Get Your Replacement Pole Vaulting Pole Labels Before Districts

According to NFHS rule number 7-5-3 “The competitor’s weight shall be at or below the manufacturer’s pole rating. The manufacturer must include on each pole: the pole rating that shall be a minimum of ¾ inch in a contrasting color located within or above the top hand-hold position; a 1 inch circular band indicating the maximum top hand-hold position with the position being determined by the manufacturer.
Prior to competition, the coach must verify that all of the schools’ pole vaulters meets these requirements.”

This year there has been an addition to the rule stating: “visible etchings appearing on poles shall not meet the requirement of the manufacturer’s pole rating appearing on the pole in a contrasting color.”  This addition to the rule could affect many vaulters as they head into their district, region, and state meets.  It is a terrible sight to see a young pole vaulter frantically running around searching for a pole to use because their pole isn’t properly marked from the manufacturer.  In fact, I witnessed this exact thing at the Florida Relays this past weekend.  Get your ducks in a row now!  If you have a pole that is either improperly marked or not marked at all, you still have time to fix the problem.

The major three pole manufacturers in the US: Gill Athletics, UCS Spirit, and ESSX are aware of this problem and are willing to help you.  For Gill Athletics, you can request a new label through a link on their front page.  Gill Athletics produces Pacer fx, Carbon fx, Skypole, Mystik, and Carbon Mystik poles. If the pole has a serial number embedded in the pole, meaning that it was manufactured since 2003, you will fill out the form differently than if it was manufactured prior to 2003.  For a Spirit Pole, you have to send in a clear digital photo of the engraved markings on the pole, which may take a little work on your part depending on if the etchings are clear.  If the etchings are not legible, you can try to clean the pole up so the etchings are more legible.  According to Bruce Caldwell at ESSX, you need to provide the flex number, pole size, and serial number along with your address to receive a new pole label.  Lablels for ESSX poles are FREE, contrary to other published posts, however, labels for Fibersport, Catapole, and Maxima poles are $10.

Altius poles are a completely different category.  If you’ve ever purchased an Altius pole, you know that they only have a piece of red tape on the pole that signifies the maximum handhold.  If you have one of those, you better contact Altius, because that pole definitely will not work.  With the new rule change this year, Altius is putting labels on their poles that meets the standard, but most people have the older ones.

Most districts won’t catch this rule, but most regionals will, and if they don’t I guarantee you that the state officiating crew will catch it.  Contact the appropriate manufacturer to get your replacement labels.

Contact information for each of these manufacturers is as follows:

Gill Athletics
1 800 637 3090

UCS Spirit
New number: 1-800-537-7117

ESSX
1 877 367 3779

Altius Poles
Jeff Erickson
1-800-374-7653

Get Your Pole Vaulting Poles Off The Ground And In A Case

Pole vaulting poles are expensive and will last a long time if you protect your investment.  In fact, just the other day I vaulted on a 14′6″ 185 Pacer Carbon made in 1995.  The pole worked fine because I tend to take care of my equipment.

I was at a meet today and I felt somewhat ill when I saw the assortment of pole vaulting poles lying around on the ground. Are you kidding me? Coaches, athletes, and parents share in this responsiblity.  To the coaches I say this: make sure that your school pole vaulting poles are not lying around on the ground.  These are expensive line items on a purchase order and there is no reason for them to be neglected as I witnessed today.  To the parents I say this: Don’t let your children or their teammates leave their poles lying around on the ground.  To the athletes I say this: Just because you didn’t have to pay for the poles, doesn’t give you the right to mistreat them!

So how can the problem be solved?  The effective and long lasting solution is to purchase a piece of Double-Q drainage pipe and store your poles in the tube.  If you ever see Pole Vault City at a meet you will notice that we have some big black tubes.  That’s how we keep our poles from being damaged unnecessarily.  Poles are going to get damaged over the years and some will even be broken, but that doesn’t mean that we have to put our poles in a dangerous situation.  There are two reasons I recommend the Double-Q: First, it is completely lined on the inside so your poles have a nice smooth environment in which to be stored; second, when the tubes are empty, they don’t turn into a giant swirly as does the Single-Q.  These tubes are extremely durable and I found out the hard way many years back when I had a team shot fall out of one of the seats and break 2 of my nice pole vaulting poles.  Ever since that day, I’ve been using the drainage pipe.  The short term solution is to rest them on the fence at an angle so they are somewhat out of harms way.  This is not a great solution, but it beats lying the poles around on the ground.

Fiberglass and carbon-fiber poles can withstand a tremendous amount of energy as they bend and recoil, hopefully propelling a vaulter successfully over a bar.  These poles do not do well when they receive fractures or dings.  When poles are just lying around on the ground, they stand a good chance of coming into contact with one of those sharp, pointed, little spikes on the bottom of everyones shoes at a track meet.  These dings don’t seem like much until the pole is put under pressure when bent and low and behold the freaking thing breaks.  It happens more than you would believe.  Coaches, parents, and athletes - please take care of your equipment and your equipment will take care of you.

Rule 7-5-29 Revised For Vaulter Safety

The rule change, 7-5-29, set forth by the National Federation of State High School Associations is a reversal of a ruling set forth in the 2008 rules revisions.  The 2008 rule revision matched the USATF, NCAA, and IAAF rule that a vaulter could leave the ground, and as long as the vaulter did not land beyond the plane of the box, could continue their attempt as long as they were within the time restrictions being enforced. Many pole vault safety activists voiced their stern objection to this rule, knowing that this rule would greatly increase the risk for injury.  The rationale of safety activists is simple, if a high school pole vaulter leaves the ground and can’t make it beyond the plane of the box, by hurriedly scampering back down the runway and trying the attempt again, the next attempt is almost always going to result like the first.  At this point, the rule has now doubled the chances of the vaulter being injured.

The new rule states: “It is a foul if the vaulter leaves the ground in an attempt and fails to clear the crossbar.
•Exception:  The competitor aborts the approach and in stopping, plants the pole and momentum causes his/her feet to leave the ground
•The vaulter may stop the approach and have the opportunity to restart the approach within the allotted time for the trial”

The new rule with the exception clearly laid out, exemplifies what the NFHS has intended all along.  The original rule, before the 2008 revision, stated the same thing the 2009 rule stated, without the exception.  The exception gives the vaulter a chance to stop and not be penalized because their momentum caused both feet to come off the ground.  This rule clearly states the vaulter must be aborting the approach.  This is a decision that must be made by the official in charge of the pole vault.

I support and applaud the NFHS in their continuing efforts to make pole vaulting as safe as possible.  They realized that a mistake was made in the rule and changed it for the following year.  Vaulters and their coaches and parents should be aware of all pole vaulting rules and any changes that occur from year to year.  If you do not have a copy, please get a copy of the NFHS rules book.

Running Off The Pit Will Not Result In A Make!

Myth: If a vaulter bobbles a crossbar and runs off the pit, it counts as a clearance as long as the vaulter has exited the pit before the bar falls down.Attention pole vaulters, coaches, and parents: If you run off the pit and the bar falls down - IT’S A MISS! I can’t count the number of times that I attend high school meets and inevitably, a vaulter scrambles to run off the pit because they heard that it would count as long as they were off the pit. All this does is put the vaulter at risk of rolling their ankle or possibly even worse. The rule states that the crossbar must steady itself. If a vaulter or their pole comes into contact with the bar and the bar is wobbling, the best thing to do is lay down in the pit and wait for the official to declare a make. If the bar falls down, then you know you have a miss on the scorecard. This myth is definitely BUSTED!