Another year of pole vaulting in the books. I am happy to announce that I sold out of my Pole Vault Higher paperback books first printing. I had good reviews and plenty of books sold all across the country. I was self publishing the book and have decided to hold off on a second run until I get more free time. I was spending quite a lot of time on facebook advertising and selling, plus the time to mail.
I think I may have coached my last pole vaulter as the 2015 season ended, the young man from Florida made a decision to get some local help. I was coaching him from videos and infrequent phone calls from North Carolina but he really needed hands on help. His father had solicited me and pulled me out of my retirement, and I was glad to give what I could.
On the box collar front, I am pleased to say I worked hard all year modifying and re designing my safety pad. Last November I took my Angel Wing, (one sided dynamic pad) to a meet at Charlie Polhamus' event and tested it. All went well but because it was operated manually, there were some concerns posted when I put the videos on line. This motivate me to go back and work harder. I added another level of foam to the pad and continued to design a simple activation system.
Along the way, I worked on a complete different system with a larger pad that was to be launched from the side of the front bun to cover a larger area of the plant box. Unfortunately this idea proved too complicated and not cost effective.
Once I went back to the Angel Wing again I was able to conceptualize a workable triggering mechanism and I am sure it will make the Angel Wing deploy automatically and without fail. I probably will work on the actual device during 2016 and be ready to field test the entire system again in the spring.
Hearing about injuries that occur from falls into the unprotected 90% of the vault box, continue to motivate me to develop my invention. I have been working on the dynamic pad for over 30 years. I am convinced that the catastrophic injury to the Australian female vaulter earlier this year would have been prevented by the Angel Wing. I will continue to work on my system and hope that somewhere, someone joins me in my effort to make pole vaulting much safer for everyone.
So, that's about it for now. Please scroll down and read all my posts. Enjoy my illustrations and good luck with your vaulting dreams.
Hi Jerry. Just saw this page, as I was doing some reading online about you and Mike Holloway and couldn't help but feel a measure of both sadness and unbounded gratitude when I read this note: "His father had solicited me and pulled me out of my retirement, and I was glad to give what I could."
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I did solicit you, and your enthusiasm for the task (and doing so absent even a willingness to accept compensation) - despite the challenges that logistics presented - is something that none of us will ever forget. We cannot thank you enough.
Without your support and guidance, who knows how the year would have evolved (after our high school lost both the PV coach and pit in the summer of 2014!), but WITH you onboard, our son successfully defended his State 4A Championship and was 10 for 10 on meets over 15'. While his PR of 15'7" was shy of what he had hoped for, the bottom line this year was consistency.
Just 5'6", 125 lbs. and still growing during the season, he unquestionably enjoyed a lifetime benefit in your tutelage. The challenge created by the distance between and the pursuit of a measure of "independence" by our son had to have tested you at times. Nevertheless, you continued to be there for him, throughout. We cannot thank you enough!!
Brian & Kathy