By now you’ve probably seen this video on Instagram…

If you haven’t yet, it’s worth clicking through to watch. We thought we’d reach out to Eli Tranel, the vaulter in the video, to learn more about what happened. Eli was nice enough to share a couple comments about the incident.

The vault from the video occurred on January 28 and thankfully he’s okay. Eli said, “I am doing well, ended up just having some bruising up my left leg…” In fact, Eli said he’s preparing to be back to an 8 step approach on February 7th.

I asked Eli if he thought the video would go viral and he said “it started blowing up right away and a few athletes and sports pages direct messaged me asking for permission to share it and I said of course! People love fails so I had a good idea that it would go viral and the pole vault community loves to watch video of other vaulters and can sympathize with the pain that comes along with vaulting.”

In another past at Pole Vault Online, we’ve talked about run throughs getting in your head. Pole vault is a very mental sport and Eli said “Honestly, I am not too worried about this incident getting in my head.” Like many vaulters, Eli said as he’s improved in the vault his spatial awareness has continually improved and it’s made the mental game much easier. He also attributed it to his “send it” attitude, which I think all of vaulters have to have a little bit of.

Eli said besides “being more aware of flicking the pole away…it was almost a blessing because the injury could have been much worse.”

It’s a good teaching moment for vaulters. Besides getting rejected by the pole or a pole breaking, the process of falling is where a vaulter is most likely to get injured. It’s a good reminder that the jumps not over until you’re safely back on the mat. It reminds me of seeing athletes land on their feet. It’s a detail that can get overlooked, but I’ve seen enough vaulters badly sprain their ankles landing on their feet to make it a point to tell vaulters to just fall to their back. For most vaulters, this type of thing isn’t a worry, you have to be jumping higher than your pole for it to stab you like this. However, it’s a good reminder that your best bet is to push the pole back towards the runway or perhaps even to the side - just be wary of throwing the pole straight into the standards.