Your starter inventory is not built around any single athlete. It is built for the group of athletes you are going to serve over the lifetime of your business. You do not need a full wall of poles to start training people well. You need a small set of poles chosen so that each one flows into the next, and a smart plan for adding more as the club grows.
Buy sets of poles, not single poles
The right way to buy poles is as a connected series, where each new length picks up where the last one left off. Let’s look at a nine-pole example:
- Three 12’6” poles: 135, 140, 145.
- Three 13’ poles: 140, 145, 150.
- Three 13’6” poles: 145, 150, 155.
Each series flows into the one after it, so an athlete moving up always has the next pole waiting. A set like this covers the median range of athletes a new club actually sees, which is exactly the job of a starter rack.
It is tempting to buy for the exact athletes in front of you today, as a pole only does its job if it fits the person holding it. However, a club is a moving target. Rosters turn over, athletes improve, and new people walk in the door. Buy the series that serves the athletes you have now plus the athletes coming after them, rather than tailoring the rack to a handful of individuals.
Pay attention to flex numbers
A pole’s length and weight do not tell the whole story; the flex number completes the picture. An early decision you will need to make is how far apart to space your poles. Spacing them ten pounds apart covers a wider range with fewer poles. Spacing them five pounds apart gives athletes smoother steps up, but it only works when the flex numbers are dialed in. When poles sit five pounds apart, you want close to one flex point between each pole. Ignore that, and you can pay full price for a pole that vaults almost exactly like the one next to it.
Used poles stretch a starter budget
Nothing says a starter rack has to be bought new. Used marketplaces, like the Pole Vault Buy and Sell group on Facebook, are a real source of poles other programs have outgrown. A used pole that fits your series does the same job as a new one at a lower price. Checking the used market first is one of the easiest ways to get a full series on the rack without a full-series budget.
Buy connected sets for the athletes you will serve over the life of the club, and grow the rack in batches. That’s the whole strategy.
You don’t have to supply every pole
You also don’t have to carry every pole yourself. Another option is to ask your athletes to bring their own. Some of them come from a school or another background that already has a set, and there is no shame in having an athlete bring their own equipment if they have it. However, that does not mean those poles get shared with the rest of your athletes. They are still that athlete’s personal equipment, not part of your rack.
The takeaway is simple: don’t feel the burden of relying entirely on your own inventory to help an athlete progress. Some athletes will work with you for your coaching and your poles. Others will work with you just for your coaching, and bring their own poles.
Grow the rack in batches
A starter inventory is a starting point, not a finished collection. When the roster grows and it is time to add, resist adding one pole at a time. Shipping poles is expensive, and the cost hurts far less spread across a batch, so plan your additions in groups of five to ten poles. Each batch should extend your existing series rather than scatter one-off poles across the rack. Done this way, the rack stays connected at every stage, which is exactly what a starter inventory is for.