Flop best on sawdust pit

[Trickstat]

In the late 70s, a teenage girl from my local area, did the flop into sand at her school. Perhaps not surprisingly, she broke her collarbone/clavicle*. She jumped for the local club. At that time in the UK, tracks used by clubs had airbeds but many schools still only had sand.

*I assume if she had been less fortunate she could have broken her neck.

[DoubleRBar]

Guess I was "lucky" to have broken my wrist.

[wamego relays champ]

In the late 70s, a teenage girl from my local area, did the flop into sand at her school. Perhaps not surprisingly, she broke her collarbone/clavicle*.

With apologies to Tuariki, if the girl cleared the bar, I nominate her for the "world best" performance that was the subject in the original post, even though it was sand instead of sawdust.

[wamego relays champ]

IMO. If ever there was a stupid question asked on this message board, this would be it.

that kind of ad hominem attack is expressly forbidden here; you should be ashamed of yourself.

I'm not so sure it was an attack. Tuariki may have been, in a self-deprecating way, comparing the OP's question to another similar one:

What's the World Best for doing a long jump with a somersault landing into a sand pit?

[El Toro]

that kind of ad hominem attack is expressly forbidden here; you should be ashamed of yourself.

I was waiting to see who would crack first, so thanks to Tauriki for offering himself up as the sacrificial lamb.

Anyway, I would say that rather than "argumentum ad hominem", Tauriki is actually entering into "argumentum ad interrogatum" - attacking the question rather than the person.

/pedantry, /uncertain latin.

[cask25]

Does anyone know what the world's best is for the flop landing on a sawdust pit? Or best guess?

It was actually a legitimate question that probably only Fosbury could answer. I'm guessing 6'3 -6'6. Dick?

[Powell]

When I jumped sawdust and foam had not been invented...

I'm pretty sure sawdust was invented long before then

I've often wondered why it took people so long to figure out that landing pits needed to be soft. I get that synthetic foam was not available, but there are natural materials that would have worked a lot better than sand or even sawdust. A big feather mattress would be perfect, and if that was too expensive, hay would have been pretty good as well.

[jc203]

Sand was used in some old-timey meets.

[dukehjsteve]

Sand and then sawdust made sense for decades, as they required no upkeep, and no protection from rain. And "Back In the Day" I never heard anyone complain about sawdust, other when it got in our eyes, and we had to use the always-there pitchfork to fluff things up.

[Per Andersen]

Sand and then sawdust made sense for decades, as they required no upkeep, and no protection from rain. And "Back In the Day" I never heard anyone complain about sawdust, other when it got in our eyes, and we had to use the always-there pitchfork to fluff things up.

But you sure needed a shovel. Where we jumped the standard were always out. You just needed the bar and be ready to do some shovelling. Lots of scraped elbows though as the straddle was King!

[Dave]

As I'm sure I have mentioned sometime, I taught myself to flop in the winter of 68-69 and reached 6' that spring. We had a great foam pit, other schools less so, but manageable, till the last regular season meet, where it was not only saw-dust, but not much of it all. I scissored in warm-ups, but then my 'coach' (he had no idea what I was doing) came over and thankfully forbade me from competing. The host school had to forfeit the event to us - 9 points, and we won the meet by 5.

Were some schools using cloud 9’s for HJ as well as pole vault at that time? I am a little younger than you and some schools were still using Cloud Nines as late as 1972 in northern Indiana.

[Atticus]

Were some schools using cloud 9’s for HJ as well as pole vault at that time? I am a little younger than you and some schools were still using Cloud Nines as late as 1972 in northern Indiana.

I never jumped into one, and only saw them as a spectator in big fancy meets (though it probably wasn't that expensive to buy/use).

We just had large chunks of foam in net bags. Worked great. When I jumped in college (spring 70) I had my first modern-style pit.