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just curious what length pole and how stiff, generally, the elite vaulters use for their 18+ vaults. I was guessing a 16'6 for 18's with about 15 Ibs over their weight? or is it closer to 17 with 10 Ibs over?? do any of the vaulters get up past 17 foot poles?? thanks

13' 155 lady pacer

TheBigMastodon wrote:13' 155 lady pacer

shoot, well that would be one heck of a push off

Plenty of guys jump 18 on 4.90 and 5m poles.

They jump on poles about 4.90 or 5.00m and their poles are generally quite a bit stiffer than there weight.

so no real massive 5.30m sticks? that would be nuts.

Not many people jump on poles bigger than 5.10m (about 16'9"). I know Hartwig has a 5.20m series, and I am pretty sure that Bubka went 6.15 on a 5.20 as well. I would agree that most 18' guys are on 4.90s or 5.00m, and the only one that I know a lot about was Hans, who was on a 4.90m 15.7 (195) weighing about 168-172.

One other cool little tidbit is that Jeremy Scott has a 5.40 series. To my knowledge, those are the longest anyone has jumped on, but he doesn't get on them very often I was told.

...kinda makes me feel like a sissy for only jumping on 16s once in a great while haha

Lax PV wrote:One other cool little tidbit is that Jeremy Scott has a 5.40 series. To my knowledge, those are the longest anyone has jumped on, but he doesn't get on them very often I was told.

thats just nuts

The person to ask on this site is... Tim McMicheals???

my 5.53 outdoors was holding 16'1 on a 16'5 210 (13.3 flex) - 8 lefts
my 5.52 indoors was holding 15'9 on a 16'9 210 (13.2 flex) - 9 lefts
i weight about 185

but i am a horrible technician

that being said. i think john russel went 5.55 on a 5.0 14.x flex 8.5 lefts

5.10 poles are what tim and toby both used to jump 6.0m +, they were both holding around 16'5-16'6 i believe.

the only american i was aware of jumping on 17' poles were derek, jeff, and grande (wiht his 5.30 and 5.40s)

ray scotten jumped 18' on a 15'6 pole
tomy skippers 18+ jumps indoors were on a 5.10

and i believe that the australians 6.0m jump last year was on a 5.0 pole too

just some that i know

oh and bullers post the other day said he went 18' on a 15'6 from short run

nitro wrote:

Lax PV wrote:One other cool little tidbit is that Jeremy Scott has a 5.40 series. To my knowledge, those are the longest anyone has jumped on, but he doesn't get on them very often I was told.

thats just nuts

I guess it helps to be 6'9". Heres a good read...

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/10/sport ... D5LkyUwTQQ

To answer the question I think you are right to say weight to pole flex ration is important. If you are quite quick and powerful you can jump quite high on shorter poles. If you are long limbed and move more slowly through the jump or are not a good technician then you may need to grip real high to jump high (i.e. jeremy scott). Not to say that that is bad, it is just different for diff. people. Tall folks can grip high and not necessarily move big have efficient top ends. .