BACKYARD POLE VAULTING - DUNCAN LITTLEFIELD - NEW JERSEY
Hi Bubba, Attached are some pictures of my backyard setup. I did some vaulting today - the weather was not optimal (in the 30's) so I didn't take many jumps. After vaulting a ran a few 200's - my legs felt good. I have been having some pain in my right hip (takeoff leg) - on the outside - perhaps some tendonitis - so I have been just doing some slow jogging the last few weeks. We will see how it feels tomorrow. I can't rest much longer though - I want to jump well in the Dartmouth relays in January. I also plan to jump at indoor nationals - should be a good time - hopefully we will see a lot of people there and hopefully we will see some nice heights. Look forward to seeing you there. I set my pit up in 1997. The first pit is gone and was replaced by a bigger pit the next year. A few years ago I got another pit - an older pit that I just use for extra padding. I have practices most weekends for anyone who wants to show up - I have people vaulting from ages 12 (actually 9 - my daughter did some vaulting this summer) up to early 50's. People only find out about my setup by word or mouth or by surfing in to my website or my track clubs web site. So, we don't have too many people show up - maybe a 4 or 5 each weekend. The pit is registered with USATF with the NJ Striders Track Club. The NJ Striders helped me set it up to try to help promote Track and Field in NJ. I also had help from Mike Pascuzzo (www.verticaladventures.org) with some additional padding. So, there is a ton of padding. The runway is 130' long - is cement (basically a sidewalk) with a conveyor belt over the top and a rollout over that. * Pit: NJ Striders + Vertical Adventures * Runway: MF Athletics * Poles: ESSX Looking back on it now, it does not seem like 9 years since I setup my pit. I have had a lot of people jumping here....but I have found it difficult to really do any serious training. I work a lot of hours during the week so I cannot have weekday practices. I do vault most weekends, but to really help some of this kids vaulting I would like to vault more often. I do have a 12 year old and a 13 year old who are jumping now who really look like they have some potential. They are also pretty hooked on vaulting - they are there every week and complain if I have to miss a weekend. Now I just need to get them setup with a good place to jump indoors - a bit hard to find in NJ - there is HIP Athletics but that is nearly a 2 hour drive for these 2 vaulters and it can get expensive. I don't charge anything. Thanks, Duncan Littlefield pvault@optonline.net www.njstriderspolevault.com