Push / Pull sticks are simply wooden or fiber glass poles with a boat hook at one end and a rubber or leather pad at the other. Ideally, these should be about 1.5 meters / 6 feet long. Their primary use is to retrieve tag lines hanging vertically down from the load so that personnel do not have to get too close to the suspended load. Their secondary use is to push and maneuver loads into the correct orientation / position for landing or guiding them into tight spaces while remaining hands-free / hands-off.