Training and Changing

What up faithful followers?

Alright, check it... It's fall in Bloomington, which means fall training with Jake Wiseman, which somehow I can truly say I enjoy. We have been pulling out our old bag of fall tricks for two four-week cycles now, and 2 intro weeks, so we are pretty well into training. Vera Neuenswander has joined me this year on the ever-so-glamorous post-collegiate pole vaulting scene at IU, and it's been good having her around already. We train on our own in the mornings, and then go and lift at Force Fitness in the afternoons three days a week before heading over to IU to do some volunteer coaching. It's pretty cool, but pretty draining too, and I dont even have a real job.

So what's different this year? Let's resort to my patented list format.

1) Training partner, ya dig?

2) Longer approaches on the reg.

3) Drills. Then, more drills.

4) It's a secret.

5) Lots of corrective exercises.

6) Recovery. Suit. Every. Night.

7) Turnin' on the glutes (fire up the engine).

8) Big boys bring the noise

9) Meet in December (jeah boy).

10) I seriously wear a recovery suit to bed. That wasn't a joke.

11) Lots and lots of pole runs.

12) I'm giving away all of my dirty secrets.

OK so seriously, a lot has changed this year. I am focusing a lot in the weight room on getting my body to function correctly, and getting the chains to fire in the right orders. I'm taking that big bully TFL out of the equation and replacing it with some big bad hot firin' glute meads. That small change has already changed the way that I run, and (I think) how cleanly I'm getting off the ground lately. That being said, I haven't actually pole vaulted regularly yet. That starts next week. And I'm psyched. I will be back to 14 steps consistently by our first meet on DECEMBER 9TH which I'm super psyched about.

What else?

I guess that's it. I still miss my friends in Europe every day, especially Mitch and Nicole, and I can't wait to get back soon. Hopefully Duddy Ramone, C-Bait and I-Poodle Bencomo will decide to show also.

F0llow me on twitter for updates on whatever it is I feel like updating during the day.

Donate to my dream here if you feel like supporting me.

Big Ups.

Jeff

End of Europe/Beginning of 2012 Training

Ok y'all... How did I not know that I hadn't updated this thing since the land of good and plenty? My bad, my bad. Ok so the end of Europe went something like this:

Copenhagen:
1) immediately found out how expensive Denmark is by getting clowned at the clown downtown
2) lost rock paper scissors for the bed
3) couldn't convince anyone that Tivoli gardens is awesome
4) ate 25 hot wings with Greg 10 minutes before we warmed up for the meet
5) felt like crap warming up for the meet
6) tried to jump in the rain. No dice
7) dusin high salted a 3rd attempt at 5.25 for the win in a downpour
8) had the weirdest candle lit meet dinner ever
9) charged stuff to the room
10) blowout argument about women's tennis

Biel/Bern/Lausanne/Zurich/Basel:
1) Nicole brought chocolate hot dogs to the airport
2) took a bath in a public fountain upon arrival
3) Mitch blew over 5.50m in Lausanne
4) music festival + pale ale + club = hangover
5) learned to slack line
6) swam in the river lots of times
7) ate some really good sausage
8) drove to basel for a street meet
9) our car took home all of the money/wine
10) went to Tucino for some man time
11) fell in love with the swiss land once more
12) swam in clear blue waters, dove off of pale white cliffs, ended it all with a sketchy near-death departure
13) back to Biel and Zurich in the morning to leave
14) airberlin had a laugh, our poles "wouldn't fit" on the plane
15) shipped them home and got no receipt, confirmation, or tracking info
16) learned it feels weird to combine 11 hours of sitting with coffee, wine and tylonol PM
17) took 2.5 hours to get through customs at LAX... Welcome home.

OK well thats that. All in all I had a fantastic time in Europe and I am super glad to have had the opportunity to go on this trip. Thanks a ton to my manager, Chris Bencomo at Golden Spikes Management for putting it together and letting me on board the squad. When I go back the next time I know that it will be more business oriented, and it probably won't be for quite so long, but I have so many contacts now it will make it a blast every time we thrash in the future. More thanks go out to: Alhaji Jeng, Oscar Janson, Yoo Kim, Michel Frauen, Brad Walker, Andy Stubbs, Steve Lewis, Gio Lanaro, Chris Chappell, Tori Peña, Allison Stokke, Theresa Raub, and most of all, Mitch Greeley, Nicole Büchler, Dustin DeLeo, Gregory Woepse, Bobby Talley, Chris Bencomo and Robert Jan Jansen. Thank you!!! (also I probably forgot tons of people).

OK so now what am I doing now...

I'm currently back in Indiana getting my training going for the 2012 season. I'm back with my college coach, Jake Wiseman, and we are getting ready to fire everything up full steam and prepare for the indoor season. I learned in Europe and in San Diego that I am able to jump every 4 days or so from full approach and not be hurt, so we are going to definitely do more jumping this fall than we have done in the past, and I'm really excited for that. Physically I know that I am capable of much more than 5.50m, and my short run jumping suggests the same. This year I want to have about 10x the long run practices that i had last year, which would be about 20. Not too much to ask! Last year I practiced from full approach two times the entire year! That just doesn't really work out, so were gonna get a better handle on it this year. I am also excited to be back in at Force Fitness and Performance. We have a new focus this fall on functional strength, and activating the parts of my engine that arent quite firing right. I'm feeling really good about it and after a week I'm already happy with it since I'm sore in all of the places that I have never been sore before. Good feeling believe it or not!!

Ok well that's enough for now, but I do have a cool announcement coming soon for whoever stays tuned!

May the force be with you. And also with you.

The Land of Good and Plenty

Ok so we are here in Götberg, Sweden, and I think it's time for an update. Dustin and I flew into Stockholm a week ago, struggled to get our poles from the plane to the terminal, left the airport (with 4 other runners that hated our guts for taking so long), and hit the road for Karlstad, which is about 4 hours away. We got in around 230am, checked into our hotel, had to switch rooms, rock-paper-scissored for who had to sleep on a mattress pad on the floor, and went to bed.

The next day was the meet and we both felt incredible warming up, and had to move our marks way back. I was coming from about 41.45m, which is about 40cm further than i usually do, and was still hitting some under mids and getting picked off of the ground. Unfortunately, the pits and box were not cooperating with the bending poles, and neither Dustin or I could get even our small poles to roll into the pit. I was on my 13.3 in the meet, with a bit of a tailwind, unable to catch up to the pole and going straight up in the air. I managed a measely 5.08 (hard one to post), but fortunately Dustin got it wired a tiny bit better and ripped around his 17.6 to blow over 5.25m for second place. Luckily I learned a valuable lesson in pit slapping, and next time i know it's happening I have a few tricks on how to deal with it.

Two days after the meet, after some hanging out by the river and riding bikes around karlstad, we headed to Götberg by train, took a cab to Friidrottens Hus where we would be training, and found the place where were staying, G.A.K, a wrestling facility not 50m from the track that features some nice bunk beds, wrestling mats, a weight room, a locker room and a kitchen/cafeteria. Sanitation is questionable but were immuned to that now.

The next day we went to the train station to pick up Greg, who never showed up, so we left. About an hour later he strolled into the near-impossible-to-find facility, and we were psyched to be re-adjoined. We have already seen lots of the town thanks to our new friends Oscar Janson and Alhaji Jeng, and we've gotten in two really good sessions of training, which is the reason we came here in the first place.

Tomorrow we are planning on having a jump session here, even though our poles are already in Copenhagen waiting for us at our next meet. I'm sure we will be able to find a few poles at the facility to jump on, and maybe we will post a few vids.

Until next time,

The thrash will go on here in Sweden!

Sittard/Monaco/Jockgrim/SWITZERLAND/Now

OK. Lot's has happened so I'll list them in order by place.

Sittard:

1. Rippin headwind
2. Dustin landed on the track and hurt his wrist
3. I made 5.15m
4. We feasted on brats, pasta and Dutch beer
5. Talked to Rens Blom over dinner
6. And his hot blonde girlfriend
7. Dustin got no-shame 2011 off to a good start with Olive
8. Changed into suits in the parking lot
9. Blew Jason Wurster's mind with our exit
10. Headed to Bern

Biel:

1. Rolled in on Mitch and Nicole at 2am
2. Ate some Chocolate Hot Dogs
3. Breathed the Swiss air and were immediately addicted to Switzerland
4. Slept a few hours
5. Drank some Level 10 Coffee and ate some more Chocolate Hot Dogs
6. Left 1 hr late for Monaco for no reason

Monaco:

1. Rolled in an hour late for the vault
2. Found out the vault started an hour later than we thought
3. Settled down in the thick of it. Deep in the cut.
4. Watched Renaud blow over 5.90m and almost 6.05m - High salt.
5. Took a picture with Bolt in the hotel lobby. He loved the thrash
6. Went out to a club between the 2 biggest dudes in Monaco, Cantwell and Dylan Armstrong
7. NEVER TOOK OFF THE SUITS
8. Scrapped things together in the morning
9. Swam in the Mediterranean Sea. Negative ions.
10. Ate some gelato, peaced out back to Biel.

Biel:

1. Rolled in on Mitch and Nicole at 1am
2. Ate some chocolate hot dogs
3. Flew around on Camp Greeley internet.
4. Rock-paper-scissors'ed it for the bed each night. I never won.
5. Slept until 12:45pm. Greg was pissed.
6. Had a sprint session at a track so deep in the woods I thought it was a joke, and then it turned out to be the sickest Olympic Training Center of all time.
7. Watched mitch go cowabunga on some shit in a jump session - repping 5.50m's with 4.10m+ takeoffs. Biggest PV transformation I've ever seen. Hands down.
8. Floated down an amazing river for 2km in 16 degree C water that felt incredible. Best thing I've ever been a part of?
9. Greg and Mitch chewed on some African Mud.
10. Dustin got blown up by a fountain.

Jockgrim:

1. Met up with our host family.
2. Woke up Greg because we were sleeping so late.
3. Got out-slept by their 12 year old daughter.
4. Met a genuine Nazi.
5. Jumped 5.30m in the pre-meeting, Team GS went 2-3-4.
6. Had some EIN STINE BIERS.
7. Ate some mustard with a 2am spread of food from our host dad.
8. Watched the main event. 5 over 5.72m and Grande robbed at 5.80m... easily 6m in the air.
9. Sung the National Anthem in front of 3,000 Germans thanks to Becky Holliday.
10. Dustin ended up behind the bar.
11. Greg wouldn't drink whisky, so for some reason ran around naked.
12. Everyone slept in their normal clothes.

So then we went back to Leverkusen, where we have a meet today.

There's a live feed here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/leverkusen-pole-vault-classics

I'm not sure how well it will work, but it's worth a shot. The field is stacked, and it should be tons of fun. Tune in at 12:30pm EST, or 9:30am PST for introductions!

Hope all is well back in the states, and stay tuned!

Long Needed Update From Euroland

What up peeps?! Alright so the first two weeks of my euro trip have gone by in a flash, and it has been nonstop fun. Our first meet was in Uden, Netherlands, where it was cold rainy and windy, and I managed a 5m bar before blowing through not once, not twice, but thrice trying 5.20m... Still one of the most fun meets I had ever been to. We then journeyed south to vienna (pronounced 'ween'), where we jumped in a square meet.

By the way, when I say we, I mean the eurothrash crew. You have Dustin 'Howdy Duty' DeLeo, Bobby 'Power Steering' Talley, Greg 'Woepse Stanker' Woepse, Chris 'Grandpapa' Bencomo, Allison 'Bierdumpel' Stokke, Tori 'Bunners' Pena, and Theresa 'NoNickname' Raub. The crew has been awesome and they have made my stay incredible thus far.

Ok so back to vienna. We warmed up into a nice tailwind on a 1m tall runway, and I got to my 5m 12.9 in warmups. I started on that, blew through, went to the 12.7, made 5.15 and 5.28, and had some good shots at 5.40m... Better day.

Power Steering, the Stanker and I then ventured from Frankfurt to Dublin, where we jumped in an awesome meet with the Clonliffe Harriers, where I got my first ever european win with a euro PR of 5.30m. Greg was second in the meet, and we all enjoyed some pints of Guinness afterward in a pub right on top of the track while singing some Irish tunes with a group of DAF's (dublin folk) that called themselves The Elderly Brothers. Fun times.

The next morning, on the other hand, wasnt as fun. We had a hell of a time getting our poles to the airport, and when we did they wouldnt let them on the plane, and Bob and I had to hop a plane to Belgium instead, where we waited a few hours for Chris and Greg to get us and take us to Leverkusen, where we are based.

The next day we packed up and headed to a meet in Eindoven, Netherlands. We got lost on the way there, and showed up about 70 mins before the bar went up. I still ended warmups on a 13.3, quickly blew through a few poles while making 5.10m, 5.20m and 5.30m, and then had a nice second attempt clearance at 5.40m on my 12.7. The bar went to 5.50m, and Robert Jan went clear on a second attempt, while I had a standup and a blowthrough on my first two. I went to the 5m 12.3, and somehow made the bar on the third attempt, but it was ugly. I wasnt able to negotiate 5.60m because of some unlucky weather, but I went home happy with a Euro PB.

A few days later we found out that I got into a meet in Padova, Italy, right by Venice. We booked my ticket and I traveled this morning with my new German buddies Bjorn Otto and Danny Ecker to Italia. So far it has been fun, and Im rooming with my good friend Brad Walker, who looks more ready to go than I have ever seen him based on his last meet in Karlsruhe, Germany. The meet is tomorrow at 7pm, and im hoping for good weather and an opportunity to leave up some high bars. Everyone says this is a good place to jump, and amongst the likes of Brad, Bjorn, Danny, Alhaji Jeng, Steve Lewis, and Gio Lanaro, theres no doubt the energy level will be high for me. I am just looking forward to having a ton of fun, enjoying Italy, and getting back to the thrash in Germany on Monday.

Sorry for the long delay in posts, and I hope everyone is doing well out there in cyber land. Until next time, may the force be with you.

Something New: Eurothrash 2011

With the disappointment of not making USA's behind me, I went ahead and bought my ticket to Europe for the 2011 summer season, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm headed out on the 30th of this month and will arrive in Dusseldorf, Germany on the 1st of July.

I'll be jumping with a great group of dudes formerly of UCLA in Bobby Talley, Dustin DeLeo, and Greg Woepse, and we are poised to take Euro by storm. We all share a manager, the great Chris Bencomo, who has done a fantastic job putting together a series of meets for us. Our base will be Leverkeusen, Germany, and we will branch out to all sorts of meets from there.

I will keep blogging from over there for sure, so you'll have to stay tuned to be up-to-date on my plans. What I can say for sure at this point is that my first meet will be on July 2nd in Uden, Netherlands. I have a few more jump sessions before I take off, so if anything good happens before I leave, I'll post an update.

All-in-all, this season hasn't been what I hoped for as far as clearing high crossbars in meets, with 5.40m being my season and post-collegiate best, but I'm more excited to pole vault right now than I ever have been, and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing going into this series of meets.

Stay tuned!

Coping with Disappointment

Well for anyone that doesn't know yet, I failed to qualify for this year's USATF Championships. In my mind there is only one word that coincides with this fact: pathetic. I have spent a whole year only pole vaulting, and that has all led up to this, and I was unable to put myself in the top 15 marks in the country, and thus didn't earn a spot to the Championships. I am extremely disappointed in myself.

That being said, I know that I am a better jumper than I have showed in 2011. I made a pretty big gamble in coming out to San Diego for 3 months, stripping down my training and my jumping, and trying some stuff that I've never tried before. These changes (clearly) haven't yet transferred into jumping high bars, but are ultimately for the best. I cleared a season's best of 5.40m a few weeks ago in Walnut, CA, and that was the best that I have been able to manage this whole year. I feel confident, however, that if I stick with the changes that I've made, and clean up a few things within the jump, I will come out with a mark that I'll be happy with by the end of the summer.

Anyway, sorry for the somber and disappointing news, but I just wanted to update the blog and keep everyone posted on my journey. Let's hope this all ends up working itself out. I sure would like to leave a meet halfway satisfied with my result at some point soon.

Stay tuned.

Chula Vista Update

Well I can't complain about much out here in Chula Vista. It's basically 70-85 degrees every day and a nice tail breeze every day which makes for stress-free vault sessions. That's why I decided to extend my stay to a full 90-days as opposed to the previous plan of just 5 weeks. I've been hearing nightmares about Midwest weather this summer so far, and I have to say I'm glad to be avoiding it.

Training here has been great. Competing, not so much. I'm really getting a hang of the changes that we've been making now, and I've just recently been able to apply these changes to my jump in a way that feels really natural and makes it feel really possible to jump really high. We've adjusted a lot of things in the run and takeoff that have made things feel a lot more fluid and easy, but made for much bigger energy systems within the jump.

Tomorrow we have a meet here at the center, which should be good. My good buddy Yoo Kim is coming down here from LA to jump, and is bringing some of his crew, and my long-time buddy Nick Frawley is making the trip in from Phoenix. All-in-all it's gonna be a good meet with lots of high jumps, and if you're in the area you should come out to the center around 4 or so to watch it go down.

Anyway, since it's been so long I'll leave with a video. This is from a recent practice and is a jump from 6 Lefts at a 5.40m bungee on a 4.90m 14.0.

Also, speaking of Nick Frawley and Yoo Kim, check out the pole coming through under the bar and just about ruining my day. Always use a capper, y'all!

Peace Be With You,

Jeff

Chula Vistaaaa

Check it out. Training here at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista has been awesome so far. I'm training really hard and learning a ton. So far I have put in two really solid weeks, had five jump sessions, and made some strides forward.

Coach Ty Sevin has been awesome, and has taught me a TON in the jump sessions and run mechanics sessions that we've had. Within the jump we have just been trying to find more pressure to put into the pole to create more energy in the system, and theoretically jump much much higher on the same poles that I'm on.

Besides that my weight room numbers have also been awesome - a really easy triple at 80kg in the snatch, and a quad at 110kg in the clean. We've been working with a Tendo Unit a lot, looking at bar speeds and power outputs in various lifts. It's been really helpful.

Lastly I have to give a shout out to Agility Guard for fitting me (and several athletes from the OTC) for a custom mouthguard for athletic use. Just in the tests that we have done already I saw huge benefits in core stabilization and balance with the guard in. I'm really excited to get my custom fitted piece (right now we just have a temporary mold) and put it to work. Thanks a ton!

So my first meet is a week from Thursday at the Training Center. Hope for the best, and stay tuned.

Jeff

Minnesota Meet and Future Plans

Whats up, yo.

So the meet in Minnesota was a success, even though I didn't jump high at all. I made three low bars (5.05m, 5.20m and 5.30m) easily, and had a bunch of fun jumping. If I wasn't an idiot I would have also made 5.40m, but I'm workin on that last part.

I really think I figured out the cues for me to start makin' big bars again. I've really been thinking about putting energy into the system during the jump straight down the middle. It's been pretty awesome for my timing and for lining up the blow. Speaking of the blow, the second cue I've been using is squaring up around the bar, which has FINALLY given me the hip and chest blow that I've been looking for to clear some decent bars.

My 5.30m jump is below. Super ugly jump but there's a reason! I was taking off way under (12'3''ish) all night, and this was my first jump where I took off outside 13', which is much better, but also feels much different. It actually felt so weird that I was totally going to bail in the middle of the jump, but Pauli's words from the car ride up echoed in my head "you are not bailing today, no matter what", so at the last minute I just chucked myself up at the bar and made it anyway somehow. The celebration was more me bein surprised by myself than being satisfied with the jump, ha!

Anyway, the point of this whole thing is that once I trust the 13'+ takeoffs enough to really slam the hands high down the middle and finish hard and square, I think I'll find myself wrapping around a 12.5 and waking up pretty high in the air. Thats the plan, y'all!

So tomorrow I'm headed to San Diego, which I'm pretty stoked on. I have a meet on Saturday at SDSU (which is a great place to jump if it lines up), and then I'll begin my training at the OTC the following week. I just got word this week that I've been cleared to live at the Center while I'm there, which is awesome, because I won't have to do the 30+ minute commute from my Mom's house every day.

Let's get it on!

Til next time....

JC

It's Been Too Long...

The title of this blog post could refer to how long it's been since I've posted OR how long it's been since I jumped decently in a meet! Don't get me wrong, I feel better than I ever have before. I'm stronger, faster, healthier and a better pole vaulter than I have ever been before. I am just not competing. A few weeks ago I made 5.36m at Indiana on a big blowthrough on a 5m 13.3, and took shots at 5.51m on a 12.9 (first time I'd planted that). It was a decent day but nothing great, and qualified me for US indoors. I decided to scoot back to 18 steps from 16, and while I was bringing a lot more speed into the jump and hitting good positions, I was on the 12.9 in warmups and just couldn't quite time things up to make the opening bar of 5.20m. It was a frustrating meet, but I'm excited for the future. I really don't feel like I've really hit any great takeoffs from long approach yet this year like I have from 6, 8 and 12 steps, and I'm excited for what happens when I finally do.

So speaking of the future, I guess I should tell you what's in store for mine. This weekend I'm going to jump at a meet at Notre Dame from 6 Lefts. The whole goal is to come in really really low and make a bunch of bars. Now I'd like to see myself taking jumps on my 5m 13.7 from there, but really I just want to make lots of bars on any pole. The week after that I'm gonna head to a meet at Fuzion Athletics in Minneapolis where I will compete from full approach and hope to really hit one. I'll be in Iowa some of the week leading up to that, and then some of the week after, and then I'll be headed to San Diego, and specifically Chula Vista, to train with Coach Ty Sevin for 6 weeks. I'm super excited for the opportunity to work at the Olympic Training Center for a while, and stoked to get a fresh set of eyes on my jump and make some strides. Coach Sevin and I talked this weekend about the plan while I'm there, and he wants to get me into every meet I can find, and just try to get me over 5.60m. So far the plan is to hit a SDSU meet as soon as I get there, and then a meet at Arizona State the second weekend of April, Mt SAC on April 16th, and possibly a meet at Stanford the week after that, along with any other meets that happen to be at SDSU, the Training Center, or UCSD. Super psyched.

So I'll leave you with a video from yesterday I suppose. Coach Sevin talked with me in Albuquerque this weekend about how I'm not putting any pressure into the system with my arms, and am just hitting the box and swinging underneath my top hand, instead of compressing the pole and catching the ride. Yesterday that was my soul focus, and from 3 Lefts I had a pretty nice jump at a 4.85m bungee. This was probably my best jump from that approach ever, and it felt really good to feel flat and still roll in big poles strictly on technical changes. I'm still missing a lot of the pressure that he is talking about, but I think this is a step in the right direction.

Alright, well sorry for the long delay between posts recently, and I promise to be better about it in the coming weeks!

Thanks for reading!

A Better Competition - 5.36m

I jumped Saturday at home in a competition and finally it went decently. Warmups actually weren't that good, and I was still stuck on the 13.7 for the first jump, and came in low at 5.05m and made it easily. After that I went straight up to the 13.3 and made 5.21m and 5.36m on first attempts. I was feeling pretty good so I went up to the 12.9 for my shots at 5.51m, and the pole rolled in surprisingly easy on the first jump, although I bailed. I really wish I would have turned this one up though, because it was my best takeoff of the day, and the pole rolled right to vertical. On the second one I got picked off the ground, but still turned it up but it was a miss, since I completely missed the middle part of the jump. Still, though, the pole rolled in fine. On the third I got too jacked up and ran myself (way) under and bailed. The good news though is that I am on the right poles to jump a big PR, and I finally felt really good and comfortable in a meet. Here's video of 5.36m:

Today (sunday) I woke up and drove to Iowa, and I'm here now staying with Jacob Pauli for a week before we hit up a meet at Iowa State this weekend with our good friend Jack Whitt. The runway is supposed to be good and I'm hoping for the best! We'll also be doing a LIVE STREAM again, so thanks to the people that watched this past weekend and I hope more of you guys tune in for the ISU meet Saturday. I'll post more details later.

Thanks for watchin!

BIG News - Live Broadcast TOMORROW!

Hey Guys,

So we are going to try something tomorrow that could be huge. Tomorrow during my meet I am going to conduct a live broadcast from my iPhone 4 courtesy of justin.tv. The broadcast will begin at 11:00am Eastern Time with warmups, and we will do some 1on1 stuff after warmups and then continue with the meet. The feed will be found at www.justin.tv/jcoover and will be narrated by my good friend John Jefferson. Most likely we will keep the feed going through the lower heights, and I'll start jumping in the competition sometime around 12:15pm EST. I think it's going to be a super fun thing, and I hope a lot of you guys will set your cell-phone alarms right now for 11:00am and watch the meet live. Tell your friends!!

Also, I encourage you all to tweet in to @jcoover, or send me a facebook message or just comment on this blog about a question or two you'd like answered or something tomorrow during the live cast. If nobody sends anything in, I'll just talk about random stuff! And hopefully I will be able to make some good bars as well. I did have the best shakeout of the year this morning!

Remember,

www.justin.tv/jcoover

check it out!!

New Jump and New Poles are Hard!

Well some of you might have noticed by now that I'm struggling a little right now with meet results, but I want to let everyone know that I'm confident that the other end of this thing is going to be pretty big if I stick with it. I'm finally having some solid jumps in meets, and because of it I'm really unsure so far as to which poles I should be on! Also, at the end of last year I got a series of poles that fit inside of the series of IU's poles so I would have my own (almost) identical series. I have been committed to jumping on my own poles this year, and it has been a little different, especially since I am rolling through big poles from 16 steps (my full approach being 18 steps). In Reno I blew through my 5m 13.3 on my last attempt, and the next step is to be able to start on that pole on my first jump of the meet and work to the 12.9 after that. I'm feeling good about my speed and strength, and I know I will be able to make some big bars once I get the timing right on these poles. Last year from 18 steps at the USA outdoor championships with a tailwind I was on the 5m 13.3 with the standards on 70, and this year I've already blown through that pole from 16 steps. That is a good sign, but the next step is to actually make some decent bars. I'll be jumping at home tomorrow, and am hoping for the best. I'm going in there hell-bent on getting on my 13.3 for the first jump of the meet, and hope for the best.

Stay tuned, and thanks for reading.

Just for viewing pleasure, although I didn't think I'd ever post a miss at 5.20m from full approach, here is my last miss from Reno on the 13.3... It's a pretty good run and takeoff, and just a blowthrough.

Practice video and Meet schedule

Today I had a good jump session with a few solid technical efforts on smaller poles from 8 and 12 steps. I'm on the once-a-week jump practice schedule right now - and today was a good one. It makes me feel ready going into this weekend. I just hope this stuff transfers to my long run when the bar goes up! Not 100% sure about the bungee but it was either 4.60m or 4.70m - not important. Pole was a 4.60m 12.5. I was pretty happy about lining this one up and dropping my shoulders right down the middle instead of pulling up the bend.

I also basically finalized my indoor schedule, and thought I would let you guys know where I'll be for the season. Here it is:

1/21 - Gladstein Invite at IU

1/28 - 2011 UCS Spirit Reno Pole Vault Summit

2/5 - Hoosier Invite at IU (Tentative)

2/12 - Tyson Invitational

2/26 - USA Indoor Championships

3/12 - Fuzion Athletics Elite Meet

Looks like a pretty good lineup to me - I'm excited!!

Catch ya soon and hope to see ya in Reno next week!

Jeff

Starting to Roll

Well I had a pretty good jump session today, and I'm feeling really good about my progress and how well I'm rolling on the runway. Unfortunately I had a little injury to my back this past week and decided to take a light week this week, skipping the jump session this Monday. We did some good running on Monday and Tuesday, took a bit of a slower day Wednesday just doing some auxiliaries and bodyweight stuff, and then came in today to try a few jumps since I was feeling pretty good.

At this point I have to thank and give credit to my acupuncturist friend Sarah for putting a bunch of 3"needles in my back, glutes, hips and piriformas this morning... that stuff works!

I went in with the specific intention of taking just 3 jumps from 8 steps and 4 jumps from 12 steps. I stuck to the game plan exactly, and ended up having a really close jump at 5.35m from 12 steps on a 4.90m 14.2 on my final jump. I also have to give credit to UCS here - I just got two new 4.90m poles this week - a 14.9 and a 14.2 - and they are rolling over awesomely and are going to be a perfect transition into my 5m series that starts at 14.1. Awesome.

Anyway, below is the link to the last jump. I'm still missing it a lot up top by pulling up the bend, but everything else is comin along.

Looking forward to the home meet next weekend. Hoping for the best.

Stay tuned, friends.

Jeff