Written by John Mark Adkison
It was her senior year of high school, graduation was fast approaching and Tiffany Chambers was still in need of a P.E. credit to finish off her high school career. After 11 years of competing in gymnastics, Chambers wanted to try something new. So, in the spring of 2009, she joined the track and field team. Once on the team, she discovered something that fit her liking: pole vaulting.
She never thought the decision would help her get into Harding University, let alone make her a record-breaker once she got there.
“The P.E. coach in seventh grade was always like, ‘Chambers, you are going to be a vaulter,’ and I was always like, ‘No, that’s crazy,'” Chambers said.
At the end of 12th grade, Chambers was approached by Harding’s track coach, Steve Guymon, and offered a spot on the track team. Chambers said she was ecstatic to be able to be a part of a college sports team.
“The [track] team is just great;we get along and we can just get together and hang out and Coach Guymon and Coach [Bryan] Phillips are awesome,” Chambers said.
Chambers, now a sophomore, is the only pole vaulter on the track team and has been pole vaulting for only three years, and yet she has already broken school records. Last year, she set a record of 10 feet 6 inches. On Saturday, March 26, she broke that record with a height of 11 feet 1.75 inches. And even with her record-breaking success, Chambers said she still sees herself as a work in progress.
“The thing about pole vaulting is that it is a process; you have to have good run to have a good plant, you have to have a good plant in order to get into the air, you have to get into the air to get up and over the top of the pole; it is a continuous work in progress,” Chambers said. “And last year I worked hard on getting my run and my approach down, and now I am working on my technique, getting the plant and getting myself upside down.”
Before Chambers began pole vaulting, she had been a gymnastfor 11 years. She said that the skills she learned from gymnastics have helped her pole vault, but they have also hindered her.
“They say the hardest part about pole vaulting is running as fast as you can at a stationary object, but that is not really that hard for me,” Chambers said. “I mean, when I did gymnastics, I ran toward a spring board. As a gymnast, I usually land on my feet, which is not good. My senior year of high school I knocked the cross bar off and landed on it and nearly broke my ankle.”
While Chambers is still figuring out the mechanics of pole vaulting, she said she has also taken some life lessons away from this difficult pursuit.
“The Bible teaches you have to trust God and trust what he gives you,” Chambers said. “Like, I have a pole I vault with—it is the apparatus that I use—and God gives us things in life, and we may be like, ‘this is a pole, you really want me to run toward a stationary box and fly up into the air?’ But he gives us those things and we are supposed to trust them and know this is for our good.”
