PoleVaultPower.com

My daughter recently started jumping and we purchased three brand new Skypoles. I have read the rules on pole marking, etc., and I am wondering where the upper handhold mark should be. The poles all have the weight markings, serial numbers, etc., but I can't find a mark for the "maximum top handhold position".

Can anyone help?

The yellow band that lists the Max Weight, etc. is the upper handhold mark (top of the band). If it is at the top of the pole, the top of the pole is the max handhold, which is the way it should be, because to buy six inches of pole that you can't use seems silly to me.

Rhino wrote:The yellow band that lists the Max Weight, etc. is the upper handhold mark (top of the band). If it is at the top of the pole, the top of the pole is the max handhold, which is the way it should be, because to buy six inches of pole that you can't use seems silly to me.

Actually the bottom of the label is the max handhold. You can't tape over the weight label or hold on it. So it's like 1" from the top of the pole.

Thank you for your reply. After posting, I spoke with a lady at Gill Athletics who told me that the handhold mark was the purple tape where the pole changed from green to white, which is about fourteen inches from the top of the pole. That seemed sort of ridiculous.

Jump high, jump loud, jump fast...

ClintonMagus wrote:Thank you for your reply. After posting, I spoke with a lady at Gill Athletics who told me that the handhold mark was the purple tape where the pole changed from green to white, which is about fourteen inches from the top of the pole. That seemed sort of ridiculous.

Jump high, jump loud, jump fast...

The yellow band with the wt rating printed on it at the very top of the pole is also the max grip as required by the NFHS. Our orange labels, that were phased out approx 6 years ago, had words printed on them stateing "MAXIMUM HANDHOLD BELOW THIS LINE". The NFHS rule does not require this so we went to a smaller label that allowed for the most usable grip possible on each length of pole.

There was some sort of miscommunication when you called and whatever was said led you to believe that the wrong thing was the max grip band.

Bryan

Junkie,

Thanks for the additional information. My daughter had been holding at 10'-9", and having to hold 11" lower was really going to "cramp her style" at her first meet ever...

Rainbow Girl, I was pretty sure the wording prohibited holding above the label, not on it. What is the wording?

Rhino wrote:Rainbow Girl, I was pretty sure the wording prohibited holding above the label, not on it. What is the wording?

I don't have the rule book in front of me, but most officials who know anything about pole vault are going to interpret it as the bottom of the band. If you have an official that let's you get away with it, it's like a 1" difference. Obviously you can't put tape on the band because then the official can't see it...

Rhino wrote:Rainbow Girl, I was pretty sure the wording prohibited holding above the label, not on it. What is the wording?

(dang, just had a post disappear into vapor land; gotta remember to use an external editor

Anyways, the rule (7-5-29-i) reads "Grips the pole *above* the top hand-hold band." (is a foul)

So as I read it, at the very least I would think its okay to grip on it so that some of the band is visible above the grip.

But how about if the top of the band is flush with the top of the grip?

Or if the band is in the middle of the grip, so that index finger and thumb are above it, pinky is below, and ring and middle fingers are on it?

Or if the pinky and ring fingers are on it, index and middle above?

If any part of your hand is above it, it is clearly in violation of the rule.

As an official, I would not allow a HS athlete to hold anywhere ON the band either, but it's kind of splitting hairs. The old orange Gill bands clearly indicated that you should hold below them, that the bottom edge of the band was the max grip.

I stand corrected on this issue...

The 2010 NFHS T&F Case Book says on page 87 that the grip can be on the maximum handhold band, as long as the top of the band is visible.