Pole Help

[JakeW]

Hello, I'm a senior and I was wondering what size and weight pole I would need if I wanted to make 16 ft. or 16-6
I weigh 165 and I'm 6'0". I've been working on my takeoff and my pole drop using the Petrov model. I can run from 16 steps at 106' with a 12' takeoff when I'm on a 15' pole gripping 14'4". At the summit running with a pole I was running about 8.5 m/sec. Not even sure if that's fast enough?

[vquestpvc]

As a coach, I'm always telling my vaulters it's not about the pole, but the pole vaulter. What's the weight of the pole you're currently vaulting on now? Further, what does your top end look like? Are you able to thrust and pull vertically off the top? Where I'm located, we recently had a high school young man vault 16' 1" on a 14' 7" pole. How do you think his top end was? My joke to many local HS vaulters is: you better vault 13' on a 14' pole. To your question then: it depends. Seems like you're doing the right things concentrating on your approach and take off. If you want to see an inspiring video of an 18 year old vault 16', try to find the video of Tom Lovell clearing 16'( on the B2B2 training video). Lovell is 5' 6" at 140lbs vaulting on a 15' 185lb pole. That's bringing it. Vault high, but vault safe; the people that love you will appreciate it.