Cameron Shaughnessy
Michael Chojnowski
English 102
5 December 2012

Pole Vault Risks of Going High

Most people look at pole-vaulting as a crazy and extreme event in track and field. The men and women that do this event can be quite crazy. They are people who aren’t scared to take the risk of going as high as twenty feet in the air. Pole vaults are almost a different breed of athlete. They have a mindset that they are going to run as fast and jump as high as they can and not care what happens after. There are many ways that a pole-vaulter can get hurt from head injures to pulled muscles. Fortunately, nearly everyone that pole vaults remains safe and uninjured, but there are a few cases a year where people get hurt or in extreme cases killed. This isn’t due to the fact that the event isn’t safe but just that with every other sport, there is a chance something can go wrong and you can get injured. But that is the fact that athletes in every sport have to deal with and have accepted.
Pole-vaulting is a very technical and hard event to learn. The athlete has to be fast strong and have great stamina because of the amount of jumps taken and how taxing each jump is on the body. The main object of vaulting is to get over the cross bar and move to the next height. Most of this has to do with the amount of force you apply to the pole at impact. This is called momentum. “Momentum is a quantity used to measure the motion of the body” (Weir par 13). This is essential to having a successful jump and to clearing the height. Pole vault is an international sport that thousands of track and field athletes participate in each year and it is an Olympic event. There are coaches and people across the world that are trying very hard to get safety objects mandatory such as helmets for the jumpers. Helmets are the easiest and most obvious choice to incorporate into the rules. This is in part to most of the injuries that occur pole vaulting is head injuries form falling from such large heights. “According to the sky jumpers vertical sports club, 90 percent of serious pole vaulting injuries since 1983 have been head injuries.”(Wier par.4) This is a very troubling statistic that has many people worried. But there are ideas in progress to develop a helmet for pole vaulting.
Many believe that pole-vaulter’s wouldn’t get hurt if they just had proper training and coaching. With better training and coaching more technique and knowledge will be present and less accidents will happen. Although with any sport no one can predict when and injury is going to happen. The only way to help prevent these accidents from becoming life threatening is with proper safety equipment along with good coaching and technique.
With this many coaches and past athletes have been really pushing for better safety equipment and regulations for pole vaulter’s at all levels but with no avail. Recently, “Between February and April of 2002, two high school students and one college student died from head injures when their vaults went wrong”(Weir par.3). These unfortunate events got people really fighting for more safety precautions for all levels of vaulting. This is a very hard subject to fight because of the large scale to which these regulations would have to be enforced.
There are a few ways the athlete could get hurt while jumping. The first and most obvious is missing the protective mat. This mat completely surrounds the jumping area. It creates a safe and comfortable landing area for the vaulter to fall after jumping. A jumper could miss the mat for a number of reasons such as a technically bad jump to the pole breaking. Another is if the athletes fall back after they get into the air and fall back into or onto the runway. This can cause major head trauma do to the height they are falling from. Officials and medical professionals are trying hard to get these injuries under control. They propose “ an increase in education of the coaches and vaulters, the following of the rules in place, bigger mats so there is more room for error and softer landing areas, and to use common sense” (Hannay par.9). All of these regulations and equipment are great but “The USA track and field education committee have invested considerable time and effort in the use of helmets in vaulting” (Hannay par.2). The project for a real pole-vaulting specific helmet is still in progress. There is one helmet that has shows potential “it is the Snell R-12 but by the current design and size, pose two very dangers in pole vault. One their increased surface area reduces the normal amount of head penetration into the landing mat during deceleration and the outward protruding portion of the back of the helmet increases the leverage action against the neck by nearly two inches” (Hannay par 10,13). This means that the pole-vaulter is at greater risk of neck injuries like whip lash and even a broken neck. This is due to the harsh impact that is present when landing this also causes a very hard issue to address. Even though the research is being done and time is being put into designing the perfect pole vault helmet “ the fact is there isn’t a single feasible helmet that legally or marginally satisfies the necessary requirements for a pole vault helmet” (Hannay par 19). Until there is a helmet for pole-vaulters to use the athletes will have to become educated on the correct jumping techniques by their coaches. Also the schools and clubs that have pole-vaulting just have to make sure they have the proper protection mats. This can cut down on the head injuries but, of course, not completely eliminate them. But head injuries aren’t the only injuries pole-vaulters have to worry about.
Although most pole-vault related injuries are head injuries athletes can also have muscle and bone injuries as well. With any sport where you are pushing the limits of your body and muscles it sometimes will fail in the process. With pole vaulting you are combining all the bones and muscles in the body and doing so in fast, rough and straining movements. When the pole-vaulter is running down the runway they are using their leg muscles and could cause the muscles to fail by either straining or tearing after long periods of time. The shoulders are also at risk of being injured because of the stress they are being put under each jump.
These muscle injuries can be easy to avoid with the right stretching and training. A study was done to see the affects of how stretching helps the overall performance of a runner, jumper, or vaulter and the results were as expected. The study showed “ warm-up significantly increased hamstring flexibility. Static stretching also increased flexibility, whereas dynamics did not.”(O’Sullivan par. 4) This just shows although not all injuries can be avoided most of the muscle injuries can be, of course only with the proper stretching and time given to stretch the muscles.
Injuries are completely unpredictable and sports can only put in place safety equipment and regulations along with proper technique on the athletes part. Most athletes use the equipment if they are made available but at the same time athletes choose not too. Pole-vaulting is one of the extreme sports were there is a higher risk of injury and in particular head injuries but that isn’t going to deter people from competing. All that coaches and other sports professionals can do is provide equipment, common sense and know how and then hope that they are used and used correctly.

Works Cited
Hannay, W. Mark. “Safe Pole Vaulting & The Helmet Issue.” Coach & Athletic Director 72.2 (2003): 116. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Nov. 2012

O'Sullivan, Kieran, Elaine Murray, and David Sainsbury. "The Effect Of Warm-Up, Static Stretching And Dynamic Stretching On Hamstring Flexibility In Previously Injured Subjects." BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 10.(2009): 37. MEDLINE with Full Text. Web. 2 Dec. 2012.

Wier, Kirsten. “High Rick.” Current Science 89.3 (2003): 10. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Oct. 2012