The Complete Handbook of Pole Vault Pits

It's a solid reference, but I wish it had included more external links or specific part numbers for sourcing replacement foam. The business chapter was interesting, but the certification section felt a bit dry. Still, it cleared up a lot of questions I had about the difference between a standard high school pit and the international ones. It's a good resource to have on the shelf, but I think the pricing tables could have been more detailed.

Finally, a book that explains the anatomy of a pit without the sales pitch. I'm the facilities director for a school district, and the chapter on troubleshooting water-logged pads alone saved us a substantial amount of money on a potential replacement last fall. The maintenance checklists are exact and have become part of our monthly routine. It’s written in plain English, and I feel confident holding my contractors to a higher standard now.

I run a small track club and have bought and sold two used pits in the last five years. The installation chapter and the section on auditing a used pit before purchase were extremely useful. The writing is a bit formal in places, like an instruction manual, which fits the bill when I need to show a vendor a spec. I docked one star because I was hoping for a bit more visual diagrams of the air circulation systems, but the text descriptions are impeccable.

This is the only book I've found that treats the pit as a modular system rather than just a giant foam block. The explanation of how the front-of-pit cutout affects the height of the standard actually changed how we plan our run-up. As a coach, the practical breakdown of the physics was incredibly valuable, and the maintenance logs are a great template. I've already recommended this to three other coaches in our league; it's a purchase you'll use for a decade.

I purchased this for the business perspective, specifically the private labeling and servicing opportunities, and I wasn't disappointed. It gives a fair assessment of the big brands without name-dropping too much fluff. It was a bit heavy on the physics for my taste, but I skipped ahead to the compliance and refurbishment sections. Well-structured and a very high-quality reference for anyone in track and field equipment, whether you're a buyer or a seller.

The book is thorough and definitely an improvement over parsing a dozen different PDF spec sheets. However, I felt the chapter on regulatory standards is already slightly outdated due to how fast these things change. The authors are clearly expert, but I did feel the writing could have used a few more high-resolution photos to illustrate the flaws in the troubleshooting section. It's a good book, I just think the audio version would have been a bad idea.