Right...
I understand now, if fire isn't held down, then when you land you don't bounce up, just make a mess on the floor, or perhaps bounce back up at half height, and when you start to fall a safe distance you stop bouncing, if you got out a weapon in mid air, you'd make one hell of a mess if you didn't get the pogo stick out(depending on height), that would be interesting.
About the handles on the pogo stick, there is a pogo stick on
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/pogo_stick.htm which has handles, it also uses a gas chamber instead of a spring, a pogo stick with an impact hammer on the bottom would be interesting, also, I think (but haven't checked it yet) Commander Keen had handles on the pogo stick.
I think the footstands on Smokes model should stay the way they are.