It's easy to get discouraged, in any activity, when you judge your efforts by the best of others you hear most about. That can easily happen in our sport when the only women's marks "that count" seem to be those above four meters and the only men's marks "that count" are those above five meters.
Maybe a little refocussing would help. If you have female vaulters on your team who are discouraged about slow progress between 3.00m (10') and 3.35m (11'), it might change their perspectives to know that, at 3.00 they are already better than the best vaulters of 33 countries. If you have male vaulters who are discouraged about slow progress between 3.70m (12'1 1/2") and 4.00m (13'1 1/4"), it might help their feelings about their vaulting to know that, at 3.70 they are already better than the best vaulters of 30 countries.
To reinforce the point, you might find these national records useful:
Women's Pole Vault National Records to 3.35m:
Western Samoa 1.50 Hi Fesili 1998-11-30
Chad 1.80 Amina Mahamat 2003-05-01
Papua New Guinea 1.85 Mathilda Leeong 1998-09-09
Isle of Man 1.90 Voirrey Callow 1995-
Bosnia-Herz 2.00 Mehdija Suljic 2004-06-19
Sri Lanka 2.00 I. P. Liyanage 2004-07-25
Nicaragua 2.00 Maria Inaly Morazan 2004-09-26
Namibia 2.10 Fienie Theron 1998-06-06
Uganda 2.10 Mary Happy 1998-07-18
Trinidad 2.20 Ayana Riviere 2002-06-09
Cape Verde Is 2.20 Vera Tavares 2004-03-13
Guernsey 2.25 Fiona Ferbrache 1998-08-01
São Tome 2.30 Nair Varela 2004-06-05
Syria 2.30 Falak Allou 2001-10-04
Pakistan 2.33 Ghazala Sardar 2003-01-24
Bolivia 2.35 Emily Oliva 2003-03-29
2.35 Eliana Cortez 2004-07-11
Congo 2.40 Carine Golom Mbeh 2004-07-15
Kenya 2.40 Grace Chelegat 2001-06-21
Madagascar 2.45 Anje Faliminipionona 1998-07-25
2.45 Ange Rajaonah 2000-08-27
Jersey 2.50 Alison Youd 1999-05-23
Moldova 2.50 Carina Mitrofanenco 2004-06-04
2.50 Catea Abramova 2004-06-04
San Marino 2.50 Manuela Albani 2002-05-19
Tonga 2.50 Melesia Mafile'o 2003-02-22
Guinea-Bissau 2.55 Placida Mirolho 2003-06-15
Belize 2.60 Clarencia Jones 2003-09-04
Honduras 2.60 Glenda Aguilar 1998-07-05
Zimbabwe 2.60 Margaret Odendaal 2000-
Andorra 2.70 Maria Martinez Maudo 2004-06-12
Costa Rica 2.70 Maureen Calvo 2001-03-04
Georgia 2.70 Ina Narujniak 1996-05-22
Fiji 2.90 Ioawana Vakaloloma 2003-07-08
Hong Kong 2.90 Sharon Kong Yuen Fan 2003-07-13
Paraguay 2.90 Maria Victoria Palau 1997-08-30
New Caledonia 3.00 Marion Becker 2003-05-10
Nigeria 3.00 Victoria Itodo 2002-04-09
Philippines 3.00 Marestella Torres 2002-05-04
Tahiti 3.00 Lucie Tepea 2001-10-17
Myanmar 3.10 Ne Ne Win 2004-09-11
Singapore 3.10 Christina Loh 1999-07-16
Ecuador 3.20 Lorena Ortiz 2004-09-26
Ivory Coast 3.20 Dapéa Zaourou 1996-06-02
Jordan 3.20 Fatima Al Zahraa 2004-09-12
Guatemala 3.30 Denise Jerez Agueda 2001-09-29
Jamaica 3.30 Maria Newton 2000-04-23
Dominican Rep 3.35 Leidy Araujo 2003-07-27
Men's Pole Vault National Records to 4.00m:
Norfolk Island 1.60 Jayden Nicolai 1997-11-24
Botswana 2.50 Geofehngwe Osupile 1987-07-25
Cape Verde Is 2.60 Pericles Pinto 1975-07-27
Guinea-Bissau 2.70 Arnaldo Fernandes 1984-02-29
Sao Tomé 2.81 Carlos Amado 1996-08-31
Dominica 2.90 Andy Baron 2003-07-19
Liberia 3.00 John Brent 1999-04-17
Cook Islands 3.10 Akanoa William 1987-12-18
Niue 3.10 John Kumitau 1979-09-07
Mauritania 3.15 Sidy Ould M'Barek 1968-05-10
Belize 3.20 Joel Wade 1994-01-21
Palau 3.20 Filomena Ngirabedul 1969-07
Anguilla 2.21 Andre Samuel 2002-04-27
Haiti 3.25 Jean Théard 1951-05-24
Aruba 3.30 Ericko Pieternella 1995-
Macau 3.30 Tam Kam Hung 1980-02-02
Yemen 3.40 Mohamed Bertouche 1973-
Sierra Leone 3.48 Thomas Sandy 1972-12-26
Antilles 3.50 Ivor Landburg 1997-08-31
Benin 3.50 John Godonou-Dossou 1957-06-30
Mayotte 3.50 Abrahim Alhamda 2003-09-06
Somalia 3.50 Mohamed Osman Yussuf 1970-
St. Vincent 3.50 Dan Winsboro 1965-08-01
Surinam 3.50 Ludwig de Sanders 1954-07-
Montserrat 3.58 Lloyd Maloney 1959-09-14
Isle of Man 3.60 Alfred Oddie 1986-07-28
Monaco 3.60 Yvan Ornella 1988-03-20
Ethiopia 3.65 Yohanes Giorgis 1975-
Grenada 3.66 Dunstan Campbell 1976-06-13
Barbados 3.70 Clifford Brooks 1977-08-13
3.70 Victor Houston 1994-04-07
Laos 3.70 Sisomphone Vongpharkdy 2003-12-11
Libya 3.70 Ali Magrowi 1969-07-25
Solomon Islands 3.70 Leonard Nonifi 1989-08-26
Vanatu 3.70 André Koulon 1975-07-28
Zambia 3.74 Geoffrey Chongo 1960-06-08
Nicaragua 3.75 Eduardo Garcia 1990-01-11
Antigua 3.80 Calvin Greenaway 1973-06-02
Central Africa 3.80 Mickael Conjungo 1989-04-30
Chad 3.80 Hubert Djimtoloum 1963-
Mongolia 3.80 Tserendesh Tsogtbaatar 1970-07-12
Samoa, Western 3.80 Iafeta Sua'mene 1975-03-15
Malawi 3.81 C. Msompha 1967-08-26
Burkina Faso 3.85 Alassane Néya 1993-05-02
Micronesia 3.85 Keitani Graham 2003-07-10
Nepal 3.85 Rudra Bhattarai 1994-09-16
Bermuda 3.86 Brooke Onley 1987-05-15
St. Kitts 3.88 Arthur Jeffers 1978-05-20
Bolivia 3.90 Daniel Araujo 1986-08-24
Cambodia 3.90 Péou Chin 1968-07-18
Greenland 3.90 Jan Hansen 1984-
Macedonia 3.90 Vladimir Karer 1968-08-15
Palestine 3.90 Dirar Izat 1983-06-03
Seychelles 3.90 Donny Magnan 1995-09-17
Guernsey 4.00 Dale Garland 2004-07-04
Jersey 4.00 Fraser Alexander 1991-06
Mali 4.00 Bassan Bagayoko 1982-10-31
Mozambique 4.00 Candido Coelho 1974-04-28
The men's data are abstracted, with permission, from the 2003 edition of Winfried Kramer's "National Athletics Records of all the World." Obviously, data are available in this book for coaches to construct similar motivating charts for any other track and field event. Mr. Kramer can be contacted through his website at http://www.saar.de/~kramer/
