Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Pole Vault (No. r, Plate 37), Sabin Carr's tc stable companion" at Yale, who can almost always beat I3 ft. in competition. The h ight of the hand-hold on the pole varies with the height of the individual, but once you have settled your grip it is well to vary it as little as possible. Up to rr t ft. the height can be obtained by standing the pole upright in the slideway and taking ~he grip for the upper hand at the point where bar and pole Intersect, but an rr ft. hand-hold should get a man over between I2 and r3 ft. If he is going to vault higher than that he mu t learn to carry the pole with a r2 ft. or r2 ft. 6 ins. upp r grip. The great h ight come from physical cl verness in the air rather than from an exaggeratedly high grip upon th pole. Even as a novice you should try to perfect a form that will allow you to clear your b st heights with a grip that is low r than the height of the bar. The hand-hold, however, must not be considered by itself, for it is larg ly affected by the position of the starting line which, in its turn, giv s the po ition of the take-off. It may be that a man has a fixed mark, starting from which he can clear all vaults up to a certain height. The bar go s beyond that height, and he needs to take off a foot further back from the slid way, so he rais s his grip on the pol by a foot, but must also In v back his starting mark a foot, or his run up will fall wrong. uring the approach n1n som means must be found of ount r-balancing the handicap of having to carry the pole. It may b r membered that the hurdler was faced with a imilar pr blem through the int rpo ition of ro hurdl s in his race, but solv d the difficulty of interrupt d running action by m an of sp cial hip flexibility. In th first place running sp ed is larg ly d p nd nt upon body angl ( e hapt r II). If the athl t runs with the pole point pitched up, his body carriag will b too rect. If th pol p int is dir cted to ither side his striding will be unev nand his pac sl w, added to whi h th carriage f the pole in any oth r position than straight ah ad and parallel t the ground, or pitched downwards, will n cessitat an extra sideways or over-arm action when the