This is Part 2 of a historical review of pole vaulting technique by David Bussabarger. Part 1 was in Track Coach #232.
By David Bussabarger
Illustrations by David Bussabarger
Rigid pole vaulting, using poles made of various materials, dominated the pole vault from the mid-to-late 19th century to 1960, when the last WR using a stiff pole was set by 1960 Olympic Champion Don Bragg at 15’-9¼”/4.81. Rigid pole technique was based on the Double Pendulum principle. Simply put, this meant the vaulter should strive to literally become a pendulum rotating about his closely spaced hands as the pole rotated about the box,creating a second inverted pendulum.
The earliest competitive rigid pole vaulters typically had a relatively wide handspread of 1’ to 2’ (ideal for rigid vaulting). Based on photographic evidence, the Double Pendulum principle appears to have been introduced in pole vaulting in the early 1900’s. This can be deduced by the fact that vaulters in this period had developed closely spaced hands, which was necessary to create a single axis of rotation, the single most critical factor in the development of the vaulter’s pendulum-like swing.
In 1961 George Davies became the first fiberglass vaulter to set a WR by leaping 15’-10½”/5.83. Note that Davies increased his handspread to about 6” apart and only bent the pole roughly 20 degrees. In short order most of the best rigid pole vaulters at the time switched to fiberglass poles. Soon WR’s were being broken routinely. In 1963 alone,the WR was broken 10 times ending with John Pennel becoming the first man over 17’ (17’ 1/4”/5.20).
In the early years of fiberglass vaulting no one knew how to best take advantage of bendable poles. Most vaulters in this period used modified rigid pole technique with wider hand spreads. This improved the vaulter’s control and stability, which was an important factor when using bending poles. Note that most vaulters started with handspreads of only 6” to 1’, which was then increased over time. So right from the beginning fiberglass vaulters began evolving away from the Double Pendulum principle. John Pennel was the first fiberglass vaulter to use a very wide handspread of about 26” and also to fully bend the pole to about 90 degrees at maximum bend.
In the first 10 years or so of the fiberglass era almost all vaulters and coaches believed there had to be one ideal way to vault with fiberglass poles. This seemed reasonable at the time due to the fact that rigid vaulters had developed one ideal method of vaulting and the fiberglass era was still quite new and in its developmental stage (typified by a plethora of individual vaulting styles at all levels of the event). The greatly varying vaulting styles seen among elite vaulters at this time made it impossible to have any clear idea of what ideal fiberglass technique might look like.
In 1972 Kjell Isaksson of Sweden set three outdoor WR’s, culminating in a WR 18’4¼”/5.60. Many at this time thought Isaksson’s technique was nearly perfect. However, Isaksson was only in top form for a short while and his WR was soon broken by Bob Seagren at the 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials with a vault of 18’-5¾”/5.63. Note that Seagren had an individual vaulting style that strongly contrasted with Isaksson’s.
As time went on, individualized fiberglass vaulting styles continued to proliferate and the WR continued to improve. As a result, the view that Isaksson’s technique was ideal faded.
Based on personal experience as a successful vaulter in this time period (PR 16’9”/5.10, 40th highest vault in the world in 1971), the writer did not know of any coach or vaulter at the time who attempted to design fiberglass technique based on the Double Pendulum principle, as rigid vaulters did. A major reason was that there were a good number of conflicts between effective fiberglass technique and rigid pole technique. As a result, vaulters and coaches were free to develop technique in any direction that produced good results. This led to the continued development and evolution of individual fiberglass vaulting styles that persist to this day and has been a critical factor in the improvement of vaulting performance or the years.
However, in the early 1980’s Vitaly Petrov of Russia developed his own technical “model”, which he taught to his star pupil Sergey Bubka. Bubka went on to set over 30 WR’s and became the first man over 20’/6.10 in 1991. His great success convinced a great many people in the world wide vaulting community that Petrov’s model was ideal and therefore all vaulters should base their technique on it.
Ironically, even though a great many coaches and vaulters became Petrov advocates, very few elite vaulters over the years (both men and women) actually adopted the Petrov model in its entirety. Bubka is the only vaulter to reach 6m or better who completely mastered all aspects of Petrov’s model (with some inconsistency . Several other 6m+ vaulters, such as Maksim Tarasov, Dmitriy Markov and Timur Morgunov incorporate/incorporated parts of the Petrov model into their own individual vaulting style with excellent success.
The Petrov model is based on the idea that fiberglass vaulters should rotate the pole to vertical like rigid vaulters did. In effect he was reintroducing the idea of a pole pendulum in fiberglass vaulting. This, in turn, was based on the idea that as the pole bends, the axis of the pole becomes an invisible line from the top hand to the tip of the pole in the box. If the invisible pole axis is “plotted” it makes it appear that bending poles rotate to vertical.
It is the writer’s view that the movement of bending poles during the vault should be plotted following the vaulter’s top hand on the pole through the vault. This reveals a wave-like motion in the pole and a concave parabola (verses a convex parabola in rigid vaulting). It is important to point out that in fiberglass vaulting the path of movement of the top hand is based on what actually occurs in the real world, while the path of the pole’s axis is basically an illusion. Therefore, in this writer’s judgment, the Petrov model is based on a questionable mechanical premise.
Despite the great influence of the Petrov model, which continues to this day, individualistic vaulting styles have continued to evolve and improve. As previously pointed out, Bubka is the only vaulter among the current all-time top five vaulters to adopt the Petrov model. The other four vaulters (Steve Hooker, Sam Kendricks, Renaud Lavillenie and Mondo Duplantis) all have highly individualized vaulting styles that have little relationship to the Petrov model.
It is the writer’s philosophy that no vaulter should attempt to directly duplicate the technique of another vaulter, no matter how successful the vaulter in question may be. A good example here is Mondo Duplantis, who set indoor and outdoor WR’s in 2020. Duplantis has stated that he was strongly influenced by Lavillenie’s technique when developing his own vaulting style. But Duplantis “personalized” his technique to the point that it became an easily recognizable individualistic technical style.
In conclusion, each vaulter is an individual with individual characteristics. Therefore, each vaulter should strive to create an individual style that suits him or her the best.