Building a High Bar

[Run2Niels]

What is the ideal thickness of a highbar?

[KirkB]

You should build your highbar with a diameter no smaller than a regulation highbar, and no larger than your pole diameter. This will give you the most comfortable grip, and a grip that you're accustomed to. I would err on the side of being as close to the regulation highbar diameter as possible.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_bar

Height: 278 cm (including about 20 cm landing mats)
Length: 240 cm
Diameter of the bar: 29mm

However, the FLEX and TEXTURE of the highbar are probably even more important than its thickness. If it's not the right texture, then your hands will slip ... and you won't be able to apply chalk to your hands to solve this. If your highbar is outdoors, then this will be even more problematic ... but an outdoor (weathered) highbar is still better than no highbar at all.

You can wrap an outdoor highbar in athletic tape ... rewrapping every time the tape gets wet or worn out. This gives the bar a good texture ... so you won't slip ... but don't expect your hands to rotate around the bar as easily as with an indoor (chalked) highbar. But it's doable. In the "hinge/whip drill" (http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&keywords=hinge+whip+drill), your hands don't have to rotate much.

I don't mean to overly stress the importance of having a non-slip grip. If you HAVE to use a slippery highbar, all is not lost ... it's just a little more dangerous. In a way, it might be a good thing in that you'll have to hold on tighter ... thus improving your grip on the pole. Just be more careful.

The FLEX should simulate the flex of a regulation horizontal bar ... or maybe even a little softer. At 172 lbs (my competitive weight), I felt that the flex of my highbar was "about right" ... but could have been a little softer ... to absorb more shock during swinging drills ... and to feel a bit more like the swing of a real vault.

If you're less than 172 lbs, then using a highbar with a little more flex won't hurt ... and might help somewhat. One way to give the bar a little more flex is to increase its length.

Kirk

[Run2Niels]

Thank you Kirk for the extensive answer. Where do you buy your time for all those very informative and interesting posts?

The highbar is hollow steel and can have a diameter of 33 mm or 28 mm. We need to choose. Maybe two different thicknesses? For big hands and for small hands?
It's going to be an outdoor facility, so we are going to get a slippery when wet problem. I just thought this would be fixed if we use a towel to dry it and chalk in combination with bar grips (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BarGripFront.jpg) there should be enough grip. This doesn't mean we couldn't do without the chalk and the grip, because they also need to train their holding on the pole.
We are also going to place a monkeybar, so we can train the strength of the muscles in the lower arms.