Bar is rising on lowering the risks

~ The event has inherent dangers that attract a certain type of athlete.

Chuck Goodale, who has served as a pole vaulting instructor at high schools including Kelly, Scott City, Central and now Notre Dame, said the athletes who become involved in the technical field event typically are the fearless ones.

"To a lot of people, [pole vaulting] looks like fun, but at the same time they would say, 'I wouldn't do that in a million years,'" Goodale said. "Vaulters, I can't say that they're crazy, but some coaches would tell you they're kind of a different breed, and they are. Sometimes they have a self-assurance. They know that they can do it. ... So I don't call them crazy or not even risk-takers, but that's the type that usually aren't afraid."

Bob Sink, who has coached pole vaulters at Jackson since the 1970s, described pole vaulters in a similar way to Goodale.

"A lot of them, most of them I know have been kind of dare devilish," Sink said. "They kind of thrive on the adrenaline rush."

Central pole vaulter Matt Deisher lands in the pit during Wednesday's meet. An increase in the padding area is one precaution that has been taken to prevent injuries.

Running full speed with a pole, planting that pole and using it to raise the body 13, 14 or 15 feet in the air before inverting or swinging the body around in an attempt to sail over a crossbar might sound like the perfect event for a risk-taker. And the event certainly can be dangerous.

From 1983 to 2006, 18 fatal injuries, 11 permanent disabilities and seven serious injuries resulted from pole vaulting in the high school, junior high and college levels combined, according to the Catastrophic Sport Injury Research 25th Annual Report, compiled by the National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research at the University of North Carolina.

Local pole vaulters and coaches recently weighed in on how they became involved in the event, how they overcame the fear of it, the tremendous athleticism the event requires and whether it's as dangerous as statistics have shown. They also discussed the importance of strong coaching as a key element in keeping the athletes safe.

"They've got to have a certain mindset," Sink said about pole vaulters. "They've got to be focused. They've got to want to do things right and you've got to be able to make changes. If you're doing something wrong, you've got to be able to change that habit or that mindset."

A certain mindset

Central pole vaulter Matt Deisher. (Kit Doyle)

Jackson junior Jordan Whitener decided to attempt pole vaulting in the eighth grade after she saw a similarity between it and gymnastics.

Whitener was the SEMO North Conference meet champion in the event as a sophomore. Her personal record is 8 feet. She would like to clear 10 feet this season.

"You have to be very confident, definitely," she said. "You have to be able to trust yourself when you're running down the runway and know that you're going to do it.

"I think we do get kind of a high out of it. It's very exciting, vaulting. A lot of people always mention that it seems so dangerous and [ask] how come we're not scared. But it doesn't seem scary when you're actually doing it. It's just a lot of fun -- almost like flying."

Central sophomore Matt Deisher, who qualified for the state meet in the event last year, said the enjoyment outweighs thinking about the risks.

"When I was little, I used to always like doing stuff that was a little bit crazy, or just jumping around," Deisher said. "I really didn't think much of the negative. I was like, 'This is going to be awesome. I really want to do this.' So I was fine."

Notre Dame senior Jill Schnurbusch, who jumped 9 feet and qualified for sectionals last year, said she and teammate Allie Job began pole vaulting last spring as juniors after they heard Goodale joined the coaching staff.

"It wasn't too scary at first," Job said. "I guess the most difficult part is how technical it is."

Sink said that most often the best vaulters turn out to be the ones who are unafraid when first starting out in the event.

"Most of them, the good ones we have aren't [timid]," Sink said. "Now there are some that are timid and some never get over being timid and it affects their performance."

Good coaching

Notre Dame junior Joe Froemsdorf was introduced to pole vaulting and given his first miniature pole to start playing with when he was 6 years old. The event is in his family's blood. His uncle is former Southeast Missouri State vaulter Chris Moore, who is tied with Jim Fox for the seventh-best pole vault in Southeast history.

Both Moore and Fox vaulted 16 feet in 1998.

Froemsdorf, who earned his personal record last spring with a vault of 11-6 and would like to be in the 13-0 range this season, said that even when newcomers are eager to participate in the event, sometimes they will be fearful when first attempting it.

"The first part we see with all of our freshmen right now is the fear of it," he said. "The fear of getting into the pits."

Landing in the pit seems to be the main concern as far as safety. That is where good coaching strategies must be applied.

Goodale does not allow newcomers to vault with a crossbar in place until they already have practiced vaulting deep into the pit during the first few weeks of the season. He typically won't put up a crossbar until two days before the first meet because he said the vaulter might focus solely on getting over the bar instead of making sure he or she safely jumps deep into the pit.

Each of the combined 36 fatal, permanent and severe injuries that occurred between 1983 and 2006 resulted from the vaulter failing to land in the pit or bouncing out of it, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research's report, which also provided an anecdote about a coach who died after bouncing out of the pit and hitting his head against the concrete.

The report stated that when deaths occurred, a major concern was that the sport was not being coached correctly. The report also states that some states require pole vaulters to wear helmets and that the National Federation of State High School Associations has required 2-inch padding on any hard surfaces around landing pits.

Central coach Collin Sheridan, along with other coaches, said that pole vaulters need to be committed to listening to coaches to remain safe.

"They need to learn the proper techniques, or at least what I think are the proper techniques, and then they need to be consistent doing those so that we can be safe," Sheridan said.

Sheridan, a former vaulter at Southeast Missouri State, starts newcomers with certain drills that help them build up to running down the runway with a pole and vaulting without a crossbar.

"The most important thing is your approach -- the plant and the takeoff," Goodale said. "Running down the runway, having optimum speed, not slowing down, being able to plant the pole as high as you can overhead."

Athleticism

When Goodale told Notre Dame coach Bill Davis he would help coach, he also told him he needed the most athletic members of the team to be pole vaulters.

"The most important thing is that the athlete has to have some athletic ability," Goodale said. "In fact, coach Davis and I talked about this when he asked me to come over here. I told him, 'I'm going to take your top four athletes. And if they can vault, if they want to, I'll make vaulters out of them.'"

Goodale said that he thinks pole vaulting is the most technical event in track and field, and some local athletes, such as Whitener, Deisher and Central junior Ray Woldtvedt, train solely for the event and participate in no other field events or running events because getting the technique down requires so much time.

"Pretty much when you pole vault, it's all you want to do because it's such a demanding and technical sport," Woldtvedt said. "To start bending the pole and to start having some decent technique, to get over some 10-foot, 11-foot, 12-foot crossbars, it takes at least two years."

Whitener said she began to feel comfortable about a full season after starting the sport.

"Pole vaulting, it's very big on details and you have to have complete control of your body and know what you're doing at every second of your vault," she said.