PoleVaultPower.com

I am personally an African American pole vaulter. I have noticed that there are very few colored people in pole vault and the few i have seen aren't All-Americans. I was just wondering if any of you have any insight into this phenomona. Please do not feel awkward posting about this topic since i am truly trying to find an answer to this question that i have had for a while. Also please do not think if you post something that you are being racist or anything of that nature. I will not think of you as that and hopefully any other African Americans on here will not feel that way either.

Thanks for your help,
Marcus

A few considerations...

1. Demographics and socioeconomics... Firstly, African Americans are a minority... Secondly, there is a larger amount of African Americans in areas that can't support a real pole vaulting program.
2. Other, more alluring sports... Basketball? Football? Training for those may take up too much time to even THINK about joining the high school track team.
3. Other events... Any of them.

I believe that may play a big role.... unless an African American specifically asks his/her high school coach to let them pole vault, they are generally athletic enough, or stereotyped enough, to be thrown into other events. Usually the only kids that start pole vaulting are thrown in because they are unathletic or specifically ask to try it. I think they may try it, also, then find they are even better in other events. I am only point to a case study in a triple jumper on our team that PR'ed from 47'10" to 50'10" this year, and he vaulted 13'-14' in high school. But obviously his marks were better in the triple, perhaps if he had the proper technical training he would have been as good, or a better, pole vaulter than triple jumper. But being gifted athletically makes other events, or even sports, easier. The same stands for other gymnastic events- diving, gymnastics, snowboarding/skateboarding.

But also like PP said... a lot of people in this world will do what is expected of them. The same way white guys rarely make it as rappers, basketball players, etc, and black guys rarely make it as hockey players, swimmers, or golfers (j/k... ). I honestly believe that it's rarely a matter of ability, just motivation to avoid being singled out. We tend to stick to what we believe we are SUPPOSED to be good at, which is total BS in my mind, but is still true outside of racial differences. Just look at how many women wrestlers there are, or male balet dancers there are.

I'll just start by mentioning a few good ones. Lawrence Johnson 5.98m, Elliot Haynie 5.48m , Chris Smith 5.42. Also third at the North Carolina state championships was an African American pole vaulter who jumped 15'2 as a junior in high school.

But I think it just simply comes down to why the person is doing track and what is seen as "cool".

This is in the same since why you do not see as many African American long distance runners in high school. Most of the top sprinters on track team are football players who are just doing track to stay in shape / get faster for football. So doing sprints is logically their best choice. Yes pole vaulting is a sprinting sport, but it is also dangerous and why would a really good football player risk getting hurt when they are just trying to cross train for another sport.

And then I think it comes down to doing what you are comfortable with and what you think is accepted by your friends. If all of your friends join the track team to be sprinters, then you are not going over to the pole vault pit and feel out of your element, in most cases. But it always depends on the situation, like the guy I mentioned that jumped 15'2 this year, his coach is also African American. Not that that is why he decided to do pole vault, but it probably contributed because this guy is a 5'8 180lb running back with over a 300lb bench and is very fast, so in most cases pole vaulting would not be a guy like that's first choice.

And like 3po said, its also had to do with what you can easily be good at. If you can come out first day of practice and run 10.9 in the 100, but only pole vault 9', then you think you are a sprinter. But from pole vaulters perspective, 9 foot is Amazing the first day out! but the athlete may stop vaulting because he sees he is jumping 9' compared to team members jumping 12' or 13' , but he is the fastest sprinter on the team.

VaultPurple wrote:I'll just start by mentioning a few good ones. Lawrence Johnson 5.98m, Elliot Haynie 5.48m , Chris Smith 5.42. Also third at the North Carolina state championships was an African American pole vaulter who jumped 15'2 as a junior in high school.

Haynies pr is 5.45.

Some others in recent memory
Kevin Brown - university of northcarolina, usa - 5.80+
Raphael Holdzeppe - germany - 5.80
Ali Jeng - sweden - 5.80
Brian Hunter -virginia tech/university of texas 5.71
Rocky Danners - university of tennessee 5.40 in High School, 5.50 in college
Spencer Stevens - south carolinia state - 5.42

One thing that ive noticed is that in a lot of high school programs, coaches throw people who just aren't good in any other events into the pole vault. Dont ask me why this is, thats a different phenomena all together. But if you have a kid whos fast enough to be a good pole vaulter in high school (white or black) unless he specifically wants to be a pole vaulters, the caoches are gonna make him a sprinters. There are more decent sprint coaches in the high school level than vault coaches, its cheaper to develop sprinters, and lets face it, being a pole vaulter is a pain in the butt. I bet there would be a lot less hurdlers if they all had to bring their own 10 hurdles to every meet

VTechVaulter wrote: I bet there would be a lot less hurdlers if they all had to bring their own 10 hurdles to every meet

Quote of the day!!

One thing that ive noticed is that in a lot of high school programs, coaches throw people who just aren't good in any other events into the pole vault.

This is because coaches for high schoolers rarely understand the vault, and so obviously they want their best athletes to do what THEY can coach.

As most problems with our sport arise, I think it comes down to a lack of knowledge about the sport. I can remember specifically a conversation between a high school head coach and a JV coach, in discussing a black athlete. The head coach said "Yea he's going to be a sprinter" and the JV coach said "but he says he wants to throw the shot put" and the head coach said "no, he is going to be a good sprinter for us". The kid was an 8th grader about 5'8 170 Ibs of NOT muscle. It was clear he was making the assumption on his race. When are coaches going to realize that athletes are only going to be good at events and sports that they WANT to do?

When are coaches going to realize that athletes are only going to be good at events and sports that they WANT to do?

Not necessarily true... But they will TRY their HARDEST.

In terms of elite level athletes, the determination and desire to be great outweighs the natural talent they may have! Without a love for the game, no athlete would be motivated enough to put in the hours necessary to be great.

I'd argue that what makes elite level athletes elite is that all of them have a strong desire and determination. At this point, natural talent is the factor that will separate the best of the elites.

I wonder if anyone else has thought about this as well... i know all the people i talk to about doing pole vault who say no to me, usually sight being scared of heights as a big issue.... This goes for about 90% of people who i have talked to, which for the most part are sprinters. I mean most of us pole vaulters dismiss the fear of the event, but most people looking in from the outside would be terrified to hurl themselves 15' in the air on a bending fiberglass pole... we just happened to be daring enough to try it and stick with it...

To quote an African-American long jumper as he saw a guy get rejected into the runway:
"That's why you never see no Black people pole vaulting. We scared of heights."
This may not be entirely true, but I also believe that he made an assumption based on the general makeup of every pole vaulter at the meet, of which all of them were Caucasian except for me and my teammate, who were Mexican.