Spotting Proposal

[Steve]

Posted by Steve...
...for Glen P. Drexler
Assistant Track & Field
Pole Vault, Throws Coach
University of Wisconsin-Superior
==========================================================

Pole Vaulter's, Coaches, Administrators,

I am a Pole Vault coach for the University of Wisconsin-Superior.  I have been involved in competing or coaching the Pole Vault for nearly 20 years.  My vaulting "education" has come through many years of hard work, practice and studying under some of the greatest vaulters' and vault coaches ever.  I have attended camps and clinics under some of the greatest vaulting "minds" in the United States... Earl Bell, Don Hood, and Bill Falk; and in my mind, locally: Kevin Hanson at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.  I would like to voice my thoughts regarding Safety in the Pole Vault? I know there are others out there with many years the experience I have, not to mention a greater ?clout? when it comes to discussing Pole Vault in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Midwest in general.  But I believe in some practices of Pole Vault safety, which I think are all too often overlooked, misunderstood, under-used and under-appreciated.  

As we turn on the T.V. we see the variety of EXTREME sports.  These days everyone wants to be involved in extreme sports? extreme biking, extreme skateboarding, all of which pale in comparison to the one event we all know and love: pole-vaulting? one of the original ?extreme sports?.   The one big difference between our extreme sport and most others: ours is one of the few to be included as a School sponsored event.  Safety concerns have been raised and addressed over the years in every sport.  Constantly increasing safety and precaution measures taken for all school sports and activities.  But pole vault is one of those events that too many people want to regulate, restrict and even eliminate in the wake of tragic events and ever-increasing insurance premiums.  One problem I have with this is, that those making the decisions are often unfamiliar with the event, do not understand the risks that go into it or even know how to solve the problems they are charged with.  They mostly see the injury and fatality rates.

In the past 5 to 10 years, the discussion of Safety in the Pole Vault has steadily increased, some for the good, some for the bad; all in the efforts to increase safety in the event in which we all love so dearly.  Recently we have seen some very drastic changes in safety equipment and procedures, which have changed how the Vault even looks.  Helmets, Vault box ?collars?, athlete/pole weight restrictions, ?Preferred Landing Zones? or PLD and a variety of other ways all in efforts to protect against injury and most feared: Death.

With the tragedy of Penn State vaulter Kevin Dare at the 2002 Indoor Big Ten Championships at the University of Minnesota, Kevin?s Father Ed Dare has sparked a movement to ?reform? the pole vault and protect its athletes.  I do not disagree with many of these ideas.  Some I think are wonderful ideas to help prevent injury and death some I think are ideas thought up by people who don?t completely understand the pole vault and a few are knee jerk reactions to tragedies that could, or could not be avoided.  

I would like to discuss a few ideas regarding safety in the Pole Vault that, I am sure have been discussed at great length and have been used by many coaches and athletes for a very long time, yet I don?t think are taken quite seriously enough. First off, lets take a look at the coaches themselves.  The coaches of our ?feeder? programs: High Schools, Junior Highs & Middle Schools, club teams? often have no formal training in the pole vault, whether it be even the most elementary techniques or knowledge in regards to the event.   Too many coaches out there either know too little, or nothing at all about the event which all too often results in a dangerous, under qualified, inexperienced vaulter who may get hurt.  This in turn causes more negative attention to an already fragile sport.  Now, understandably we cannot help that situation in any simple or quick manner.  The subject of ?certifying? our coaches has also been discussed.  I agree with that to a point? but the flip side of that is:  how do we get every coach out there to come in and get certified in order to coach?  And if so, how do we give our event an opportunity to grow if you only let schools vault that have a ?certified? coach, all of a sudden, we are missing many opportunities to make our sport more available while reducing the opportunities to those who want but cannot participate in the event.  Obviously there will always be another problem with every solution.

Let me discuss some possible solutions for Pole Vault safety.  When I first started vaulting in my middle school days, my coach ?Virg? had never vaulted a day in his life? never took a class, never attended any clinics.  But the man read anything he could get his hands on and became one of the best ?teachers? of beginner vaulter's I have ever met.  If I would ever have to choose anyone to teach a beginner how to vault, I would choose Virg.  Virg had an awareness of safety that would be felt in practice.  Virg would encourage each one of us to always wear a crappy old t-shirt sometimes two t-shirts to practice and the reason was simple.  If we start to fall, go the wrong direction, or anything that would be a risk to our health or safety? he would grab at that shirt and yank us in the right direction.  The other thing I remember very clearly was when he told us, if we ever start coming down, with any possibility to miss the mats, he would essentially ?tackle? us into the mats and encouraged each of us to do the same? he would actually station us around the mats to ?spot? the other vaulters' as we each rumbled down the run way to crashed into the pits.  

The point here is:  Spotting is a lost concept within our event.  Virg was a former all state gymnast and coach from the 1960?s.  The one thing Virg did know about Pole Vaulting, as with Gymnastics, is that it is a potentially dangerous event and needed to be treated as one.  He took every precaution he knew as a gymnastics athlete and coach and applied it to the Pole Vault.  The Number one thing I learned about pole vault safety from Virg:  Spotting.  Among the many other things we learned about vaulting safety, spotting has been the one that I rely on most in my practices and competitions to protect my athletes against serious injury and death.  

Coaching the vault is a very complex and time consuming thing, in addition to ?spotting?, Virg would take a very long time to make sure each of us understood every aspect of the vault.  What I pull from Virg, in coaching the vault is this: First, spotting helped protect against the inadvertent miscues that happened in which could cause harm to the vaulter.  Second, the athlete needs to understand the risks and comprehend what they are actually doing within the event in order to better understand how to react in specific situations, protect against injury and increase odds of walking away from a crash.

Spotting the vaulters' is something that I take very seriously and feel it needs to become a constant in our sport.  We as coaches need to do more of it, explain it to our athletes how to assist or spot on their own, maybe even get more training on how to do it better from our Gymnastic Contemporaries.

In my own personal belief, and from the reports that I have heard and been described of the event, I believe Kevin Dare might be alive right now had there been a spotter present that day at the UofM.

Let me elaborate.  

When Spotting my athletes; as they are running down the runway, I stand to THEIR left side, as close to the mats as possible (essentially next to them at take off, the side one would give the athlete a ?tap? if it were legal. {Opposite for left handed vaulters.}).  When the athlete hits their take off and leaves the ground, I follow in behind them very quickly and closely, without touching the athlete or the pole, right up to the pole as it extends and stands at the base of the vault box.  Here I am ready, below the athlete in the case he/she is (pick one:) stalling/short, comes down without awareness where they are, doesn?t have the runway speed for the vault resulting in over bend and being shot back down the runway, or any other situation in which I might be able to sacrifice my body for the safety of my athlete.

Going back to Kevin Dare, my understanding is that he went up, maybe stalled, maybe not? but basically dropped, head down, straight back down into the vault box.  Had a spotter been in the position I described, the spotter would have been in position to ?tackle? him into the pads.  Now, let me reiterate that he may have still gotten hurt, possibly seriously? and still possibly incurred a fatal injury. even with a spotter BUT, there was not one in that position below him when he came down to argue the point.  Another thing, had a spotter been in that position, both the spotter and the athlete may have gotten hurt? spinal cord injuries, broken bones, a variety of serious injuries may have occurred, but with a spotter there, the chance of both ?living? and possibly walking away from the event would have been much greater than without.

Another example of the spotter position I described is the idea of if a vaulter stalls, (getting on a new pole, having a bad day planting the pole, just loading the pole to a point where they can safely land in the ?PLZ?) I will typically tell the vaulter to ?hold on?.  This does two things, ONE if they hold on to the pole for a split second, they will automatically put their head above their legs (already increasing chance of walking away by avoiding head trauma.) and it gives them a chance to see what is below them instead of looking toward the sky.  While I have yelled to hold on, I am trying to push the pole with vaulter on it, above a mat area where they can drop to safety, or slow the drop rate of the pole if they are out too far from the pits to land safely on the mats? where if they are holding on, and head up, we can at least get them down head up, protecting from head injury.

Some might argue that we already have this in place with the ?pole catcher? at some of the bigger meets and events held? but too often I have trusted them to do what I consider a very important job.  The result of trusting the Pole Catcher as a spotter:  one of my vaulters stalling, coming back down toward the runway and tearing her ACL because the person there had no intention of ?Spotting?.   All this person had to do would have been to push the pole slightly left, right or forward and the athlete would have landed on the pads.  Granted this is just speculation, but without spotting and trusting someone else to spot who isn?t prepared to do so, I feel I failed my athlete by not committing to aid safety in that situation.

Another problem a lot of people have with this is they believe that by following in so closely, I am giving my athlete a ?tap? or a push which isn?t the case at all? when all I want is the continued safety of my vaulters in their most vulnerable moments.  This is just another reason to require meet management to provide spotters to avoid the controversy of tapping.

Obviously there are plenty of instances where spotting may or may not have saved anyone from a fatal injury.  A vaulter who?s pole tip ?slips? out of the box as a result of over bending, lack of adequate speed take off speed, ?high? pole tip plant within the box, or various other instances, with results usually ending with the vaulter landing where the pole last touched the box. Simply said, the head lands in the vault box.  In most cases: head trauma due to the vaulter?s momentum carrying his/her head into the vault box.  In a situation such as this; my lack of medical background in traumatic head injuries not withstanding, my opinion would be that I do not believe there could be many precautions that could save the vaulter in this situation, including a helmet or vault box collar.  Though I still think helmets may increase the chance of avoiding fatal head injuries on an overall level.

The bottom line is this, I think we don?t give enough credit or even give open discussion to the concept of spotting.  I would go so far as to call it aggressive spotting.  Watching Gymnastics I consider most spotting ?Passive Spotting? where they stand on the side and only step in on a difficult move? ?Aggressive Spotting? would consist of actually being as close to the vaulter at all times possible in the case they miscalculate where they are.  Even then, spotting wont stop all injuries, but quite possibly allow the percentages in the athletes favor.

As I have stated, I by no means profess that I am an expert in this issue.  But I seriously think we as vaulters, have not protected each other like we should and could.  We need to do more assisting other vaulters in warm ups? last person down the runway can spot for the next guy? whatever? we need to be there (literally) for each other.

This letter is meant for open discussion of vault safety.  I think, we as athletes, parents, coaches and administrators need to help each other out with this issue.  We need to talk more about the concept of spotting.  Let?s take it seriously and require Meets and Events to have individuals in place who are knowledgeable and ready to sacrifice their bodies for the safety and lives of our co-competitors, our teammates, our students and our children.

We can make this a safer event by merely standing in the right place.  Being ready for the things that are very common in our event we increase the odds of avoiding injury. Preventive safety measures must be and should be, much better.

Respectfully,

Glen P. Drexler
Assistant Track & Field
Pole Vault, Throws Coach
University of Wisconsin-Superior
gdrexler@uwsuper.edu
218.310.2075

[cmilton]

Interesting idea he has applying the gymnastics idea of spotting to the vault.  I'd like to see how he does this in person.

I posted this proposal here:
http://polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4044