Design of a Variable Stiffness Vaulting Pole with Axial Spring: A mechanical model based exploration

Is improvement of pole vaulting performance still possible, or has the theoretical peak level already been achieved? Looking ahead to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, in 2016 the NOC*NSF asked the TU Delft Sports Engineering Institute to identify the possibilities of improving pole vaulting performance. Marco Reijne developed a mechanical model in which...

Explore Pole Vaulting Strategies by control optimization: A biomechanical model based exploration

The development of the pole vaulting record is only improved by 1 centimeter over the last 25 years. Multiple studies show signs of different control strategies in elite pole vaulters, without pointing out what the cause of the differences is The aim of this research is to explore pole vaulting strategies by a control torque optimization. The...

The Next Level in Pole Vaulting: A Mechanical Model Based Exploration

Looking ahead to the Summer Olympics of 2020 in Tokyo, the Dutch decathletes want to improve their pole vaulting performance by 15 [cm] to increase their chances of winning an Olympic medal. As the current strategies to improve pole vaulting performance have reached their limit, the coach of the Dutch decathletes and NOC*NSF contacted the TU...