The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between upper body angles and performance of pole vault and explore an effective way to improve the performance of pole vault. This study selected 16 pole vault athletes who participated in 2012 National Track and Field Championships and analyzed their best performances in the competition. A Photron FASTCAM SA3 camera with Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens was used for recording. The sampling rate of the camera was 250 frames per second. The collected data were digitized and analyzed by Kwon3D software. Angles were reconfirmed by CAD software. The analyzed upper body angles were pole angle (angle between pole and fore-arm), elbow angle (angle between fore-arm and upper-arm), and shoulder angle (angle between upper arm and trunk) at the instant of take-off. The trunk angular velocity (TAV) was calculated during swing phase. These data was statistically analyzed by multiple regression stepwise method using SPSS ver. 18.0. The performance was set as independent variable. Pole angle, elbow angle, shoulder angle, and maximum trunk angular velocity were set as dependent variable for difference verification of each factor. The α level was set at .05. The elbow angle can estimate as the best factor for performance with 78.8%. So we can expect if the Taiwanese athletes makes wide elbow angle during pole vaulting, their performance will be increase.
