PoleVaultPower.com

When do you go to your next pole? This weekend I saw several vaulters changing poles when I wasn't sure why they needed to. Sometimes it worked and sometimes they got stood up or couldn't penetrate enough. So what I'm asking is what do look for that tells you its time to go up a pole. I have always looked for over bending, deep landing, hitting the bar on the way up, or quick penetration before going up a pole or raiseing a grip but some folks seem to go by the bar (I need this pole to jump 14 and this pole to jump 15). Just wondering what other people thought.

There are a variety of reasons, you already mentioned a few, but when i was in high school I would switch poles because sometimes my first run would be kinda slow after sitting for the bar to raise so i would use that to clear an opening height then I would switch to another pole right away when i knew I was looser and faster. Then depending on how i fealt and weather, I would switch poles too. I had a friend who had a pole for every weather condition it seemed.

Pole speed, standard placement, landing depth, and grip height. Primarily pole speed though - if it's moving fast without a big bend, I'll raise the grip first. I also won't have them go up unless the standards are already deep, 70cm or farther. If they're getting a big bend but landing shallow, I'll lower the grip, and if they blow through, then go up a pole.

Another misconception I see people do all the time is that if they blow through, they lower their grip. What happens? They blow through even worse. A boy in the 4a state meet was going through a 15' 185, didn't have a bigger pole, so he started jacking his grip down and was going through even faster and landing deeper with his standards racked. Yes, lowering your grip makes the pole stiffer, but it also increases pole speed, and only intensifies the problem of blowing through. You can either raise the grip to slow it down, narrow up your handspread to alleviate the big bottom arm and swing faster, or move up a stride closer.

What blows me away is how so many people have no idea what they're gripping, or how inconsistent they are from jump to jump with it. We mark lines for every inch on the pole on the top handgrip tape to be consistent. Better than saying "I'll just grip 3 ridges above the small tear in the tape next to the dirt spot."

The one reason you should not switch poles is the height of the bar. You should be able to PR on any virtually any pole in your bag. How high you vault is determined by your technique. Which pole you jump on is determined by your technique and environmental factors. Too many vaulters will clear a height by 1-2 feet and then switch to a bigger pole for a bar 4"-6" higher. It's rarely a successful move.

achtungpv wrote:The one reason you should not switch poles is the height of the bar. You should be able to PR on any virtually any pole in your bag. How high you vault is determined by your technique. Which pole you jump on is determined by your technique and environmental factors. Too many vaulters will clear a height by 1-2 feet and then switch to a bigger pole for a bar 4"-6" higher. It's rarely a successful move.

Ha, yeah I just found that out....