The short answer
Pole vault apps fall into three buckets that vaulters often confuse. PoleVaultApp is a free jump tracker. Polevaulter.ai is free training content and an AI training coach. Track & Field AI grades your actual vault on video, approach through clearance, with a free first analysis. For technique feedback, not just a log, the video tool is the pick.
Key takeaways
- Three different products call themselves pole vault apps: trackers, training planners, and video analyzers
- PoleVaultApp logs jumps and lets you attach video, but it does not analyze technique for you
- Polevaulter.ai offers free training plans and an AI training coach, not frame-by-frame video grading
- Only AI video analysis reads the vault itself: approach, plant, swing, and clearance
- For a solo vaulter wanting technique feedback, automatic video analysis is the right bucket
The three kinds of pole vault app, untangled
Before you pick a pole vault app, know that the category hides three very different products, and choosing the wrong bucket is why vaulters feel let down. The first is a tracker and journal, which logs your jumps, poles, and grips. The second is a training planner, which gives you drills, lifting, and approach guidance. The third is a video analyzer, which actually reads your vault and tells you what your body did wrong. All three are useful, but only one answers "why did my plant feel late" and it is not the journal.
Match the app to the question
If your question is "what did I jump and on which pole," you want a tracker. If it is "what should I train this week," you want a planner. If it is "what did my body do on that vault," you want AI video analysis.
Source: Track & Field AI coaching desk
PoleVaultApp: the free tracker and journal
PoleVaultApp (polevaultapp.com) is a clean, free jump tracker built by vaulters. You log each jump with pole length, weight, grip, and approach, attach a video clip to the jump, and review your history and analytics over time. It even has a Coach Mode so a coach can leave notes per vault. It is genuinely good at what it does. What it does not do is analyze the technique inside the video for you. The clip is stored next to your numbers; reading it is still your job or your coach's. Think of it as a logbook with a video attachment, not a form analyzer.
Polevaulter.ai: free training content and an AI training coach
Polevaulter.ai is a free resource hub for the vault community, with deep articles, drills, and an AI Vault Coach that gives training guidance like pole selection, grip height, and run-up adjustments for conditions such as a headwind. It also offers a journal and some video storage. This is real value, especially if you train without a coach and need a plan. But its AI is a training advisor, not a frame-by-frame video form grader. It helps you decide what to work on; it does not watch a specific vault and tell you your trail leg collapsed off the plant.
The options, compared
Pole vault apps at a glance
Prices and features change; verify before you commit. The highlighted column is the pick for technique feedback.
| App | What it is | Analyzes your vault on video | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Track & Field AI | AI video analysis | Yes, approach to clearance | Free first analysis | Technique feedback |
| PoleVaultApp | Tracker and journal | No, stores the clip only | Free for most features | Logging jumps |
| Polevaulter.ai | Training content and AI coach | No, training advice | Free | Building a training plan |
| Onform | Manual video tool | No, you draw on it | About $100/yr individual | Coach-reviewed film |
Track & Field AI: best when you want to fix the vault
If your real goal is to improve technique, you need the app that reads the vault itself, and that is what Track & Field AI does. It breaks the jump into its phases, approach, plant, swing, and clearance, and tells you which one is costing you and what to change, in coaching language. A late plant, a soft mid, an early bar turn: it names them instead of leaving you to squint at a replay. And because your first analysis is free with no card, you can test it on your next session. For the technique itself, the pole vault plant technique guide pairs well with this.
- Reads the full vault: approach speed, plant timing, swing, and bar clearance
- Names the phase costing you and the cue to fix it, not just a stored clip
- Works from a normal phone video filmed side-on from the runway
- Covers every event, so you can analyze sprints and other field events too
- Honest by design: it flags an incomplete or poorly framed vault instead of guessing
Track & Field AI is not a logbook
If you mainly want to record poles, grips, and PRs over a season, a tracker like PoleVaultApp is better at that, and the two pair well: log in one, analyze technique in the other.
Source: Track & Field AI coaching desk
The smartest setup: pair a tracker with an analyzer
You do not actually have to choose one app, and the best vaulters do not. The cleanest setup pairs a tracker with an analyzer, because they answer different questions and overlap almost not at all. Log every jump in a tracker like PoleVaultApp so you build a season-long record of poles, grips, run-up lengths, and PRs, which is gold for spotting trends and for talking to a coach. Then run your key jumps through Track & Field AI to get the technical read the logbook cannot give, naming the late plant or the stalling swing. One tells you what happened over months; the other tells you why this jump went the way it did. Together they cost little, since both have free starting points, and they cover the whole picture.
What to look for in a pole vault app
Judge any pole vault app by what job it is actually built for, because the category mixes three of them. Ask these questions before you commit, and the right bucket becomes obvious.
- Does it read the vault, or store it? A tracker holds your clip; an analyzer tells you what your body did wrong in it.
- Is the AI a coach or a training planner? Training-plan AI advises what to work on; video AI grades a specific jump. They are not the same.
- Phase awareness: can it separate approach, plant, swing, and clearance, or does it see one blur?
- Phone-native filming: can you shoot and analyze from the runway on a phone?
- Honest limits: does it flag a foul or a badly framed vault instead of inventing feedback?
Where Track & Field AI is not the right tool
Here is where the video analyzer is the wrong pick, said plainly. If your main need is a season log of poles, grips, and heights, a tracker like PoleVaultApp is purpose-built for that and Track & Field AI is not a logbook. If you want a structured training plan, sprint workouts, and lifting guidance without a coach, polevaulter.ai is the better home for that, since it is built around training content rather than video grading. And if your coach reviews film and wants to draw on it, a manual tool like Onform fits that habit. Track & Field AI is the best fit for the moment you ask "what did my body do on that vault and how do I fix it," which is the one question the trackers and planners cannot answer.
How to choose
- You want technique feedback on a specific vault: Track & Field AI.
- You want to log jumps, poles, and PRs over time: PoleVaultApp.
- You need a training plan and drills without a coach: Polevaulter.ai.
- Your coach draws on film and you trade clips: Onform.
A journal tells you that you cleared the bar. It cannot tell you the plant that nearly cost you the jump. Those are different apps for different questions.
Track & Field AI coaching desk
Why vault feedback between sessions matters so much
Pole vault punishes infrequent feedback more than almost any event, which is the strongest argument for an app that reads the vault on demand. Vaults per session are limited by energy, runway access, and safety, so you might only take a handful of real jumps before fatigue makes them unrepresentative. That scarcity means a single misunderstood fault can survive for weeks, because you simply do not get enough reps for the problem to reveal itself by feel. An app that grades each jump while it is fresh shortens that loop dramatically: you find out the plant was late tonight, not at the next meet. It does not replace a vault coach, who manages your pole progression and your safety, but it keeps the technical conversation going on the days you are vaulting alone, which for most developing vaulters is most days.
There is also a safety angle worth naming. Pole vault is the event where technical breakdowns and risk are most closely linked, so catching a swing or plant fault early is not only about clearing a higher bar. Used alongside a coach and sound progression, fast feedback on your own clips is one more way to notice when something is drifting before it becomes a habit you take to a bigger pole.
Film the vault so the app can read it
Whatever you choose, the video decides the quality. Film side-on to the runway, in landscape, far enough back that the whole approach and the bar are in frame, with the camera level and steady. A head-on clip from the back of the box looks dramatic and tells an analyzer almost nothing, because the plant timing and the swing happen in the side-on plane a single camera reads best. Get the angle right and even a free first analysis will catch a late plant or a stalling swing. For the full cross-event comparison, see the best track and field video analysis apps roundup.