You’re right about pushing away, but there’s a little more to it. The #1 requirement for safely gaffing a pole is to always keep your hips and trunk away from the pole – if your legs become parallel to the pole the gaffs (aka hooks or spikes) have too shallow an angle to get or maintain a bite, and you’ll slip. (You can see this in the featured photo – every climber is maintaining a good angle between hooked legs and pole) So, in essence, you’re always “pushing away.”
The emergency push-away is drilled into a climber’s head to combat “instinct” – the natural reaction to sliding down a pole is to clutch it tightly for all you’re worth. Which, by bringing your legs parallel to the pole, ensures that you can’t stop the slide by digging in a gaff (in fact, hugging the pole will p’bly pop a hooked gaff right out of the pole). That leaves you at the final stage of a botched slide: massive, nasty softwood splinters piercing your face, neck, arms or trunk. (OTOH, saving a fall by pushing away and getting a gaff set has its own perils…if it takes more than a second to set a gaff, there is so much downward force on that leg that your knee will wind up behind your ear, with much tearing of meat and tendon. It’s a fun job!)
