#229: GIll1918 Presents Mike Cunningham "What Makes One Pole Vault Pit Different From Another?"

0:00Welcome to the Gail 1918 Project, a podcast series by coaches, four coaches powered by Gail Athletics. Think of this as the TED Talks of Track and Field Coaching, short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help you grow as a coach. We're bringing the once a year track clinic straight to your ears daily. Interesting creating your own episode? Everyone's welcome to participate. Check out the show notes below for more information. Now, let's get into today's topic. Come back here to the Gail 1918 Project. So proud to be your host here, Mike Cunningham from Gail Athletics. And today on the Gail 1918 Project, we're answering a question that coaches rarely get an opportunity to explore what makes one pole vault pit different from another. At first glance, most pole vault pits look fairly similar. Their large foam landing systems wrapped in vinyl with a top pad stretched across the surface. If two pits meet the same dimensional requirements, it can be easy to assume that the only

1:00meaning-filled difference are the size, color, logo, maybe the warranty, and probably the price. But beneath the surface are dozens of design decisions involving foam, fabric, vinyl, stitching, connection hardware, top pad construction, weather protection, and even the geometry around the vault box. Some decisions influence how the pit feels, how it handles repeated landings, how easily it can be maintained, and how well it holds up over time. So this is not really a story about one feature. No? It's a story about how many small engineering choices work together as one landing system. Let's begin with the foam. Because the foam is really the heart of the pole vault pit. The everything else exists to support it or protect it. Landing systems have to accomplish two goals at the same time. It needs to provide a comfortable forgiving landing for the athlete, and it needs enough

2:02structure to help prevent that athlete from bottoming out on the hard surface beneath the pit. Those goals create a real engineering challenge. If a system feels too firm, athletes may not experience the landing comfort that coaches want. If it's too soft without the proper underlying support, it may compress too far under load. Manufacturers address that balance with different foam densities, compression characteristics, layering arrangements, and section designs. Here at Gill, we use what we call a quadruple, derailleur, layer foam system. The system combines a soft upper layer, two firmer log layers, and then a firm base layer. The purpose is to create a comfortable landing surface while maintaining support deeper within the system. When comparing pits, coaches should not stop at the phrase high quality foam, ask how the foam system is arranged, what each layer is intended to do, and how the complete system

3:05manages both comfort and support. Foam receives most of the attention, but the outer casing may have just as much influence on the useful life of the pit. Once water, sunlight, dirt, and repeated abrasion begin affecting the foam, performance and durability can deteriorate. Different manufacturers use different fabrics, weights, coatings, and construction methods. At Gill, our current landing system design uses a dual coated casing made from 1,000 by 1,000, denier polyester fabric, bond on both sides with 18-ounce knife-coded PVC final. A lot of words and numbers there, isn't it? That construction is intended to resist tearing, reduce the opportunity for delamination, and protect the foam from the environment. With thousands and thousands of pits utilizing this vinyl around the country and around the world, we've seen a sharp, sharp decrease in any kind of replacement needs from our customers.

4:10Some were used at every level from Olympic trials, NCAA championships, middle school, state championships, all around the country. The exact material specifications, they matter, but so does the reason behind it. Coaches should ask, what is the casing designed to protect against? How are the seams constructed? How does the material respond to sun, water, repeated handling, and years of setup take down and storage? A pits exterior is not just cosmetic, it's the protective envelope around the most important and expensive part of the system. One construction difference that many coaches, don't notice all that much, is whether the base sections use vinyl or mesh in particular areas. Here at Gill, we use an all vinyl base unit as part of its weather protection approach. Other manufacturers use a mesh on the top to encourage air flow or help moisture escape.

5:14Those are different responses to the same basic challenge managing moisture around foam. Rather than accepting a claim that one material is automatically better in every circumstance, asks the manufacturer to explain the design philosophy. Where can water enter? How does moisture leave? What happens if the pit is exposed to rain? What maintenance does the design require? The useful question is not simply is this vinyl or mesh? The useful question is, why was this material selected and what problem is it intended to solve? Many people think of the top pad as little more than a cover. It's much more than that. The top pad influences landing field, the feel of the landing. Protect seams and transitions. Distributes wear helps the individual base sections perform as one continuous surface. Here at Gill, our current design uses an edge-to-edge top pad with two inches of our dura life foam. The edge-to-edge approach is intended to reduce the exposed transitions, limit spike contact

6:18with the base units and create a more consistent surface near the edges of the pit. Our top pads are also reversible. That matters because wear is rarely distributed evenly. Both athletes land in a relatively concentrated area using both sides of your Gill reversible top pad can spread that wear and help a program get more useful life from the component. When comparing pits, ask how thick the top pad is, what type of foam it contains, how far extends, whether it's reversible, how it connects to the base. Those details are easy to miss in a catalog photograph, but athletes interact with them on every landing. A povol pit is not one solid block. It's a collection of foam sections that must stay aligned and function together. Every landing creates force, movement, and repeated stress across those connections. Manufacturers use a range of approaches, a hook and loop systems, webbing, carebeeners,

7:20snap hooks, and other hardware linkages. Here at Gill, we use an aluminum carebeener with a side V loop connection and also grip strip fascinating systems to keep connection, the components connected, and help the base sections act as an integrated unit. Connection design affects more than whether the pit looks tidy. It influences how sections remain aligned, how loads are distributed, how easily coaches can inspect the system, and how practical it is to replace a word of hair individual components. This is a good place to look closely during a product demonstration. As the manufacturer shows you every connection point, explain what receives the most stress and demonstrate how a coach would inspect or replace that hardware. The location of the top pad connections is a very small detail, very important with a clear purpose. At Gill, we position our carebeener connections along the side of the pit, rather than on the upper landing surface.

8:21Our goal here is to keep the attachment hardware away from the area where athletes land and so that we maintain an obstruction free surface. It's the kind of design choice most coaches may never notice until someone explains why it exists. That's a reoccurring theme and equipment design. The best details are often the ones the user never has to think about. The front of a pull ball pit may be the most difficult part of the entire system to engineer. The design has to account for pull movement, the athletes path, the shape of the front sections, landing consistency, and integration with a modern vault box collar. Vault box collars change the way landing systems interact with the box area. At Gill, our current pit entry design accounts for the collar's effect on the tri-sland area and uses what we describe as a very vault or friendly entry angle, the angle of the side

9:26parts near the vault box. For coaches, the important takeaway is that geometry matters. Do not evaluate only the overall length and width, but look closely at the front cutout, the slope of the front sections like I just described, how the box collar fits, and whether the complete setup works together as intended. And whenever compliance is involved, confirm that the specific pit box collar facility configuration meets the current requirements that apply to your level of competition. Standard base pads protect athletes from the hard bases that support those pull vault standards. Even here, manufacturers and programs have some choices. We at Gill offer traditional flat base pads as well as angled base pad designs. The angle design creates a smoother transition around the standard base and reduces that abrupt edge in athlete-mine encounter during an unsuccessful or off-center jump. This doesn't mean every facility needs the same solution.

10:27It means base pads should be evaluated as part of the complete landing area, not treated as an afterthought, added at the end of the purchase. I mean coaches compare pull vault pits. The first conversation usually centers around size, price, and warranty. In those factors matter, but they do not tell the whole story. Thread strength matters. Stitching patterns matter. Final construction, the way handles and straps, distribute stress, top pad thickness, hardware placement, water protection. They all matter, as well as the ability to rotate and spec maintain and replace components. No single detail defines the entire pit. The long-term experience is created by the accumulation of dozens of decisions, including many that are hidden beneath the surface on delivery day. That is also why two pits that satisfy the same dimensional requirements can feel, perform, age, and require maintenance differently.

11:28Compliance establishes an essential baseline. It does not make every landing system identical. If you're evaluating a new pull vault pit, you can certainly ask the manufacturer, what is different about your pit? But there might be a better question. Why was your pit designed the way it is? That question asked the company to connect each feature to an actual purpose. Why this foam arrangement? Why this casing material? Why this top head design? Why those connections? Why do you use this geometry? What problem is each choice trying to solve? And what trade-offs come with those decisions? A manufacturer should be able to explain those decisions in plain language. If the answer is only that a feature is better because the brochure says it's better, keep asking questions. Meaningful design differences should connect to athlete safety, durability, maintenance,

12:32usability, and long-term value. So what makes one pull vault pit different from another? It's not simply the color, the logo, the size, or the price. It is the complete system underneath the surface. Phone, vinyl, top head design, where the connections are, hardware placement, geometry, base pad design, weather protection, and dozens of smaller choices working together for you and your athletes. The next time you compare landing systems, don't evaluate only what you can see in a photograph. Ask what is underneath why it was built that way, how it should be maintained, and how each design decision will affect your athletes and your program over the years that you expect to own it. Thanks for joining us here on the GIL 1918 project. If you'd like to see these articles, we have them all on YouTube, we have them all on the podcast, we have them all on Mike, Kenham, my, and Gill Athletics LinkedIn page.

13:33Go check us out over there. And I'll leave you with this, coaches and administrators. Keep asking good questions. Keep protecting and coaching your athletes and making your program stronger, and we'll see you next time, right here on the GIL 1918 project. Take this. Hey, gang, Mike, Kenham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the GIL 1918 project series. It's really my mission, my passion, to bring you massive amounts of value. And I hope this one hit the mark. The GIL 1918 project is really dependent on you, for you to build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out there. So please get a hold of me, email, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me, and let's help create your episode of the GIL 1918 project. Hope you enjoyed it today. I will see you tomorrow.