Vaulting in the Big Leagues

I’ve said it a thousand times and will say it again.  New Englands is one of my favorite meets of the year.  It’s so nice to see everyone at the end of the year and watch the improvements everyone has made.  I love talking to the athletes, coaches, officials, parents–it’s just a great weekend.

I had a strong feeling that things were going to come together.  I can’t describe that feeling or how I knew it was going to happen, but with the way I had been jumping for the past two weeks I knew a PR was in my future.  This was the last opportunity of the season to make it happen.  I was jumping on a 12′ 150, my runway was a little off (which was very unusual for me) but I didn’t let it bother me.  It was time to leave everything on the runway and just JUMP.  I came in at 10’6″ and cleared every jump first attempt–including a new PR of 11’6″!  I surprised myself. It felt amazing!  It was the perfect way to end a crazy season.  I do need to work on not psyching myself out when the bar goes up though…

SO, I survived my first year at UMass.  I expected to be alive at the end, but I sure didn’t expect to be so beat up!  As crazy as this year was this was one of the best years of my life and I’m VERY happy with my decision to transfer.  I have such a positive network of people around me and I feel very blessed.  I’ve made great friends, had a lot of fun, and also achieved a lot of my personal goals–I still need to make 12feet though! But I have a feeling that will be sooner than I think.

Well, it’s summer.  Now what?  I’m really excited to start training again and compete a few times this summer.  I’m also moving into my apartment soon with a few former UMass vaulters for the summer in South Deerfield, MA (about 15 minutes from campus). I’m still looking for a job.  But of course I’ll be sure to make time for all the fun summer activities.

But have a great summer, everyone!  And good luck to those still competing!  :-)

Usually I’m consistent with writing an entry right after every meet, but after this weekend I didn’t have this spark of inspiration or an overwhelming feeling to tell the story of this past weekend.  There really isn’t an exciting story.  It was just right–even comfortable.

This past weekend was the A10 Conference Championship and we flew our butts down to Charlotte, NC.  After great vaulting practices that week, I was ready.  I knew good things were going to happen.  And they did. There’s really no other way of saying it.  I jumped 11’1.75″ to tie for 6th place with really close attempts at 11’7″.  I guess my jump also broke into the top 5 for the UMass record books, at #5.  I was jumping on a 12’160 — and even moving through that.  My approach was solid.  I was calm.  I was smiling.  I was pretty damn happy.  I felt back to normal.  I felt like myself again.  I feel like I’ve caught up with myself again after losing a month of training from my concussion/broken nose.

Now here’s the mushy stuff.  It’s the time of year for the goodbyes and memories.  The meet was an amazing weekend to spend time with my team–especially the graduating seniors.  For some it was my last meet with them and it was really nice to be away from home, staying in a hotel, spending time together, and cheering each other on. I guess it’s a strange feeling to be hanging out with people my age knowing that I “should” be graduating with them, but I’m happy for my extra year. I look back on all the fun times we’ve had this year and how easy it was to be included in the group.  It’s also been fun listening to them look back on their four years together.  I’m sad that people I’ve quickly grown attached to won’t be here next year, but I am lucky to have my first year at UMass with them while they were here.

But I’m done with finals, my room is half packed (I have just enough stuff to get me through to the weekend), and it’s off to New Englands at Southern Connecticut.  I might be the only UMass vaulter for the women’s team due to conflicts with graduation, but we’ll see what the girls decide.  Just one more meet and it’s time for summer

I apologize for the lack of bloggage lately. And I apologize for the long, rambling entry I am about to write. I’ve been super busy with classes. It was a tough semester but now it’s over and I ended up with a 3.7 GPA. Yay! Now I have 4 weeks left on campus for practices and meets. Yay again! I have grown so close with my teammates this year, especially the vault crew. I love being able to spend all this time with them, getting even closer and having time to just goof around, have fun, and explore Boston. It’s great

But anyway, I finished up my indoor season with a PR of 12’6″ which I cleared at my last three indoor meets: Battle of Beantown, New Englands, and ECAC. I won the Battle of Beantown, came in second at NEs, and 4th at ECACs. So I was quite happy with my indoor season. I started outdoors off with another PR of 12’10″ in NC. And then another PR of 13’3.75″ in FL which also ties the outdoor school record! Since then I’ve hit a bit of a lull. But as people have pointed out to me I have been stressed and not really getting enough sleep because of classes and we haven’t really had great weather either. As most of you know, though, I tend to be pretty hard on myself. But I’ve been working on that and trying to stay positive. I’ve watched the videos from FL countless times and felt really good at practice this week (I was getting my hips over a 14′ bungee). So I’m feeling pretty confident going into our conference championships this weekend. I’m seeded first so I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on me to win, which makes me nervous. But I’m just going to try to just go out there, have fun, do what I know how to do and whatever happens happens.

So how have I made these improvements this year? You younger vaulters aren’t going to like hearing this, but short runs really do help to make huge improvements on your form. I have been doing 4 step runs just about every other practice lately really working on my swing. And believe it or not, since doing all these 4 steps, I’ve been able to get on bigger and bigger poles too. At meets, I’ve been vaulting on a 13’7 150 or 155.  Turns out having a fast trail leg and allowing your shoulders to come completely underneath moves the pole even more and thus allows you to get on bigger poles and get bigger heights. The hardest part for me is doing practically nothing with my bottom arm once the swing starts, having no pressure on it during the swing and not pulling to turn once you are upside down. I think it’s tough for me to wrap my head around the fact that you can go higher by doing less. Right now I think I’m subconsciously trying to guide the pole with my bottom arm. Once I learn to relax upside down and allow the pole to unbend by itself and just ride it up, even bigger heights are headed my way.

So basically, I’ve just been working on relaxing. Whether it’s de-stressing from classes, having fun with friends, taking pressure off myself at meets, or literally relaxing my body during the vault. When you relax good things happen! Good luck to everyone in all the championship meets coming up!