the warm-up issue.

[rainbowgirl28]

When the bar passed 11' we took a time out for the big guys to rewarm-up. It took about 30 minutes for the better vaulters to recheck their steps a couple of times. At that point we continued the meet and everybody was happy, the vaulters who were still in kept going and the passers were close enough to their opening height that they felt confident when they came in.

I think that is a good way to go when you have a big group with a wide range of heights. We do that all the time at all-comers meets.

The problem at regionals is not only will there be huge fields, they will all be within about 2' of each other in seed marks.

If they do the bar progression right, the top athletes should not have to be passing too many heights. Of course with a field of 50, the opening bar could easily take an hour...

[crumpman]

Rather than a height progression, take a break after each hour for each vaulter who has passed to recheck their step if they desire...possible limit to 3 checks...I'm brain stroming here. All comer meets are easy to manipulate, I would like to see a rule change to allow rewarms in a championship meet situation. Alas, I'm getting off topic.

[rainbowgirl28]

Rather than a height progression, take a break after each hour for each vaulter who has passed to recheck their step if they desire...possible limit to 3 checks...I'm brain stroming here. All comer meets are easy to manipulate, I would like to see a rule change to allow rewarms in a championship meet situation. Alas, I'm getting off topic.

They already get run throughs if they have to wait an hour.

[lonestar]

Come on guys!!!! I'm not going to even talk about why I think regionals is a terrible system ( since I'm in the minority on that issue now). If the regional system stays in place; NCAA's is going to become a regular meet. That's unfortunate.
--CPvault

I'll join your minority group CP - I think Regionals sucks too. Bottom line: it helps all the mediocre vaulters and hinders the good ones. USATF Nationals is not a "Team" meet, so why does NCAA's have to be? If they're truly going to develop their up-and-coming elite athletes, then those athletes need to compete in a system that mirrors the professional circuit in the U.S. You don't see any 4.90 vaulters at the Olympic for a reason - there is a standard.

Why does track and field need to be a team sport? To attract crowds? Seems to me that tennis attracts some decent size crowds and that's not a team sport either. How about golf? Auto racing? etc.

[lonestar]

As for everyone who keeps saying that Texas always has great winds, that's bs. I've lived here for 5 years, having come from the north, been to 100's of meets and practices at dozens of facilities, and can tell you for a fact that the winds are not perfect. Some facilities like the University of Texas generally luck out with good winds, but I've seen a lot of tracks with end-zone pits going east-west with bad crosswinds, tracks set down into man-made bowls with winds that swirl all over the place, and several meets that a front blew in on and changed the wind direction 180 degrees in a heartbeat. And yes, it does rain here and get cold.