Consumption in the Pole Vault
As many
who have played sports before know, they can be an expensive investment. My
first blog talked about the motivations and emotions that are involved in pole
vaulting. My second blog analyzed how habits can come into play. This blog will
discuss the consumption of goods and services involved in learning to pole
vault compared to continuing to pole vault at the college level.
Initially
learning to pole vault can be super expensive. Especially for the high school
itself, there is a lot of equipment necessary to be able to vault at all, which
results in a lot of costs, “negative results of consumption experiences”
(Babin, 2016, pp. 5). The first thing of course, is the pits. 5 giant mats,
with a large cover mat, a box cover, and standard covers. Just this combination
of mats necessary to meet regulations can cost somewhere between
$15,000-30,000. You also need standards and a runway of course.
The next
expense for high schools is supplying poles for the various kids who choose to
try pole vaulting. There are also safety regulations on poles, a vaulter has to
be jumping on a pole with a weight rating that is above their weight so that
they don’t break it. There are a very wide variety of brands, weights, lengths,
flex points, etc, physical characteristics, “tangible elements or the parts of
a message that can be sensed”, that differentiate each pole from another
(Babin, 2016, 71). This is where many high schools fall short as they don’t
provide the right poles. Why is it so difficult for high schools to supply the
right poles?
As each
vaulter improves, they keep needing bigger and bigger poles. It is also common
for serious vaulters to vault on multiple poles at one competition. For
example, in college now I travel with 9-10 poles for every meet. Each pole
costs $400-1,000. You also need a bag to travel your poles in so that they don’t
get scratched. If a pole gets compromised it is more likely to break. A pole
bag costs $200-500. These are all costs typically covered by the school.
This is a
catalog with the specs of all the different poles that this one brand offers.
My high
school did not have a pole vault coach, so my family invested a lot of money in
finding coaching. This was intentional learning, “the process by which
consumers set out to specifically learn information devoted to a certain
subject” (Babin, 2016, pp 64). This learning also had particular costs. Some
Sundays we drove 4+ hours in order to practice for 2. We paid for college track
camps, club fees, anything to try to get enough coaching to learn the sport. My
family also bought several used poles from one of the coaches that I worked
with because my school only supplied me with one in the range that I needed. I
think if I recall correctly we spent $500 for two used poles. We made day trips
to Indiana for a couple hours of practice. Nike is the only company that makes
pole vault specific spikes and they run at about $120.
High
school athletic departments also have to pay to enter their track team into
meets during the season. The only season high school teams take part in is the
outdoor spring season. There is also a high school indoor season which I
participated in my Junior and Senior year. These meets had entry fees ranging
from $10-20 as well as travel costs to and from the meets and sometimes hotels.
There are also a lot of summer pole vault competitions and I participated in
all of them.
As any
other sport kids participate in, there are a lot of costs associated with all
the equipment, coaching, clubs, etc that are necessary to learn, improve and
eventually be the best. All of these investments that my parents made were
worth it because they allowed me to continue vaulting at the B1G Ten level.
Even as an
athlete without any scholarship money, consumption behavior in the pole vault
is pretty different in college because the team budget is so much larger. We
have a coach, we are supplied with excessive amounts of workout clothes and we
don’t have to buy our own running shoes or spikes. Athletes get free breakfast
every school day, free dinners occasionally and snacks at the track every day.
We essentially have free health care with the ability to see athletic trainers
and team doctors and even specialists whenever we need to. Not to mention
tutors, other academic services, flights, hotels, per diem, and the list goes
on. Although I don’t pay for really anything out of pocket to continue
vaulting, I definitely consume more goods and services to vault at this level.
Works Cited
Babin, B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th ed., pp.
5,64,71). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Footlocker.
(2017). Nike ZOOM PVII – Mens http://www.footlocker.com/product/model:89734/sku:17404100/nike-zoom-pv-ii-mens/white/black/?cm=&SID=5403&inceptor=1&cm_mmc=SEM-_-Non-Branded-_-_cat%3Afootlocker.com-_-Google&gclid=CLG6ibH059ICFZW1wAod4-4G9A
UCS
Spirit. (2014, October 31) UCS Track and Field Catalog 2015 (pp. 4-25). https://issuu.com/ucsspirit/docs/ucs_track_and_field_catalog_2015
