As mentioned, pole vaulting is a potentially dangerous discipline unless you have experience in it and you are trained properly to get yourself over the bar and safely onto the mat. Injury can occur on a frequent basis unless you take the entire thing seriously and gain the proper training and technical know-how. There are many different phases to the pole vault, as mentioned. The first phase will be to select the proper pole and grip. Where you take off from is crucial as well and your run and how you hold the pole, leading to the take off, will also be very important.

Once you make it into the air there are still several phases to complete in order to get over the bar and onto the mat. You will also need to push yourself off your pole and hang in the air in addition to being able to swing and extend, turn and then clear yourself over the bar. All of these phases require a great deal of technical experience, training, and proficiency. All in all, without training there is no doubt that you can ever hope to succeed, or even get yourself off the ground, when trying to pole vault.

Modern pole vaulting was first seen in the 1840′s in Italy and Germany, but was honed towards the end of the 19th century in the United States. The competition for pole vaulting is similar to the high jump, as both are large vertical jumps. Participants don’t need to begin at the first (lowest) height; all vaulters can choose the height at which they enter competition. Each vaulter has three attempts to clear the bar. At the end of each round the bar is raised, and competitors repeat the process. After an athlete fails to clear the bar in three attempts he resigns competition, with the last cleared height being his official score.

One confusing rule about pole vaulting: Athletes can choose to pass onto the next height without clearing the bar, but they must pass the second height taking on the failures from the previous round (if an athlete has two failures at the previous height, he must clear the bar on his first attempt to avoid elimination.) The competitor who clears the highest bar is the victor. If there is a tie for clearance and number of misses, there is a sudden death jump-off.

With today’s high tech materials the poles are getting stronger and do not break as often as the pole-vaulter goes for maximum flex to insure the desired height. It takes countless hours to train to be a proficient pole-vaulter and a coach to stand around and critique your form and give you pointers is not always available. Although for safety reasons pole vaulting is not something you want to do alone, as you need someone to call the paramedics if you screw up real bad; it stands to reason that you will always need someone to explain to you what you are doing wrong or what you are doing right.

It is for this reason that I propose using high-tech Holographic Technologies, which are getting closer to becoming reality. I propose that as the athlete runs down the runway, that the second he passes a certain predetermined place that he triggers a laser sensor which starts the holographic image ahead of him, with the perfect form needed to get over the bar. As the athlete jams the pole into the box the holographic image begins its full motion 3D video. The pole-vaulter will of course match his form to the image as he travels up and over the bar.