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Raising your grip on a pole softens the pole. Lowering your grip on a pole makes it stiffer. Is it ever possible that by raising a grip height will help someone penetrate more? In the same way, would it ever be possible to lower one's grip and penetrate less?

The rationale is... if you raise your grip the pole will be soften and bend more.. thus lowering your center of mass more... making a shorter cpole... which helps the pole/vaulter rotate more...

Another way I was thinking about it was average cpole length. Can the average cpole length of a pole during a vault ever be decreased by raising the grip?

For the record, I would never tell a vaulter to ever do this....

Are we assuming that everything stays the same? Run length, speed, technique, pole, etc. do not change, just the individuals handgrip? Or taking into account movement between poles?

The only thing that raising your grip does is demand you bend the pole more. If you are overbending the pole you are on, you need a stiffer pole not a longer one. Keep your grip relatively the same location and go up in stiffness. Keep doing this until you are no longer over bending the pole then raise your grip. So long as you are landing safely in the pit keep doing this STIFFNESS first then GRIP process. At some point you will achieve your max grip on the highest weight pole you can get on without becoming stronger, faster or more proficent.

The weight rating of a pole is based on a max grip. If you have a 14/140 and a 14-6/140 and you grip the top of each they are both 140's but you will have to bend one a lot more. The lower you grip on a pole the stiffer it acts. While how much stiffer varies depending on many variables it is common to hear every 6 inches is equal to 8 - 10 pounds of stiffness. This is not a linear increcease. The further from the top of the pole you get as you lower your grip the more the stiffness increases. In the top 12 to 18 inchs each inch of grip is equal to about 1.5 pounds BUT as you get to 18 inches or more it will be 1.75, 2.0 or more pounds per inch (agian these are not exact #'s, they are close but not exact).

Make sound coaching choices. You do not need the next bigger pole just because the bar went up. Make sound choices that are based on your vault not where the bar is.