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!