My over-cautious personality has been thwarted. For those who missed my earlier post, I spent my afternoon today doing pole vaulting at girls’ track practice. Simply put, it was harder than I expected, though a lot less dangerous than it looks. Maybe it only becomes deadly once you can get some height. In any case, here’s the basic recap:

I went with Ashley Pajor to Arvada West (that’s where all the pole vault stuff is set up) and we got right to work. She started off teaching me how to plant the pole and swing across it. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, for some reason I couldn’t get it down just right. Basically, you plant the rubber end of the pole onto the ground and thrust one knee forward. The other leg (or trail leg) follows behind, locked, and at a high angle, almost parallel to the ground. On the rare occasions when I got it right, I felt like Peter Pan.

Then, she thought she’d try something a little more difficult. Big mistake. I was instructed to walk forward, then plant, then do the cool Peter Pan thing. If all had gone well, I might have had more tries jumping over the bar, and then I’d be off to Neverland. As expected, though, it did not go well and a pinch of fairy dust just wasn’t going to cut it. I tried and tried and tried until, at one point, Ashley said, “I think you’re getting worse.” Well duh! I’m not athletic (as I continue to remind those readers who enjoy my suffering), and something that requires as much coordination and physical multitasking as pole vaulting just isn’t my forte.

As we neared the end of the practice, I did get a couple of tries jumping onto the mats. The first one was an utter failure. Although in my defense, it was all Ashley’s fault. She still had my hands positioned low down on the pole for swinging on the pavement, as opposed to high up near one end for using the pit and mats. On my second try I did get some air, but I probably wouldn’t have made it past the first bar height.

So, pole vaulting isn’t something I should consider pursuing. Oh well, I did learn that it’s really hard. Ashley and the A-West pole vaulters aren’t new to this sport, yet the coach had so many things to help them with that I was just amazed. It’s a very delicate art and I guess I’m just not up to it.

Videos:

Michael’s first attempt at pole vaulting with the actual mats. Video by Ashley Pajor.

Michael’s second and final attempt at pole vaulting with the mats. This time, he actually succeeded in getting off the ground (thanks for fixing my hands, Ashley). Video by Ashley Pajor.

Professional Number 1: Ashley Pajor, Xpress reporter and RVHS pole vaulter, makes one of her vaults at Arvada West during girls’ track practice April 7.

Professional Number 2: One of Arvada West’s pole vaulters at his practice on April 7.