Bubka in Action

"We do sprint training."

A common question I'm asked by my curious peers is: "How do you train for pole vault?" I used to give them a detailed summary about how I drive out to train with this other coach in that other far city once or twice a week, and how we do "bar work" and do drills.

However, after pole vaulting for a few years now, I've boiled down my answer to: "We do sprint training."

Why is sprint training so important in pole vault? Sure, it takes no-nonsense abdominals to perform those top-of-vault contortions. And it takes gnarly arm strength to prevent the pole (your "friend") from performing a blunt and glorified back-stabbing. Despite the blatant importance of upper-body strength, pole vaulters spend the majority of time training to run faster.

There is wisdom in this.

Observe this complex diagram.

The pole vaulter of mass m runs with velocity v to clear height h.

And also, recall the equations for kinetic energy and potential energy.

Kinetic Energy = ½mv²

Potential Energy = mgh

In a simple world, the vaulter's kinetic energy equals his potential energy.

m = mass of vaulter
v = velocity of vaulter when he plants the pole
g = acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s²⁾
h = height of crossbar

½mv² = mgh
v² = 2gh
v = √2gh
v = √19.62h

Thus, a pole vaulter "can vault only as high as he can run."

How fast was Bubka running into his world record vault?

The Bubka-beast.

v = ?
h = 6.14 m (20.2 ft)

v = √19.62h
v = √19.62(6.14)
v = 11.0 m/s (24.6 mph)

That's pretty amazing-- Can people even run that fast?

Usain Bolt holds the current world record for the 100 meter dash. His top speed is 12.2 m/s (27.3 mph).

So yes, people can run pretty fast, and Bubka is, in fact, as fast as a world class sprinter (keep in mind that he has to sprint while holding a fifteen-foot pole).

A Certain Brand of Character, Eh?

They say that it takes a certain brand of character to pole vault. A certain brand of character to carry a hefty, ten-foot-some pole, book it like a criminal down a runway, and fly up to the height of a two-story window. Yet, despite the craziness, pole vaulting works. The world record is a whopping 6.14 meters (about 20 feet, 2 inches), held since 1994 by the formidable Ukrainian, Sergey Bubka.

So what makes it possible to soar to new heights with nothing at hand but a carbon fiber pole? The idea behind pole vault is the conversion of kinetic energy to potential energy-- the vaulter turns kinetic energy (horizontal ground speed), into potential energy (height). As for how the pole assists the vaulter with this...

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Of course, the diagram is missing the part in which the vaulter plummets back to earth with an acceleration of 9.81 meters per second squared (gravity), but that part is slightly more self-explanatory.

The above freeze-frame diagram illustrates the progression of the vault and how the pole bends and unbends to catapult the vaulter up and over the crossbar. The dent that the vaulter sticks his pole into is called the box, and in real life appears like so:

Yes, technically, the box isn't actually a box. It's a slightly trapezoidal indentation in the ground that consists of a sloping bottom and a vertical back wall to stop the horizontal motion of the pole... cold turkey. The box is eight inches deep, which is sometimes loved and sometimes hated by pole vaulters... Loved when 10 feet high is actually 10 feet 8 inches, and hated when the airheaded vaulter receives a thorough ankle-spraining.

Stay tuned, and light will soon be shed on the many remaining mysteries of pole vaulting.