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i am a collegiate vaulter, ive recently been vaulting on a 14' 170lb pacer, i holds about 2.5 handgrips down . the pole is great for practice but when i get to meets i blow through the pole, and have to set my standards at 80 cm. My first question is, would moving my grip up help me to not blow through the pole so much?
next question: do pacers compare to UCS poles in general, how different are the bends?
My second question is this... the next pole we have after the 1'4 170 pacer, is a 14'7" 175 UCS, if i hold 2 handgrips down on each, is it a reasonable jump to make for competition?

Bgruver wrote:i am a collegiate vaulter, ive recently been vaulting on a 14' 170lb pacer, i holds about 2.5 handgrips down . the pole is great for practice but when i get to meets i blow through the pole, and have to set my standards at 80 cm. My first question is, would moving my grip up help me to not blow through the pole so much?
next question: do pacers compare to UCS poles in general, how different are the bends?
My second question is this... the next pole we have after the 1'4 170 pacer, is a 14'7" 175 UCS, if i hold 2 handgrips down on each, is it a reasonable jump to make for competition?

Regular fiberglass Pacers and Spirit poles don't feel _that_ different, but you'll definitely notice a different going up in length and weight at the same time like that. The 14'7 175 is going to feel roughly 15lbs stiffer than the 14'170, but if you're really blowing through the other pole, than it's time to move up.

Holding two handgrips down on each pole means you are raising your grip 6" or 7" when you go to the longer pole

Put the two poles next to each other so that the bottoms of the poles are at the same level. When you are blowing through the 14'170, move your grip straight across, then maybe 2" higher when you go to the 14'7 175. Raising your grip 6" is not usually a good idea.

well i made the jump the other way this year, and i feel the pacer has a higher bend personally and so does the rest of the boys on my team who vaulted on it (2 others) however i think if you hold up higher on the pacer then you shouldn't blow through it at least not as easily

UCS generally are more stiff than Pacer's. Either Cap your pole or transfer your grip over and move up or down from there. I would reccomend transferring over since if you hit a good meet where your faster than other days you may start blowing through with your grip maxed then your kinda screwed so its best to have room to move up on your stick or just use multiple sticks.