Pole Vault: Who Invented Fiberglass Pole Vault Poles?
Channel: How To Pole Vault | Videos How to Pole Vault
Date: 2021-02-13

Pole Vault: Who Invented Fiberglass Pole Vault Poles? By M Toledo of https://www.howtopolevault.com. As a 1966 graduate of Tulare Union High School (Tulare, California) I have genuine firsthand experience living through much of the pole vault history chronicled in my documentation. While I was attending high school, world-renowned sports legend, Cornelius “Dutch” Warmerdam, was coaching “track & field” at Fresno State College, 45 miles north of Tulare. I have friends who were under the tutelage of “Dutch” Warmerdam while students at Fresno State and family members who attended Hanford High School with teenage Warmerdam. 

In the 1940s, using only BAMBOO poles, “Dutch” Warmerdam officially pole vaulted 15 feet, or higher, 43 times. The majority of Warmerdam's landings were completed as he descended from those extraordinary heights onto ground-level sand. (“Landing mats” did not exist when Cornelius Warmerdam performed his incredible feats.) 

June of 1950, Olympic champion decathlete, Robert Bruce Mathias, introduced “fiberglass” vaulting poles to the world stage at the National Decathlon Championship in Tulare, California. Modern landing mats still did not exist and were not produced until many years after Bob Mathias vaulted using the original fiberglass poles in 1950.

The fact that “fiberglass” vaulting pole application originated without adapting new “flexible” pole vault technique is very significant. This occurred because the original users of “fiberglass” vaulting poles did not have the luxury of padded landing mats, thus, primitive “rigid” pole vault methods used by “Dutch” Warmerdam continued being applied to “flexible” vaulting poles from the earliest inceptions of “fiberglass” poles. 

Many descriptions and illustrations I've chronicled originated in “pole vault” literature published by the “Browning Arms” company in the early 1960s. At that time, the firearms company was the major producer of fiberglass pole vault poles. Here's a remnant fact: Calculated on a "risk to user per-application" basis, fiberglass vaulting poles are the most lethal weapons ever manufactured by “Browning Arms,” the prolific firearms producer.  

I am attempting to share this crucial information because of the many needless deaths and preventable injuries victimizing athletes misapplying FLEXIBLE vaulting poles over the past 70 years. If some simple logical solutions had been timely implemented every single one of these human tragedies could have been easily avoided.

Canadian vaulter, Alysha Newman, performs feats that even the greatest athletes in the NFL, NBA and MLB cannot. In fact, 99+% of all the top male athletes on the planet cannot match this young woman's scope of physical endeavors. 

I offer this phenomenal female athlete as one of my prime examples because, although she has outstanding gymnastics abilities, her tremendous pole vault potential is strictly limited by her continued naive application of horrific lethal “traditional” pole vault methods that defy rationality.

The vulnerability of non-gymnastically trained athletes to the high risk of pole vault catastrophes is exponential. This has been repeatedly verified throughout the decades while, simultaneously, harmful “traditional” pole vault misinformation continues to thrive, further endangering anyone attempting this misconceived event.

In 1949, the first commercial fiberglass vaulting poles were created specifically intended for legendary American decathlete, Robert Bruce Mathias, by Mathias' former Tulare Union High School athletics coach, Virgil Jackson. Bob Mathias first applied Coach Jackson's revolutionary fiberglass vaulting poles at the 1950 National Decathlon in Tulare, California. 

Eventually, in the early 1960s, deadly pole vaulting misconceptions amalgamating extreme running “speed” together with “pushing” flexing poles forward began being recklessly indoctrinated by self-proclaimed pole vault “scholars.” Foolish “traditional” flexible pole vaulting theories became blindly established for future decades. The primitive pole vault misconceptions of applying excessive running “SPEED” to forcibly “PUSH” flexible poles forward, still senselessly dominate lethal “traditional” pole vault teachings in 2021.

VIDEO LINKS:
International Olympic Committee Pole Vault Study: https://legacy.cs.indiana.edu/~kinzler/pubs/pvfigs/

1960s Browning Arms Pole Vault Literature:
https://www.howtopolevault.com/contact.html#002

"A History Of Fiberglass Pole Vaulting" Aubrey Dooley:
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/215272656.pdf

Alysha Newman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHIrB03KbLE&t

Find out more on https://www.howtopolevault.com