Pogo stick

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An adult holding a Pogo Stick

A pogo stick is a device consisting of a pole with a handle at one end, footpads on the other and a spring which supports the stick and user when on the ground. Usually considered a children's toy, it is used for hopping up and down by use of the spring.

The pole on the stick juts down some distance below the footpads and has a rubber cover at the bottom end for traction. The operator places his feet on the footpads while balancing on the pole, then jumps or presses down on the footpads to compress the spring. When the spring has been fully compressed, the operator lifts his weight, aided by the recoil of the spring, being launched several inches or feet into the air. This process is repeated to create a hopping action. The pogo stick can be steered, with some difficulty, by shifting one's weight; thus becoming an interesting form of locomotion.

Later, improvements on this concept have been made, including the Vurtego, Flybar, and BowGo,^[1] which allow operators to jump much higher than with a regular pogo stick. These Pogo sticks have made the new sport of Stunt Pogo possible. Backflips are also possible now with these newer sticks.

Animation of how a pogo stick moves

The name is allegedly derived from the name of a manufacturer "Pohlmann & Goppel" from Springe in Lower Saxony, thought to have produced pogo sticks exported to the United Kingdom. This is doubted in Deister since the sources are missing and the firm's name is not known in Springe.^[2]

[edit] See also

• Stilts
• Stunt pogo
• Powerbocking

[edit] References