Pole Flex
Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:28 pm
Recently I have been thinking of purchasing a pole for myself because I have graduated HS and the college I am at doesn't have a track program and I wanted to continue to vault in hopes of transferring to a college that does have a track and field program.
In HS we had a few different poles I jumped on, all 14'+ and from my experience I have come to prefer UCS/Spirits. I've been helping to coach the HS team that I vaulted for last year and we just bought a new UCS/Spirit 12' 170 with a flex of I think 18.5. When we bought the pole from some local person I was told by the head coach that we had no choice in flex, and that what we get is what we get.
Now I was put in charge when we first got the pole to break it in since I only weigh 165, but I was manhandling the pole. I know that there's a rule of thumb that before going up in pole length you usually go up I believe 20lbs in poles, so I could get a 190 pole. But I also know that poles come in different flexes per weight and length and was wondering if they still sell the poles in different flexes or if I should just go up in size (weight)?
So to summarize if I was confusing. I plan on buying a UCS/Spirit pole but from every where I look I can only find pole lengths and ratings. Is there any place that sells by flex, or do they even make specific flexes or do you just get stuck with what you get? Or should I just go up in pole weight?
In HS we had a few different poles I jumped on, all 14'+ and from my experience I have come to prefer UCS/Spirits. I've been helping to coach the HS team that I vaulted for last year and we just bought a new UCS/Spirit 12' 170 with a flex of I think 18.5. When we bought the pole from some local person I was told by the head coach that we had no choice in flex, and that what we get is what we get.
Now I was put in charge when we first got the pole to break it in since I only weigh 165, but I was manhandling the pole. I know that there's a rule of thumb that before going up in pole length you usually go up I believe 20lbs in poles, so I could get a 190 pole. But I also know that poles come in different flexes per weight and length and was wondering if they still sell the poles in different flexes or if I should just go up in size (weight)?
So to summarize if I was confusing. I plan on buying a UCS/Spirit pole but from every where I look I can only find pole lengths and ratings. Is there any place that sells by flex, or do they even make specific flexes or do you just get stuck with what you get? Or should I just go up in pole weight?