TARGET 110907

Fierljeppen

Let's say that you are standing on one side of a canal in Holland and want to get to the other side, but you don't have any way to get there, it's too wide for a running jump, you can't swim, and are afraid of what creatures might be living in the waters. How do you get to the other side?

Fierljeppen!!!

Fierljeppen (lit. far-leaping) is a traditional sport of the Frisians and of the Dutch. The sport involves a long pole and a body of water. The pole is between 8 and 13 meters ( 26 to 42 feet ) long and has a flat round plate at the bottom to prevent it from sinking into the muddy river or canal bottom. The difference between it and pole vaulting is that the object in fierljeppen is not see who can vault over the highest barrier, as in pole vaulting, but to land the farthest across the river. In order to do that, once the pole gets to the peak of its arc, the vaulter tries to stop the pole long enough to climb higher in order to land farther across the river.

Climbing to the top in mid vault

The sport is believed to have originated with Dutch farmers who used poles to leap over small water drainage channels to access different plots of land. In East Frisia this sport is known as Pultstock-Jumping. Today the sport is primarily practiced for fun or to entertain tourists, but there still is an official annual National Fierljepping Manifestation (NFM) in the Netherlands, and championships are contested in six leagues and numerous clubs.

Getting a running head start

Contestants get a running start before grabbing the pole and launching out over the canal. But they must time their speed very carefully. Too slow a run at the pole and they will not be going fast enough to reach top arc. Too fast, and they will not be able to pause at top arc in order to climb farther up the pole.

.....it's the sudden stop at the end.

Since the goal is to see how far you can land, contestants customarily to let go of the pole and jump outwards right before landing. That lands them on sand, which is softer than hard ground, but still makes for a quite hard landing. In the following video, the world's record holder makes his record-breaking vault.

The feedback for this target is also in video format

Jaco de Groot's record-breaking vault on June 10, 2006
(not a part of the national competition).

First recorded as early as 1200, farmers created the idea of fierljeppen when they used large poles to cross waterways that divided plots of land. Some say that poachers developed this technique to steal eggs from farmers, vaulting over and back before a Hollandse Herdershond (Dutch Shepherd dog) bit them in the achterwerk (behind). Even before this, some say that Moses didn't part

Reliable records about the sport date from 1771, and today, competitions remain popular among the Dutch and the Germanic peoples of the Dutch province of Friesland.

In 1957, competitions began in Friesland; the Dutch held a similar competition in 1960. Six years later, the first match between the two regions was held. Currently, Frisian Bart Helmholt holds the world record with a jump of over 68 feet (20.76 meters). That's long enough to clear an 18-wheeler with room to spare.

A National Canal Jumping Contest is held on August 22nd each year. There is no prize except the honor of being the Dutch Champion Canal Jumper!

FEEDBACK MAP

If you got impressions for which this feedback is insufficient, please take a look at the following web sites for more:

Wikipedia
Wimp.com videos
Holland's Fierljappen page
Fierljeppen photo gallery
Children's fierljeppen contests
YouTube video