High Bending versus Low bending poles

[Bruce Caldwell]

High Bending versus Low bending poles the technigue
Lets discuss the advantages and disadvantages
No pole brand bashing please lets be nice to all pole manufactuers coaches athletes.

It is a discsssion not a feud.
Share your Opinions, experiences, discoveries
Power vaulting or Power swinging define it and how it has differances?

[scsuvaulter]

I have always been told and experienced that a higher bend is better... all things equal.

SCSUVAULTER

[PaulVaulter]

To start things off, from purely looking at energy transfers, neither is the best option.

If there is a part of the pole that is not bending, then it isn't storing energy. Surely a pole that stores energy throughout its length can therefore store more, and lead to greater heights cleared theoretically?

Low bending or high bending will be caused either by unevenly loading the pole at take-off or by design, e.g. Essx stiffer at the lower end of the pole.

Now I don't have experience designing poles and I know there is more to a pole than storage and recovery of energy but those are my initial thoughts.

[Bruce Caldwell]

[b]A refreshing letter from Tim McMichaels
tmcmicha@wavelinx.net
This is going to be a long post, so bear with me. I would like to weigh in on the issue of pole design because I think it is an important debate and one that has ramifications for the overall direction of our sport.

I don’t want to brag on myself, but you need to know that I am not just some guy with an uninformed opinion; I feel it is necessary to establish my credentials. At 5’8 and 140 pounds I jumped 5.65 back in 1989. There have been a few other athletes at that level or better who were as short as me, but they were all heavier and also much faster and stronger. Greg Duplantis was the fastest American vaulter in his day, regularly clocking 9.8 mps at the box. Joe Dial long jumped 26’, and Jeff Buckingham benched 350 pounds. My best long jump in my prime was 21’. I benched 250, and my best 40 yard dash was 4.5 seconds. You can ask anyone who saw me jump back then and they will tell you that it looked more like a magic trick than an athletic feat. I simply went a lot higher than I ought to have. I once made 5.50 on a 15’ 180 green Sky Pole gripping 14’ 10â€Â

[Bruce Caldwell]

http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/ESSX.htm

[AVC Coach]

The pole must fit each individual vaulter’s technique, and it is well worth the effort to experiment to find a design that works best for you.

Great post by Tim! You know, everyone has a favorite brand of pole and Tim has a good point with his quote above.

Even the Elite vaulters that have their names and pictures plastered all over ads for the poles they jump on still tweek their poles from original manufacturer designs to fit them best.

As for the original topic of "high or low bend", I work with young vaulters and my personal preference is a pole that bends from tip to tip. My kids just look better through all phases of the vault on these poles.