Pole Vault Safety Collar

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psycho_dad

Well-known member
Are there actual studies showing where the safety collar is safer than not having the wings that protrude into the box? Just my observation, but I've seen more misplants as a result of the safety collar than I did before it's use. I'm not saying it's more dangerous than not having it, because I do not know that for sure, but it looks to me that it might cause more problems than without it. Now, I've never seen anyone head plant into the box, so if it saves the kid that somehow ends up in that situation from more serious injury than they would have without it, then ok. From my experience though, it seems like the collar might put more kids in a position to end up with a plant that puts them in a bad situation than without. Was there the proper research done on this before it's implementation, or did it just look like a good idea and so it was made a rule?
 
 
psychodad, the idea behind having a collar was to try to prevent some catastrophic injuries. But only one model on the market satisfies the requirements that ended up being adopted. (Here is an article that tries to lay out the issues in a relatively unbiased manner.) The adoption has been a bit controversial. And there are people on both sides with data.
 
Here is the problem that I've observed with the collar. With my vaulters it's been an issue with my beginners. They plant well 15,20,30 times and then have a bad one. The bad one gets popped up on top of the collar not into the box and the bad plant gets way worse than it would have been. I've seen very good vaulters from other teams have it happen to them and they got shot back and nowhere near the matts. My more experienced vaulters have not had problems like that, but we've seen better vaulters than them have real bad results.

All of a sudden, I think I've seen more iffy plants get turned into potentially dangerous situations more than I did before the new collar. I've read stuff like the link in Mathking's response and it seems like the chicken or the egg question. Yeah, I know that a poor plant or inexperience or poor technique needs to be dealt with, but then to say that the bad situations that happen with the new collar are a result of poor plants, inexperience or bad technique seems crazy. NO DUH! I'm not arguing that the new collars are bad and should be replaced cuz I really don't know. From my personal observations though, I'm really questioning if they are better or worse than what we had before.
 
The new box collar was very controversial 2 years ago. Math king - the article you quote is by the major figure and financial beneficiary of one side of that argument.
Psycho dad- there are a lot of issues with either legal version of the box collar (Gill or UCS). Making sure the device is correctly installed and maintained is crucial - if it gets out of place it can interfere with the plant and pole action.
Without rearguing the whole issue, it seems like it's here to stay.


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I have seen some of the published data and haven't seen anything to suggest that this collar is better than any other. It does satisfy the requirements of insurance companies. PVcoach37, you are very right about making sure it stays properly installed. Particularly if like many schools you have two boxes but one set of equipment.
 
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