Energy Input

Only a vaulter can put energy into the vaulter-pole system.

This is where the pole vault differs from the other jumping events. In a long jump or a high jump, energy input ends when the athlete leaves the ground. A pole vaulter can continue to input energy until the release of the pole.

Two groups of muscles do this. Categorizing broadly, the leg group covers all muscles participating in the run up and the jump. The arm and torso group covers all muscles used in planting the pole and in the off-the-ground phase. That gives three inputs across the event:

1. Leg group in the run up and jump
2. Arm and torso group in the plant
3. Arm and torso group in the pull-through inversion

At elite level roughly three quarters of the energy is generated during the approach and one quarter after takeoff. Because that window is short and fixed, what happens inside it is decided by how little of it is wasted.

Nothing else contributes. Apart from a tail wind, no other factor adds energy to the system.

What it displaces. Any account of technique organized around using the pole well. The pole returns energy the athlete put into it, and returns it regardless of what the athlete does. Technical discussion is relevant only where it relates to generating more energy or, at minimum, preserving energy already generated.