Why the complaints with tape on the runway?

[GeorgeN]

I agree. I can't believe I agree, because I am a know it all. But I agree that if a tape measure were there every meet, there would be now problem.
I did have one problem where the father of a vaulter ran the pole vault at a meet and his son put an 18 inche piece of tape at his take off step right in the center of the runway. I argued with hime but decided I wanted to enjoy myself at the meet and just shut up. I told him it was a distraction to my vaulters and it could be looked at as a safey hazard for vaulters not wearing spikes.

BUt thankyou. I am going to push for the tape measure to the side at every meet.

[vault3rb0y]

Thats ridiculous.... although im not suprised it happens. He was probably spotting his take off that way, which i view as a form of cheating. You should have done that hundreds of times in practice before coming to the meet, and have someone catch your step and line it up after your jump. But yes, these things happen. Reminds me of a meet official during a very light rain, although it was 50 degrees out.... tried making our jumpers put up the bar for him. I told him thats not our job and we want to consentrate on jumping not putting up a bar for a lazy official! I got kicked out of the meet for argueing, but he was never an official at our school again.

[GeorgeN]

I am glad to see that you stand your ground. Too many athletes are afraid to take a stand and that is why, like a cheating girl friend, the bad behavior continues ( not that a girl ever cheated on me).

George

[stormvault]

Makers on the runway, athletes running out of the pit before the bar falls, touching the drag foot in the triple jump; it all comes down to the same thing. People not reading the rule book and even as important, the case book. I had a coach ready to write a letter of protest to our high school league because we don't allow tape on our surfaces. The problem we encounter is there is a majority of coaches that never read the rule book or case book and pass on missinformation to there athletes. We had a girl in our state pole vault competition wearing a hair band on her wrist. She was dq'ed for jewelry. Is it dumb, yeh, is it unfair, maybe, but at what point do we decide what rules we are going to follow. How many meets enforce time limitations and check out procedures. I think that we as coaches have a duty to make our athletes responsible for themselves and need to model that behaivour(sp?) by going through proper channels of protest and appeal. If your a coach read the rule book that pertains to your level of coaching rules are not standard across the board they differ from NFHS to NCAA to IAAF. Which is my favorite as a kid at a high school meet stops at the box with his pole breaking the zero point and you have 4 coaches arguing the right call.

ok, I will stop now because I could write a book on this subject. Although I got off subject a little. Someone should put together the book of urban pole vault rule myths.

[GeorgeN]

I agree with all you said. And it made me laugh because it is true. I am a vault coach at a hs in florida, and I am going to be vaulting in masters meets this year.
I don't remember these arguments 30 years ago. I like to bring up these topics to see if I am the only one who wants to follow the rules. As I said earlier, 3 strikes and you're out, weather it is a back yard game or the world series. A rule is a rule. The same with vaulting. Or else we will be arguing at every meet about everything.

George

[stormvault]

I don't know what it is like in other states but in MN the majority of the people working at a track meet are volunteers. Former athletes, or interested parties that want to help out. The only one that seems to be certified is the starter. So now you have a parent or an athlete that hasn't read the rules or been around the rules for some time. It is then compounded when the coach at the host school doesn't know the rules or doesn't seem to find it important to enforce rules that "don't matter" ie. time limit, check out procedure, uniform, voelzing, proper zero point, or padding hard and unyielding surfaces because it is olympic pit. So how do you educate the 25 people that work the field events at a track meet, even worse how do you educate coaches who's egos are to large because they know everything or just because they have coached X amt of kids over X Height. Enough complaining, the only thing I can offer you George is if you host a meet make sure it is by the book. You will get coaches that will get certain coaches that will complain but you will get many coaches that will appreciate the fact that you are running an invite that prepares kids for what they can expect at a big competition or the state meet.

[GeorgeN]

Yes. I agree that once the coaches see that you are simply enforcing the rules as the event was meant to be, they respect you. But not all. One coach in particular is similar to little league baseball parents who argue just to argue. I can't believe he has enough intelligence to coach the pole vault, yet he behaves like that.
I feel refreshed reading all the responses to this topic. I feel better. I wanted to to know that I was in the majority of what vaulters valued. I didn't want to think I was way out there while attempting to run a good, fun vault competition.
This year I copied the rules and I am handing out one to each vaulter and I am going to test them on the rules each week. I will make it a fun, light exercise each week. When the vaulters themselves speak up about the rules, I think the world is then all fun.

[Vaultref]

Hehehe, testing the vaulters on rules... Man, you're tought!

While you're at it, explain the tie breaker system. Better yet, provide an example with several ties and let them figure out the places.

This past season left me dumbfounded after listening to some vertical jump athletes tell me of how ties were broken at other meets they were at.

[hellomotto08]

I mustbe honest with you. I have never heard copmlaints about tape on the runway. Im 16 as well. Ive seen both tape, and stakes. i myself have used tape, stakes(pen :/), and eye makup i randomly found at my track. lol, i got away with most of it.

[vault3rb0y]

for rules... how about the officials at empire state games moving the girls scholastic divison hieghts from 9'6 to 10'3 and not telling anyone.... then when there is a 3 or 4 way tie for 2nd they just give 2 silver medals to 2 girls who cleared 9'6 first. Thing was.... they told all of us that 9'6 was 9'9. That left my coach and i dumbfounded.

[Vaultref]

Where did this happen?

(edited)
never mind, I was able to do some sluthing and figured out a little about yourself and concluded the meet you mentioned was the NYS Empire State games. I'll poke around to find out about what really happened if anything. I just might know some the officials.

[euroeva]

At our indoor meets and weekend outdoors which are out of philly in the suburbs they allow tape and they have a tape measure there also. at the outdoor meets they also allow the spikes in the ground. Every director is different and has their own take on the rules. At one of our meets a girl kicked the pole back to stop it from hitting the bar and Mr. Talon allowed it as a pass. (But maybe that was becasue he coached the girl
;-)) Anyway it wasn't after other coaches around stood up that he finally acknowledged his mistake. It is stuff like this that really annoys me. Or when you see coaches/directors at meets always giving advice to the same vaulters. What happened to equality, I have us much of a right to advice as someone who is able to clear 11 ft. But in todays society where everyone wants credit for being someones coach this is what happenes. Anyway thats why I love my coach Mr. Ferko because he actually is out there telling each jumper advice on how to improve. Anyway that is a lot of rambling but it was someting I had to get out there.