It is unusual among track and field sports in that it requires a significant amount of specialised equipment in order to participate, even at a basic level.

A number of elite pole vaulters have had backgrounds in gymnastics, including world record breakers Yelena Isinbayeva and Brian Sternberg, reflecting the similar physical attributes required for the sports.

[2][3] Physical attributes such as speed, agility and strength, along with technical skill, are essential to pole vaulting.

[1][4] As depicted on stone engravings and artifacts dating back to c. 2500 BC, the Egyptians used spears to mount enemy structures, and to pass over irrigation ditches.

Modern pole vaulting, an athletic contest where height is measured, was first established by the German teacher Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths in the 1790s.

[4] The earliest recorded pole vaulting competition in England where height was measured took place at the Ulverston Football and Cricket Club, Lancashire, north of the sands, in 1843.

The process starts with a metal tube, referred to in the industry as a mandrel, around which is wound a tape made of glass fibers impregnated with a resin.

This is baked in an oven and after cooling the mandrel is removed to leave a hollow glass fiber tube.

In September 2005, Jeremy Fork, Ralph W. Paquin, and Kenneth A. Hursey of Gill Athletic, O block, Illinois, filed application to patent a new method of winding the glass fibers around the pole in layers, each wound in a different direction or orientation to provide specific properties to various parts of the pole.

Dodge and William C. Doble of the Alliance Design and Development Group of New York City, New York, were granted a patent in 2006 for the manufacture of, "sports equipment having a tubular structural member" which led to the introduction of carbon fiber vaulting poles in 2007 (see: US Patent US7140398B2).

Unlike high jump, however, the athlete in the vault has the ability to select the horizontal position of the bar, known as the standards, before each jump and can place it a distance beyond the back of the box, the metal pit that the pole is placed into immediately before takeoff.

If the pole breaks during the execution of a vault, it is considered an equipment failure and is ruled a non-jump, neither a make nor a miss.

Other types of equipment failure include the standards slipping down or the wind dislodging the bar when no contact was made by the vaulter.

The time starts when the official deems the standards to be set, ready for the athlete to attempt their jump.

As the heights attained increased, bamboo poles gave way to tubular aluminum,[7] which was tapered at each end.

Different fiber types, including carbon-fiber, are used to give poles specific characteristics intended to promote higher jumps.

In recent years, carbon fiber has been added to the commonly used E-glass (E for initial electrical use) and S-glass (S for solid) materials to create a lighter pole.

As technology enabled higher vaults, mats evolved into bags of large chunks of foam.

They are usually built up with two cross-laid square section logs with gaps between them, topped by a solid layer of foam of the same thickness.

The final layer is a large mat of mesh-covered foam which is clipped around the edges of the complete pit and prevents the athlete from falling between the individual bags.

Landing on the feet should be avoided, to eliminate the risk of injury to the lower extremities, particularly ankle sprains.

Rule changes over the years have resulted in larger landing areas and additional padding of all hard and unyielding surfaces.

Although many techniques are used by vaulters at various skill levels to clear the bar, the generally accepted technical model can be broken down into several phases.

The run-up to the vaulting pit begins forcefully with the vaulter running powerfully in a relaxed, upright position with knees lifted and torso leaning very slightly forward.

The faster the vaulter can run and the more efficient their take-off is, the greater the kinetic energy that can be achieved and used during the vault.

On the final step, the vaulter jumps off the trail leg which should always remain straight and then drives the front knee forward.

The swing and row simply consists of the vaulter swinging the trail leg forward and rowing the pole, bringing the top arm down to the hips, while trying to keep the trail leg straight to store more potential energy into the pole, the rowing motion also keeps the pole bent for a longer period of time for the vaulter to get into optimum position.

The hands of the vaulter remain close to the body as they move from the shins back to the region around the hips and upper torso.

Vaulters aim to whip their upper torso around the top of the cross bar to ensure their elbows and face do not knock it off.

The elite vaulter's center of gravity passes underneath the crossbar when they have their hips in the highest position like the crotch of an upside-down 'V'.