--- title: How They Train: Pole Vaulting with Joel Stein | TIME description: TIME columnist Joel Stein gets a lesson in pole vaulting – and an assessment of his inner daredevil – with Olympian Brad Walker in San Diego canonical: https://time.com/video/4p0k5uC8/ og:title: How They Train: Pole Vaulting with Joel Stein og:description: TIME columnist Joel Stein gets a lesson in pole vaulting – and an assessment of his inner daredevil – with Olympian Brad Walker in San Diego og:url: https://time.com/video/4p0k5uC8/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4p0k5uC8/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How They Train: Pole Vaulting with Joel Stein twitter:description: TIME columnist Joel Stein gets a lesson in pole vaulting – and an assessment of his inner daredevil – with Olympian Brad Walker in San Diego twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4p0k5uC8/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How They Train: Pole Vaulting with Joel Stein > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How They Train: Pole Vaulting with Joel Stein [Watch (HLS stream): How They Train: Pole Vaulting with Joel Stein](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4p0k5uC8.m3u8) (4:37)  _Published 2012-06-26. TIME columnist Joel Stein gets a lesson in pole vaulting – and an assessment of his inner daredevil – with Olympian Brad Walker in San Diego_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:25 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Joel Stein House Video](/video/NygQXgbs/) ### Joel Stein House Video [Joel Stein Finds His Inner Duck](/video/mLx5FxZC/) ### Joel Stein Finds His Inner Duck [Joel Stein, the Sundance Waiter](/video/2CAXfBDp/) ### Joel Stein, the Sundance Waiter --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I'm with Brad Locker who has the U. S record in pole vault and the fourth highest pole vault in world history. So, you obviously are not afraid of heights. Not afraid of heights. You get a lil adrenaline thrill out of it though. Most people don't understand what the pole vault really is and, and how much of a fear component is in the sport. The fear creates the adrenaline and that's what drives us to jump higher and push ourselves. It's a total commitment. From the first step you take on that, at the back of that runway, you're committed or you're not. When I go to a major championship, I'm going to war. So I briefly did high school track. And I think we just picked the craziest kid and got him to do the pull valt. We're an adrenaline junky sport, that's what we are. [ MUSIC ] Wow. And when you, when you look at me, you've spoken to me for just a few minutes, but you, you pretty much sized me up. How do you think I'd do as a pull vaulter. Have you ever jumped out of an airplane. No. Okay, do you. Currently do you drive fast, get a lot of speeding tickets? I get a fair number of speeding tickets. Okay, good. That's good. [ CROSSTALK ] Do you have a motorcycle? No. Okay. If you clear six feet today I'd be impressed. And I, I can just wear this, right? I would put shorts on. I'll put shorts on. Perfect. [ MUSIC ] Though I grabbed the poles, it's not yours. Mine's made of plastic. Yours is made of fibreglass. But the Greeks used like metal, right? The Greeks probably used just sticks they found on the ground. I don't know. That seems better. Yeah. They idea of pole vaulting is you take horizontal velocity and you turn it into vertical velocity. The faster you're running, the stiffer pole you need. And the idea is to make, is to reach a pole that's so stiff. But it just throws you directly straight up into the air because the velocity that you have on the runway equals the resistance of the pole that you use. And that's what creates the biggest, tightest bell curve you can get. > F equals M, A. There you go. Okay, we'll do something, we'll do something real easy. What you're gonna do, you're gonna, you're gonna get in this position and then you're gonna take three big steps back. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] It's been awhile since I've done these little drills. I've got to make sure my. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] Oh it's graceful. Okay I'm going for that. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ LAUGH ] What happened? [ MUSIC ] Alright. Left right left. [ MUSIC ] Pull hard left and [ SOUND ]. [ MUSIC ] You all right? [ MUSIC ] You started with your right foot instead of your left. Alright, we gotta move on. The pole vault is a difficult event. Okay I do have a question. When you've nailed it and your just, you're floating down the other side, is that a great feeling? The ride down? Yeah it's a great feeling. Yeah I mean most of the time if you see somebody with a, a, a massive jump you know at a big championship I mean they're celebrating right after they clear the bar. Alright, I'm gonna nail this. Other side. Alright, I'm gonna nail this. [ LAUGH ] Does that concern you. Well, I'm glad I caught it. Alright, so I'm going to attempt my first real pull vault right here. This is the lowest these standards will go. I was hoping there will be something that will fall down if I hit it, that looks like it would get caught in my testicles. [ LAUGH ] That. Doesn't it. You're not that delicate, I don't think, you should be fine, alright. This is the last hemp, your going to come, third attempt, this is a personal best, lifetime best. It's all on the line. [ SOUND ] Ahh! [ SOUND ] Couldn't we just sprint? This seems crazy. Why do you need to do this? One of the things that I really enjoy is that when you get to the top, it comes down to what you can do in your head on that day. And that's it. We all have the physical tools to do it, but mentally, how confident are you? You think that's what it comes down to? Well of course it is. I've been to five world championships, and I have five world championship medals. And I'm, that's something I'm really proud of. I've been to one Olympic games, and I don't have an Olympic games medal. So, that's a huge goal of mine, is to get that. The difference between what you've done about the world record is. Four inches. Oh come on really. Four inches. Yeah. Which is, gives me the confidence to know that I can capable of jumping the world record. Let's do it right now. I wish it was really that easy. Hopefully some time in the next year or two. If we, if you do it right now I'll put it on TIME. com [ LAUGH ]. 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