Start of Week Two + All About Poles

It has been a long nine days but I've kept the intensity low to medium and my body is responding well. In that time I have lifted 190,357 pounds and done 122 bar drills. Workouts range from 45 minutes to an hour and fifteen minutes. The competition is six weeks from Tuesday so I'll ramp up slowly and try not to let my intensity get away from me so my body starts running down. I need to remind myself that this is base training and not meant to tax me to the highest levels and risk injury.

Pole Reunion
I got my poles back yesterday from Nationals in Wisconsin. We sent two bags of poles and they only returned one, leaving mine behind. When they did get the delivery back to us it was delayed because we were in California. To put it in perspective, I vaulted in Wisconsin on August 8th and I got my poles back on the 22nd. Hence, we will send my poles to Oz about a month early. Supposedly all "sporting equipment" is being held a central location and then distributed to the venues where we compete. The only thing that gives me comfort is that the company handling the shipping also coordinated the Sydney Olympics.

Kris and I decided yesterday on the poles to ship. My bag is corrugated PVC with ridges on the outside and smooth on the inside. It will hold 7-9 poles depending on the thickness. The stiffer the pole the thicker it is. You need many poles to cover changing weather conditions and how you feel. If you have rain and a headwind and you don't feel well you had better have a small pole. Or as I found out at the Quintana Beach Vault this year when conditions were great and I felt good, I was left attempting a new American Record for my age group without my biggest poles. I left them at home because I didn't think I would need them. So my biggest pole was too small and I was not even close.

Why So Many Poles?
Big poles throw you harder but require more energy and there is less room for error as mistakes are magnified creating poor timing. You learn and develop good timing on small poles and then progress that technique slowly to bigger and bigger poles.

Poles are like fishing line in that they are rated first by weight and then by flex number. So a 1480 means a 14' 180 lb. test pole. The problem is that there are many "flexes" between a 1480 and a 1485. The feeling to the vaulter is about 1 lb. stiffer for every .15-.2 flex points. The flexes come from the manufactures hanging a weight from the center of the pole and measuring in centimeters how far it bends down. The bottom line for us is that the bigger the flex number, the smaller the pole because it bent down further. So my 14? poles are 17.5, 17.2, 17.0, 16.5, 16.2, 15.9, 15.7, 15.5 and 15.3. So I'll take the ones I mainly use at meets and leave behind a few in between poles that I can practice on. With all of that said, MOST of my practices between now and WMG will be on 13' poles which require less energy from me and allow me to work on technique without getting hurt. I have 22 poles at a retail cost of about $400 each. Fortunately through relationships and sponsorships, I didn?t pay near that much.

There are three big pole manufacturers and a few smaller ones. I exclusively use Essx which are made by my friend of 30+ years, Bruce Caldwell in Fort Worth. When I was an elite vaulter he was the National Sales Manager for a big pole company and I got some comped and some at reduced prices. Later he started a company called FibreSport and I vaulted on the very first pole he ever made. It was only fitting that I would do the same when he started Essx. Not just because he's my friend but I truly believe these are the best poles made. Here's my "endorsement" - http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/ESSX.htm.

That's it for today. Have a great Sunday. Vault day tomorrow - can't wait! Bubba