I want adults to try it, any age group is my goal with this. There’s the Senior Games, where all ages where people can compete, you can be in your 60s, 70s, there’s even a 100-year old person competing in pole vault, so I want it to be not just for young kids who physically feel good every day. They’re practicing, they’re going to meets. “In Minnesota, we have a group of guys who are 50-plus years of age and they’re going pole vaulting every week.

“People don’t realize that just because you’re out of high school or college doesn’t mean you have to stop trying to pole vault,” Hammerschmidt said. Jon Hammerschmidt instructs a younger pole vaulter during a recentĪnd while he’s trying to grow the numbers at the high school level, he wants to introduce adults into the sport also. He’s hoping the numbers continue to grow despite the short season for track and field in Minnesota. He said the age-range of the pole vaulters goes from middle school all the way up to a senior in high school. So we had some pretty big numbers for what New Ulm is used to.” This last year, I coached for New Ulm Public as well and we had 12 on varsity. “We were at least average for most of the track meets, if not better. “We had about four or five, but at least the five of us somewhat held our own,” Hammerschmidt said. He said that when he was in high school, the numbers were down but there was quality at the sport.

He started coaching at New Ulm High School this past spring and he was happy with the numbers he had. Hammerschmidt is trying to see the numbers rise for area pole vaulters. He now has a small facility which is designed for private lessons and he has a few high school student-athletes from surrounding schools, such as Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial and Waseca, to new name a few.

High jump equipment