# Pole Vaulting and Triple jump



## feral cat (Jul 27, 2004)

... How the hell did a person with a big stick bouncing over things become a world class athletics event? 
Where does it originate? 
How did they decide how long the pole can be? 
Is there really any point in being a skilled pole vaulter? 
Do they get sponsorships for lots of money by being able to bounce over things with a big stick? 
What kind of kid grows up dreaming of being a Pole Vaulter? 

... It’s not as pointless as Triple jump, but it's still pretty silly... 

Triple jump ... it’s not a sport is it, a hop, skip and a jump, could have been any random combination of body movements, it's just nonsense.


----------



## Vlad (Aug 2, 2005)

Now That is a truly unstructured thought, lol. I have no answer to any of it. What made you think of that now Feral? The only time anyone ever thinks of pole vaulting is during the olympics


----------



## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Maybe it had some usefulness during primitive warfare. Perhaps to infiltrate an enemy's walls, a pole vaulter was utlilized. Just a theory. Perhaps some more research is needed...


----------



## feral cat (Jul 27, 2004)

Vlad said:


> Now That is a truly unstructured thought, lol. I have no answer to any of it. What made you think of that now Feral? The only time anyone ever thinks of pole vaulting is during the olympics


 ... LOL I flicked through my TV channels the other night and the world athletics championships where on.

Most althelitic events running, long jump, javelin, throwing shot you can imagine how they originated, but I just could not think where Pole Vaulting came from.

I wonder if they did have crack teams of pole vaulters for infiltrating an enemy's walls.


----------



## Vlad (Aug 2, 2005)

History
"As a practical means of passing over such natural obstacles as canals and brooks, pole vaulting has been used in many parts of the world, such as in the marshy provinces along the North Sea and the great level of the fens of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. The artificial draining of these marshes brought into existence a network of open drains or canals intersecting each other at right angles. In order to cross these without getting wet, and at the same time avoid tedious roundabout journeys over the bridges, a stack of jumping poles was kept at every house, which were commonly used for vaulting over the canals."

Well. That's more time spent researching Pole Vaulting than my life permits, lol. Vlad


----------



## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Thanks for the history lesson Vlad. Interesting, to say the least.


----------



## Vlad (Aug 2, 2005)

Or should we say "least interesting". LOL


----------

