Chat with David Butler

Last night I was fortunate enough to have a long talk with David Butler, the vault coach from Rice Unviersity. He coached Jason Colwick, a 5.72m jumper who I jumped against in college for several years, and I have always been curious about his vault theory. He had some really different ideas and was even prepared after watching my video to talk with me extensively about how those ideas apply specifically to my jump. I know that to make those changes is going to take some serious work, but I'm interested to try them from short run and during my straight pole work. Beyond that, he suggested some interesting flexibility programs that I'm going to look into starting next week in order to improve my run mechanics and power through my hips. All-in-all he was confident that I would PR quickly if I began making these changes as soon as possible, and even suggested a trip to Houston for a weekend in October for a few training/vaulting sessions so he could show me personally what he was talking about. Anyway, all in all it was a great discussion, and I'm super excited about the things he was talking about!

Jeff