Five-Alive:

The Fast Way.

By Alan Roark, vault coach Amherst Steele H.S., Amherst Ohio

I’ve come up with a fast way to run the pole vault event using “five-alive”.  So, I’m going to try to explain it to you.  Here goes.

Basics of “five-alive”:

When you have more than 8 vaulters in an event, you can work with 5 vauters at a time.  The first five vaulters jump and when one clears a height or goes out, you bring in the next vaulter to keep the group at five.  You remove and add vaulters to keep the “active” group at five until you complete the whole list at each height.  Clear as mud, right?

Here’s how I run things.

First, I set up the tally sheet with names, passes, and the run-through height.  I mark the first run-through height at the top to remind me it’s coming.  For passes, I make a “P” and an arrow to the height passed.

I try to put first names first and call them by their first name because it’s usually way easier than last names.  If there’s two or more with the same first names, I’ll call the easier last name and the other kid by the first name.

As I proceed, I mark makes with an “O” and misses with an “X” and I use a hi-lighter to mark through the remaining heights after someone goes out.  The hi-lighter makes it really easy to see who’s left.  If I forget the hi-lighter, I shade it in with a pencil.  If there’s a make on a first or second attempt, I’ll make an arrow to the next height.  As soon as I can, I mark the best height for each vaulter as they go out.  As soon as it’s obvious I start marking the top places as they settle out near the end.  After the last vault, usually all I have to do is mark the first place vault height and place. Then I pack up and go home.

I hold the board with my finger and thumb on top, marking the beginning and end of the current “five alive” group.  Two large rubber bands works, too.

Note:  I’ve made up a tally sheet with 36 vaulters and 15 heights. If you copy it on card stock, it doesn’t blow in the wind as much as regular paper.  This sheet will cover most meets you’ll have to run.  (One year at the Amherst Comet Relays between the boys and girls, we had 87 vaulters to get through in one day!)

After I go over the rules, here’s what I tell the group,  “We’re going to run things five-alive today and I’m going to run this like an aircraft carrier and we’re going to shoot off planes as fast as we can.  You have a minute and a half, but we’re going to try to make things go a lot faster than that. Usually around 30 seconds. I’m going to call five people at a time. I’ll call who’s up, on deck, in the hole, in the hole’s hole, and then one.  I want you to head for the runway when you hear your name and be ready to go.  I should always see 3-5 poles by the runway all the time.   If you have to go to another event, don’t leave until the third call.  If you have to go to the 800, do your warm up at this end of the field and try not to leave before the third call.  If you want to, we’ll move you up and you can take your three jumps before you leave to run.  As soon as you cross the finish line and are recorded, head back and warm down back here at the vault.  As soon as I know your race is over, you have 10 minutes to get back and be ready.”  (That part is usually a lie, but they do head back quicker. He, he)

An example of calling five vaulters would be:  John’s up, Tim’s on deck, Ed’s in the hole, Jerry’s in the hole’s hole, then Tom. (Saying they’re in the “hole’s hole” is my personal rebellion to the PC term, “on hold”.)  I will call five people at every jump for every height. I usually have a bottle of water (I can’t lie, its Pepsi) and some cough drops to keep me going.

Note 1:  When I’m getting near the end of a height, I’ll make an announcement for the next height to get ready.  Example:  When I’m near the end of 8’ 6”, I’ll say,  “9 footers get ready”.

Note 2:  I call “run-throughs and the first vaulters for the next height right along with the last vaulters at the current height.  We’ll just pause to have run-throughs or raise the bar.   Example: John’s up, Bob’s on deck, Tim’s in the hole, Pete’s run-through’s in the hole’s hole, then Carl.”  This saves a bunch of time.  They’re usually standing there waiting as soon as the bar goes up.

Note 3:  To me, this one’s really important.  I may have to do 7 alive at the bottom of the list so I don’t leave the last vaulter hang out to dry and be the only one left with 3 attempts to go.  (Bubka no-heighted in the Olympics because the official left him hang at the end and forced him to take 3 jumps 1 1/2 minute apart.  No extra time to rest.)

Note 4:  When I’m running the event, I stay off of the runway unless I have to STOP the vaulter for some reason.  I want things to go fast.  Some officials stand on the runway between jumps to maintain control or do their tallying and it just takes forever!  What happens is, every vaulter has some sort of little routine they go through before they run.  If the official steps on the runway, it interrupts or delays the start of the vaulter’s routine.  Many times they will already be into their routine while the previous vaulter is climbing out of the pit.  Staying off of the runway is worth a good half hour or more in a large meet.

Note 4:  You might have to teach the helpers how to put the bar up and set the standards.  A few minutes helping them can make the whole event fly.

I praise the vaulters and I praise the helpers and it usually goes pretty well.

Over time, this gets easier and easier.  I end up running the vault in most of the meets we go to because they know I’ll get it done really fast most of the time.

Here’s the tally sheet to copy and use. (Don’t copy it with an ink jet printer, it will run in the rain.) Copy it on card stock and keep several in your bag.  These forms are handy to have, especially if they hand you 3 pages of Hy-tek forms.  It’s really hard to do five-alive on multiple pages.

                

Here’s the sheet at the start of a meet. Notice that the first run-through height is marked.

Here’s the sheet in the middle of the meet. Notice that the heights of the vaulters who are out are already marked.  Also, notice that 6th place is already marked.

Here’s the sheet at the end of the meet. 

(VaultForm4.pdf  link)

It all makes sense after you run a few meets.  Go for it?