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I looking for your opinions and anyone that can give a "the rule book states" to:
A vaulter completes a jump successfully clearing the bar. Lands on the mats and realizes their pole is about to hit the cross bar. They quickly get up and catch the pole themselves, no one else has touched the pole. Is this a foul or good?

I've have personally seen this called both ways, foul and good.
What do you think and why?

I have never seen this called a Foul, but then again, not too many vaulters are able to clear a height and catch their own pole

I dont see why it would be a foul, whats the diffrence from using ur hands to push the pole on the release and on the pad?

Here are the NCAA rules for a failed attempt.

ARTICLE 2. A failed attempt shall be called when:
a. After the vault, the bar does not remain on the pegs because of
the action of the competitor while vaulting;
b. A competitor steadies the bar during an attempt;
c. A competitor leaves the ground in an attempt to vault and fails to clear
the crossbar;
d. Without clearing the bar, any part of the competitor’s body or the pole
touches the ground or the landing area beyond the vertical plane of the
inside edge of the top of the box;
e. During a vault, a competitor moves the upper hand higher on the pole
or raises the lower hand above the upper hand;
f. A competitor fails to initiate an attempt within one minute after the bar
and standard have been set and the competitor's name has been called
by the event judge (see Rules 6-1-2, 6-1-3); or
g. A competitor violates the warm-up restrictions (see Rule 6-1-11).
Note: It shall not be counted as a trial or failure if a competitor’s pole breaks during an attempt to clear the bar.

there isnt much there that says it would be a foul. but, if you go to the Who's allowed to catch the pole section.

Catching the Pole
ARTICLE 5. The pole may be caught by an assigned official when circumstances warrant.

they dont mention that you are allowed to catch it. would that make it a foul?

SKOT wrote:
Catching the Pole
ARTICLE 5. The pole may be caught by an assigned official when circumstances warrant.

they dont mention that you are allowed to catch it. would that make it a foul?

...it doesn't say "The pole may be caught ONLY by an assigned official"

and if it did or if that's implied, could you just push it away instead of catching it?

This topic is pointless because the vaulter should be jumping at a height that their pole is able to fall under the crossbar. In college track and field there should not be anyone who is not able to jump higher than their pole. I hope that this ends this debate/poll

Well Kat we apprciate your input.... but unfortunatly not everyone jumps this way. In fact at most meets I attended kids do open below there own hand hold.
Also many college vaulters are involved with coaching and officiating high school vaulters and meets. I also intened this as a rule interpritation to them.
And so, for those of you that are too good to be concerned with this... you can just disregard it. But those of you that are involved with the sport from introducing it to new vaulters and training them through clearing their hand height, please let us know how you feel.

pistolpete6994 wrote:Well Kat we apprciate your input.... but unfortunatly not everyone jumps this way. In fact at most meets I attended kids do open below there own hand hold.
Also many college vaulters are involved with coaching and officiating high school vaulters and meets. I also intened this as a rule interpritation to them.
And so, for those of you that are too good to be concerned with this... you can just disregard it. But those of you that are involved with the sport from introducing it to new vaulters and training them through clearing their hand height, please let us know how you feel.

Well put.....I am pretty sure there was a time Bubka didn't vault over his hand grip. Just because this rule doesnt' pertain to many college vaulters, doesn't mean that it isnt' an important rule to understand.

I am pretty sure I have seen this called a foul in bigger meets.

we used to have competitions in high school for the highest height you could clear and still catch your pole... you had to do it on purpose and the jump didn't count if you didn't catch the pole. regular progressions and you got 3 misses per bar... i jumped 15'3 in HS and 14'10 pole catch.

Most of the time catching your pole will be marked as a failed attempt.
I can't speak for those officials who don't understand other than possibly lack of training. Many time "officials at meets are not certified and are not as proficient with rules and mechaincs of running an event.

Here's snip from one of our training manuals. The words apply to all codes of track and field.

12. It is considered a foul if the vaulter:
• Or any other person touches or catches the pole unless it is falling away from the crossbar or uprights. If the pole is touched and the official in charge of the event is of the opinion that the bar would have been knocked off if the intervention had not occurred, the vault shall be regarded as a failure.


Tail/cross wind conditions are another matter we have to deal with and are handled a little differently. Regardless, you still can't catch our own pole to prevent striking the crossbar or standards under those conditions.

who published that?