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Topic describes my question pretty well. I'm a current college vaulter. My school has some cut 15' carbonFX poles that are now 14'9" in length. The poles are cut from the bottom because they were designed to facilitate the training of a guy who was really short but incredibly fast. Matter of fact he was the state record holder here in Florida at one time. Anyways back to my question, I typically jump on 14'6" poles from my 5 step approach but my school only has 14's, a 14'3", 14'9"s, and 15's. I do not like to use the 15' poles because I am not gripping high enough on them yet and the bend in them is awkward. My question basically is this: How should I compare the flex #s on these 14'9" poles? Would it be better to rate them on a 14'6" scale or a 15' scale? My typical gap is from a 14'3" 175 Altius (which I know to be on a softer scale than Gill) to a 14'9" 160 CarbonFX. The flex on the 14'9" 160 is a 20.7 on a 15 foot scale, but what does that put it at roughly on the 14'9" scale?

Really the only way to compare them is to either flex them all yourself or jump on them all your self. There's no formula for calculating the flex number of a cut pole because you can't perfectly predict what the result will be.

Don't think of them as 14'9 poles. This of them as cut 15' poles. The weight rating becomes meaningless when the pole is altered... it's not a 14'9 160.