Poles for beginners

[birdi_gurlie]

Okay, Guy 4 has done some basketball and soccer.

We have a new girl. She's an athletic swimmer. I'm getting her height and weight tonight.

[birdi_gurlie]

Girl 5 is 5'5" and 115lb. She's a competitive swimmer, fairly fast, and is also fairly muscular.
My guess: 11'6" 120?

List of poles:

Girls 1&3:11’ 110 (probably only 1)
Girl 2:11’ 120
Girl 4:11’ 140
Girl 5: 11’6” 120

Guy 1: 13’ 160
Guys 3: 13’ 155
Guy 4: 13’ 130

[rainbowgirl28]

Sure, an 11'6 120 sounds like a good first pole for girl #5.

[birdi_gurlie]

All right, poles are coming in soon. Coach couldn't drive to get them but the mats were finally out and we had access to the practice school's poles. They didn't have anything bigger than a 145 (well, there was a 15 ft 175 catapole) but we just used them for how-to-hold-the-pole drills and such. We can use any of their equipment but only on Saturdays so it's not a good option since the poles are practice-only property.

The pit practice location is great. The pit is wonderful, we have a bungee cord and about 4-5 crossbars. They have two sets of standards, one freestanding and one with removable standards and a bolted bottom. It makes zeroing them easy but it's hard to move the standards up. It's okay for now though; I can probably figure it out and if I can't loosen a screw, I'll get a guy or parent on the team to help.

Shoot, I even got to take a bunch of jumps at the end because practice was over and they weren't ready to jump yet. I showed a bunch of drills and then started jumping...I almost got over 8'6" from my normal run up on a 10'6" 110! Sweet! I might be able to take a few jumps at the end of practice each day and just use one of the school's poles.

[birdi_gurlie]

What should a 5'2" 119 and a 5'5" 120 be on? (Please don't get on me about waiting this long about poles; I can only go to once practice a week due to school and they've cancelled the last two. It's been an odd February.) In the meantime, we're using the school that we practice at's pole for practice but we can't use them at meets. Suggestions for poles?

[altius]

Just to let you know that I am very proud of you! Al

[rainbowgirl28]

What are they using in practice? How high are they holding and are they bending the pole at all?

[birdi_gurlie]

Thanks Alan!

Sorry I didn't reply; we ended up getting poles through one of my girls's other coaches and renting from the school we practice at. My 5'2" girl got 6'6" at a meet; I think she's a 9th grader this year? She may be in 8th. I have another taller girl, 10th grade, who got 11' at the county meet and a boy who got 10'6" at the county meet. As my students aren't in the public school system, they didn't get to go to regional or state, though that law is currently being challenged. I don't know how that ended up being changed.