Pole progessions

[birdi_gurlie]

This is more out of curiosity than anything else, at least, at the moment.

I know I read a list of poles that were the best progression to get because someone inquired about poles for high school and which would be best to buy/what order. How would this change for male and female students and then high school to college (again, for both males and females...as in two seperate lists.)?


Like I said, at the moment, this is more curiosity but it might be helpful for someone else. Thanks!

[VaultPurple]

Well the Sky Jumpers site has had this list up for a while with the key poles most people use high lighted, and the ones that are high lighted and in bold will be a good stock for most any high school to produce decent jumpers. If you ever have just one guy that is awesome and needs massive poles in high school you can go find those for that kid.

http://www.skyjumpers.com/articles/pvpr ... table.html

As far as college, it is pretty much as big as the budget will allow. There are a lot of different size of vaulters that jump the same heights that need different poles so its hard to just recruit athletes that have the body type to fit the poles you have.

But the list goes pretty much for males and females because there are strong and fast girls just like there are small guys that want to pole vault at high school level. Then at college level you may have really good girls but want some tiny poles to practice and do drills with.

But for a kid going from high school to college, where they had 3 poles in high school and jumped 14'6 as a guy and then may go walk on at a bigger college that has every pole from a 10'6 90 to a 17' 225, sometimes just the wider verity of poles is enough to make them increase their PR by a substantial amount.

[rainbowgirl28]

I disagree a little with Jan's list simply because of the weight rating rule.

Most high schools have a few poles, so I prefer to work on a case-by-case basis based on what they have and what vaulters they have, while trying to buy poles that will be usable to the maximum number of vaulters.

If I was buying poles for a brand new PV program that had no poles, I would buy something like...

11'120
11'130
11'140
11'6 130
11'6 140
12'130
12'140

13'140
13'150
13'160
13'6 160
13'6 170


Most beginners don't move past 11' poles for girls and 13' poles for boys. If you can get big enough 12' and 12'6 poles those are even better for smaller beginner boys.

[birdi_gurlie]

What about a brand new pole vault/track team at a women's college? They'd be recruiting but may not have as large a budget as the larger schools. However, they don't have the same restraints as the high school teams.

[rainbowgirl28]

What about a brand new pole vault/track team at a women's college? They'd be recruiting but may not have as large a budget as the larger schools. However, they don't have the same restraints as the high school teams.

For a college that won't be actively recruiting superstars, I would probably start with a series of 12' and 13' poles. They don't have to worry about weight ratings, so they can have beginner types grip down on softer 12' poles. I think 12'6 poles are great if you can afford them, I've seen many slower women jump much better on 12'6 poles than 13' poles.

If I could get 6 poles for a fledgling college women's program that does not have any poles at all, I'd go with:
12'120
12'130
12'140
13'130
13'140
13'150

[MatthewSweet]

I wanted to ask about an appropriate pole for a vaulter of mine.

Here is the situation:
He is 6'5" and 175 lbs. He has about a 23 inch vertical and can dunk easily. He is quick and can probably run the 100 in a 11.5.

He is entering into his third year of vaulting after having a dismal freshman year under bad coach that had him at about 9ft for the first half of the season. I got him to 11.9 the rest of the season. The next season the first three weeks he was approaching 13 and broke his top hand collar bone on the hurdles. I have worked with him all season in weights, running, speed. his technique is coming back, but, it seems that the pole is too slow in rebounding him up.

I put him on a Pacer 14, 165, (I forget the flex) it's the only pole I have big enough for him to use. At the end of last year and he was getting 13 from a 8 step full run. I am doing some basic stuff right now and at an 8 he is blowing through the pole. I have him holding down on the pole to effectively give him a 175 and stiffer pole from a 4 step and it is still not giving him the rebound upwards. His take off, jump, drive, swing, and upside down are fine but the pole doesn't seem to give him any help on the pull and turn. I tried to take more velocity of the run by slowing him down but that varies so I moved him to a 3 step.

I want some advise on pole selection. I know this is a complicated question with many variable but some general help would be greatly appreciated. I want a pole that he is not going to out grow in a month.
15,
15'7",
16?

I was thinking for sure a 180+ I was thinking a 15'7" 185? that way even if he goes from 14 hand hold immediately the the 15'7" he'd still be under the weight.

[VaultPurple]

Without any video anything anybody tells you will just be a shot in the dark. But at 6'5 that is a lot of body for a 14' pole if he has any kind of speed. And a 165 is too small. The 23'' vert does show he is lacking some power though but the height does make up for a lot of lack of power as far as grip height. Just on body alone I would say he needs a 15' 180 from a long run if he wants to improve much. But like I said that is a shot in the dark. Tiny guys can jump big from short poles but a guy that is 6'5 and vaults 'right' is going to need a higher grip before he gets anything out of a pole.