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I was wondering about my grip on the pole. Last year I did it about my forearm's length between hands but I find when I am bending the pole in the box for practice for technique practice I find it much easier with a very wide grip. I am not yet bending my pole on actual vaults and thought advice might help. My pole is a very old green UCS spirit 140 that is twelve feet. I weight 132-135. Usually I don't hold at the top but i think I might be able to put my top hand there if I have a wider grip.

You will see many many posts that say, you, the vaulter, does not bend the pole. The act of vaulting, as agapit says"the continuous chain of events in the vault" is what bends the pole. By using a wider grip to get the pole to bend, all you are doing is blocking out with your lower arm which kills a large amount of the energy you were trying to create in the run up and take off. Your little old pole is probably just fine for you and will serve you well for now. Keep your grip roughly shoulder width and work on basics like strong run, free takeoff, getting inverted and popping off the top. The big bend looks cool but if you're now getting the pole to verticle there are many other parts of the jump technique that will add height to your PR and my guess is right now big bend is not one of them. Trust us on this one. Goodluck...........Mike

the way i determine where i pout my bottom hand is like this: put your top hand where u normally would put it, then stretch ur arm out. take ur bottom hand and put it around where ur armpit would be, and adjust to ur needs. it works pretty well, but if ur already comfortable with ur grip, dont change it too much. the ple does bend itself when everything falls together, just like wut souleman was saying

^Thats how I was taught.

My fellow coach and I teach new vaulters to grab the pole and then lay your arm along the pole and where the elnow reaches, that's where the lower hand should go. Mike

if you are stretching your arm backwards and gripping at your armpit...you have a really wide grip....i have always gone about one fist down from the elbow or at the elbow

thats how my coach taught everyone else. i learned from james hess and derek scott, feels more comfortable to me. and it doesnt feel too right with my lower grip being higher than my eyes, but u should try it out, and see which one works for u. hope that helps

When I was learning to bend the pole I had a much wider grip. I gradually moved my bottom hand up throughout the years.....it does seem so wierd when you are running with a smalller grip, but I feel that it has givin me much more control at teh top of my vault

what do you mean by shoulder width? how do i determine that?

what ur grip should be about 18-20 inches

I won't put an actual number on it......a guy that is 6'6" is going to have a very different grip than a 5'4" female.

ACvault wrote:what do you mean by shoulder width? how do i determine that?

hold the pole parallel to ur body. with ur top hand put it to one of ur sides and the other hand grab the pole on the other side of ur body. so basically as wide as ur hips are i guess?