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Okay, I had a real crappy track season. I improved my PR 4 inches from last season. I weigh 155, and I and my season best is 11'. I can go a lot higher. I switched from my crappy high school track program, (where there was no pole vault coach, and no money for new equipment). I am with this new club, and I am using a 13'6'' 155 big stick. I feel that I can get 11'6'' on this pole, but I feel like I'm going to break the dumb thing and that's about as high as it can get me. My buddy, who shares the pole with me, is a lot better than me, and he weighs 140 and he can't get more than 12' on it. I'm looking at getting a 160 13'6'' USC pole. Would anybody have any advice for me? Would that be the right pole to get? my form is pretty sexy (what my coach tells me) so I think I need to get a larger pole. Would anybody have any other recommendations for me?

That would indeed be the correct next pole to get

How high are you gripping on the pole? Are you over bending it? Do you have a good take off with a rising center of gravity?

leftist vaulter wrote:...my form is pretty sexy (what my coach tells me) so I think I need to get a larger pole.

What does that mean?

- master

Hey, I bought a UCS 13'6'' 160 last summer! And I way 140 and am around a 12' level(ish...) Weird... whatever.

If your form is as 'sexy' as you say it is, then you'd be clearing at least 14' according to the mid mark chart... you're not, which leads me to have certain questions: How many steps are you using? Do you hit a free take-off? How fast are you? What has your MID been lately? (Not ideally, but actually.) Are you blowing through this pole?

So far I haven't gone more than a 6 right (I'm a lefty). I hit the free take off in maybe 1/4 of my jumps now. I was on the way to going 12' or above this season, but I ended up developing some real bad habits. Now that I am back in the groove of things (completing the swing, feeling the incredible force of the vault, and performing a sound take-off while completely inverted) A couple of my vaults with my 150 pole (I'm looking to retire to the shed) felt like I was vaulting in slo-mo. One of my recurring habits, was that when I go to plant, my hands are off center from the rest of my body, which would send me into the standard, forcing me to bail, or just landing really off center. I also developed a habit which I recently broke where I kept letting my hands slip 2-3 feet on the pole. My head coach couldn't find a pole vault coach, and he totally let me down when he didn't even lift a finger to copy our sponsorship letters. I was using this 14' 145 lbs big stick, and he banned me from it, because i weighed 148. The only problem was the next biggest pole was a 14'6'' 170. We had no money to get me a pole to use. I was clearly not that good to vault on such a beast. I'm pretty fast though. Doing the decathlon I got a 12.3 in the 100m dash. Thats my life's story...

Get on the 170. Obviously you will have to hold quite low, and you will have to stiff pole. However, stiff poling leaves little room for cheating yourself into thinking you're doing something correctly. Use it in the pit and in the sand. Stay with 6 steps for now and try to improve your speed. Work on lowering the pole correctly (bottom hand acts as fulcrum (left hand for right handed vaulter) and top hand comes up slowly as the pole more or less freely drops, increasing angular momentum 3 lefts/rights out), plant correctly, and you'll hit free take-offs more often, allowing you to swing harder and more efficiently.

Hey thanks, I'll tell my coach, and we'll incorporate it into our workouts.