helical arm support 54 this is an important feature of the arm support as a user could easily get his arm stuck in a standard arm support which surrounds the arm in the event of a fall with the helical arm support 54 a user can easily and safely remove himself from the arm support 54 and the walking stick 50 simply by relaxing his wrist fig8 illustrates for three preferred embodiments of the walking stick of the present invention the amount of spring force as a function of the amount of deflection of the flexure spring curve 150 represents the characteristics of a preferred embodiment walking stick for a person weighing in the range of approximately 100 lbs curve 152 represents the result for a preferred embodiment walking stick for a person weighing in the range of 150 to 225 lbs curve 154 represents the characteristics of a preferred embodiment walking stick for a person weighing in the range of approximately 300 pounds curve 150 indicates that a deflection of 1 inch produces a spring force of about 11 pounds similarly curve 152 indicates that a deflection of 1 inch produces a spring force of about 19 pounds and curve 154 indicates that a deflection of 1 inch produces a spring force of about 27 pounds these curves show that with a deflection greater than 4 inches the relationship between deflection and force increases nonlinearly so that when the walking stick is heavily compressed large spring forces result when the transition to a higher spring force is reached it is a signal to the athlete to push off or in other words to transfer their weight to the other stick the first flex point of.