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Edit: In a rare move, the NFHS has changed course and clarified that Altius poles made before 2006 are now legal without weight labels, as their 3/4" engravings in a contrasting color met the intent of the rule.

If your engravings have lost their color, you can always touch it up with a marker, just rub it over the engravings and immediately wipe with a paper towel or cloth. The ink will remain inside the grooves.

Read more here: http://www.wiaa.com/Athletics/Track/NFH ... e7_5_3.pdf



High school coaches and vaulters:

Over the years the rules about what makes a legal vaulting pole have changed and it is important to keep up with them. Many years ago, it was legal to add your own maximum hand hold band to poles that did not have this marked. This has been removed from the rule book for several years now. Beginning last year (I think) the rules now require that all pole vaulting poles must have a LABEL from the manufacturer indication the weight rating of the pole.

The biggest impact is on all but the newest Altius poles, and older Spirit poles. These poles were not manufactured with a weight label, but they are still perfectly good poles. If you high school pole vault official is following the rules, all of these older poles will be disqualified.

But there is hope! Each manufacturer has a process to request a replacement label. Please see this document: http://www.nfhs.org/core/contentmanager ... t_list.pdf and contact the appropriate manufacturer.

Just to clarify, Gill Athletics is the manufacturer for: Pacer, PacerFX, Ms. Stic, Mystic, Skypole, Pacer Carbon, CarbonFX, Rocket, and Big Stick poles.
ESSX is the manufacturer for both ESSX poles and Catapoles.
Altius and UCS/Spirit only many one brand of pole.


Please spread to word to any coaches you see using poles without labels. This may not be an issue until you get to your state meet... BE READY.

A few more notes for both coaches and officials:

Coaches, it is important that you put the label where the manufacturer says to. Gill and ESSX labels are near the top of the pole. Spirit poles are 6" down. Altius poles were always 3" down, I haven't seen where they have been putting their weight labels, but I'll assume it's 3" down unless I hear otherwise.

As an official, I would DQ a Spirit pole that had the label anywhere other than 6" from the top (or at least not allow the vaulter to hold higher than that if the etchings matched the label) unless someone at UCS tells me they are changing their policy.

Also, it is not required to have an engraved weight rating. Spirit and Altius poles are engraved at the top. ESSX poles are engraved on the bottom. Older Gill poles are engraved at the top, then they went to bar codes. For a few years they printed the flex number on a little white label above the weight rating. These came off pretty easily, but you can find out the flex # by calling Gill and telling them the bar code. If you are suspicious of a pole with a bar code, there is a way to decode their length and weight rating, I will try to find that link and post it here.

Homemade labels are highly illegal. I just saw one the other day when I was picking up the poles I had loaned to UW for their clinics. Now that all of the manufacturers have developed a system for replacing missing labels, there is really no excuse for this (not that there was before).

Poles cannot be altered (chopped) so if a pole doesn't look like the right length, officials should measure it, and if it doesn't match the label (+/- an inch or so), it should be disqualified.

I think it's great that the major manufacturers have systems in place to expedite getting replacement stickers for poles. However, there is no reason why poles should still be manufactured and then labeled with these fragile stickers. The weight ratings for poles are of critical importance at the high school level. The whole thing should be embedded in the fiberglass at the top of the poles so that they cannot be lost, worn off or tampered with. It is very easy to move stickers from pole to pole -- that shouldn't be possible. Gill has embedded information for years, the old Pacer III's had red bands with the pole length and weight rating at the top under the surface of the fiberglass. Two other points -- (1) the Altius poles I ordered last year came with stickers and the bottom of the sticker was more than 3" from the top of the poles but less than 6". I also don't think that they highlight that "more pole" feature on their website anymore, but I could be wrong. Altius should instruct the pole owners on the proper placement of stickers when they send the replacements out. (2) You state that you will disqualify anyone with a home-made sticker and I understand that that may have been the intent of the rule, but it is not worded very well (like much of the NFHS rule book in my opinion). It says that the manufacturer's weight rating must be displayed at the top . . . . but it doesn't specifically state that the weight rating band must be placed there by the manufacturer. The rule should make this crystal clear if that is in fact the intent.

Darth Vaulter wrote:I think it's great that the major manufacturers have systems in place to expedite getting replacement stickers for poles. However, there is no reason why poles should still be manufactured and then labeled with these fragile stickers. The weight ratings for poles are of critical importance at the high school level. The whole thing should be embedded in the fiberglass at the top of the poles so that they cannot be lost, worn off or tampered with. It is very easy to move stickers from pole to pole -- that shouldn't be possible. Gill has embedded information for years, the old Pacer III's had red bands with the pole length and weight rating at the top under the surface of the fiberglass. Two other points -- (1) the Altius poles I ordered last year came with stickers and the bottom of the sticker was more than 3" from the top of the poles but less than 6". I also don't think that they highlight that "more pole" feature on their website anymore, but I could be wrong. Altius should instruct the pole owners on the proper placement of stickers when they send the replacements out. (2) You state that you will disqualify anyone with a home-made sticker and I understand that that may have been the intent of the rule, but it is not worded very well (like much of the NFHS rule book in my opinion). It says that the manufacturer's weight rating must be displayed at the top . . . . but it doesn't specifically state that the weight rating band must be placed there by the manufacturer. The rule should make this crystal clear if that is in fact the intent.

You don't determine the flex rating until the pole is cooked. This occurs after it is wrapped. You can guess but you can't be precise and accurate frequently enough for this to be feasible.

As I understand it (and I'm easily wrong about this), the pole is wrapped to become a certain weight rating, then baked, then tested and marked for exact flex rating.

The NFHS don't care about the flex, only the weight rating. So can't the weight rating be protected under fiberglass (before baking), and the flex added later (unprotected)?

Kirk

KirkB wrote:As I understand it (and I'm easily wrong about this), the pole is wrapped to become a certain weight rating, then baked, then tested and marked for exact flex rating.

The NFHS don't care about the flex, only the weight rating. So can't the weight rating be protected under fiberglass (before baking), and the flex added later (unprotected)?

Kirk

Because the flex tends to vary a bit when it comes out of the oven and if they are on the soft or stiff side of the range, it could result in a different weight rating. The patterns are cut by hand and poles are assembled by hand, so even a tiny variation could potentially change a flex by a tenth.

The exact flex number doesn't need to be embedded but the weight rating / max hand hold band can and should be. Most poles are cut to hit the middle of the flex range for a given weight rating so that when schools or vaulters order different weight poles they will be consistently ~ 5 lbs apart. When they cut custom poles for Hooker and Isi they can skip the embedded weight ratings but for the rest of the universe this shouldn't be an insurmountable technical problem

Darth Vaulter wrote:The exact flex number doesn't need to be embedded but the weight rating / max hand hold band can and should be. Most poles are cut to hit the middle of the flex range for a given weight rating so that when schools or vaulters order different weight poles they will be consistently ~ 5 lbs apart. When they cut custom poles for Hooker and Isi they can skip the embedded weight ratings but for the rest of the universe this shouldn't be an insurmountable technical problem

The problem still becomes that if you make it a rule, you risk disqualifying the vast majority of poles out there now.

All poles either have this information engraved on them or embedded in a bar code that has readable numbers. I've seen way more fake labels than I have seen coaches messing with the engravings. If you look at older Pacer poles and the like that have the labels under the fiberglass, I've seen a fair number where the end result missed the flex number and ended up a different weight rating. So at the factory they engraved over it to reflect the correct number. So either way, doing a label under the fiberglass is not perfect either.

Darth Vaulter wrote:Two other points -- (1) the Altius poles I ordered last year came with stickers and the bottom of the sticker was more than 3" from the top of the poles but less than 6". I also don't think that they highlight that "more pole" feature on their website anymore, but I could be wrong. Altius should instruct the pole owners on the proper placement of stickers when they send the replacements out. (2) You state that you will disqualify anyone with a home-made sticker and I understand that that may have been the intent of the rule, but it is not worded very well (like much of the NFHS rule book in my opinion). It says that the manufacturer's weight rating must be displayed at the top . . . . but it doesn't specifically state that the weight rating band must be placed there by the manufacturer. The rule should make this crystal clear if that is in fact the intent.

Altius has different people running the ship now, so that probably explains the change in marketing and where they place the new labels. I personally wouldn't disqualify an Altius pole for where the label was placed unless I heard from Carl Erickson or whoever that they only wanted them however many inches down.

The rules are clear that it poles must be marked by the manufacturer, all of the wording emphasizes the manufacturer, I am confident that disqualifying a homemade label would withstand protest.

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The rules are clear that it poles must be marked by the manufacturer, all of the wording emphasizes the manufacturer, I am confident that disqualifying a homemade label would withstand protest.

Absolutely correct procedure.... the days of homemade weight labels and top hand hold bands are gone.. forever. Any pole presented for competition with homemade info has to be disallowed as of 2009. That pole is supposed to be returned to the manufacturer for relabeling per our state interpreter. Manufacturers have procedures in place as to what to do.

The specific position of the maximum handhold band/area and the pole rating in a contrasting color, is again has stated, is manufacturer determined.
Where ever they put these is what makes the pole legal whether it be one inch from the top or one foot from the top. That positioning should not be questioned.

Rainbow girl, Jack is on 200 lb spirit poles and the weight labels from them only go to 195. they are hand writing labels and they look homemade for 200 and up poles any suggestions.

kev44000 wrote:Rainbow girl, Jack is on 200 lb spirit poles and the weight labels from them only go to 195. they are hand writing labels and they look homemade for 200 and up poles any suggestions.

They are still the pink labels, right? I would think a letter from UCS would explaining the situation would be fine. I doubt most officials would question it since he is obviously on poles WAY over his weight, but it never hurts to be extra prepared in case a jealous coach protests.