The concept of Pole as a sport dates back to 2006, after pole became a popular fitness form in 2000 and pole competitions started gaining popularity. Competitions had little or no scoring or judging criteria, no way of consistently awarding points to those athlete that were technically and artistically superior, and rules consisted of very little in the way of guidance on what the judges were and were and were not looking for.
In 2006, a survey was carried out by Katie Coates to see how the pole community felt about Pole Sports becoming an Olympic Sport; over 10,000 voted in favour. In 2008, Tim Trautman of the USA began working with Katie on the International Pole Sports Federation, and the term Pole Sports was created transforming pole forever from a physical activity performed socially and for fitness, into to an international sport and competition.