Vaulting in the Big Leagues

It’s here! It’s here! It’s here!!!

Myself and my fellow UMass Minutewomen made our way to the URI Sorlein Invitational yesterday morning–our first meet of the season.  URI’s newly resurfaced track was ready to finally be broken in with a track meet.  We were excited to all be together as a team for the first time.

Due to budgeting, we all hopped into 3 vans and set out for Kingstown, Rhode Island, instead of taking the Peter Pan bus like we have in the past.  We squeezed 13 young women and our gear into our 12 person van.  For some reason, I didn’t technically have a seat–so I had half of my tush on the bench and the other half, well–let’s just say it was a balancing act for the two hour ride there.

Besides hanging off of my seat for all of the ride, there were other things about this trip that felt different.  I wasn’t nervous–AT ALL.  I laughed.  I joked with some teammates. I didn’t listen to music (probably because my iPod broke).  It was nice.  I think this really helped set the tone for the meet ahead.  I felt relaxed and confident in my abilities.  I have plenty of experience.  With this being my final year as a collegiate athlete it just felt time to leave it all on the runway.  Each meet that passes is a step closer to graduation.  It’s time to take all the strength and knowledge I’ve gained these past 4 years and JUMP.

My calm demeanor really helped me in competition.  I started at the very comfortable height at 10’4″ and cleared it my first jump of the season.  Some old habits crept back in on that one jump, but I laughed it off and went full speed ahead.  With a clear head and relaxed body I was able to execute everything we had been working on preseason and intersession.  I felt my arms come back, my chest open, and a powerful swing come through.  For once it actually felt natural instead of constantly thinking over and over.

Yesterday was more of an experiment.  Vaulting over the summer and straight through to the season I had made a lot of progress in my technique.  When placed in a competition setting, anything can happen.  Adrenaline is a crazy thing.  It can make even little girls like me blow through the biggest poles in competition that she can’t even think about touching in practice.  Coach Jackson and I had to play around a bit with different poles and we moved the standards a lot.  I started on a 12′ 150.  Then switched to a 12’6″ 145, a 12’6″ 150, then a 13′ 130–a pole that freaked me out at practice.  I was jumping on that with my standards at 75 and 70.

Each jump felt amazing–but the bar still fell.  I kept looking to Coach Jackson for what I did wrong.  I checked my step each time, but he shook his head and smiled, “Your step is fine, Silvar.”  He told me I was doing great and the other coaches assured me that I was getting some great jumps in.  I guess I was still doing everything I was supposed to.

I was surprised at my own reaction to the crossbar falling each time.  I didn’t get upset like I normally would or let it get to me.  I ended up jumping 10’10, which is 8 inches under my personal best, but I still felt successful because of my attitude during competition and taking some great jumps.  And Coach Jackson was happy with it–and when he’s happy, I’m happy.

“I could have kept you on the 12′ 150 all day and you would have cleared these heights no problem, but this won’t help you later in the season,” he told me after the meet.

So maybe the height wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I’m very happy with this start to the season and hope to take these lessons with me for future meets.

So when I was first planning this blog post my big piece of news was that I got hurt. Nothing significant but it was my first trip to the trainers EVER, and my first time missing a practice due to injury since freshman year of high school. I subluxed my shoulder. Which basically means I dislocated it, but it’s not as bad as a dislocation because it pops out and right back in on its own. And of course I did it doing a drill that I have done 3 million times with no issues, a straight armed back extension roll (a backward roll to handstand for you non-gymnasts). So I was out for two weeks back in November.

That brings us up to our first meet. Which I felt no where near ready for. But really, nobody ever feels ready for their first meet. I jumped 11’6″. I was not at all happy with it, but I was definitely behind schedule as far as training goes because of my shoulder. I jumped 12′ at our second meet, which I still wasn’t particularly happy with but it was progress.

And that brings us to winter break. Which didn’t really exist for me. Since I was on co-op I had work every weekday up until December 30th. So I was only able to go home on the weekends; I had long weekends for Thanksgiving and Christmas at least. Since I was in Boston the whole time, I trained through the two weeks that the majority of the team was home for. So it was nice to get some extra practice in. The rest of the team got back January 2nd for practice. That week I only had practice to worry about since I was done with work and classes hadn’t started yet.

And now for the big news. Brenner is no longer our coach; he is now coaching at Harvard. We found out that he was leaving on January 2nd and that was his last week with us. It was certainly an emotional week of practice ending with an emotional meet. I only jumped 12′ again, but I’m trying not to worry about heights so early in the season. I don’t blame Brenner at all for leaving. It was a great opportunity for him and he had already turned down several great offers over the years. And I know he felt bad leaving us too. It’s still really tough to deal with though. Brenner got me a huge PR last year and I can’t help but think that I won’t be able to progress as well without him. And on top of that Brenner was not only a great coach, but a great person in general and he will be missed a TON! But everyone has to move on at some point. Our weight coach made a good point: All great coaches are replaceable because they actually taught you something. So our new pv coach is our very own Brian Daly; he has retired as an athlete and is now an assistant coach. I have a lot of confidence in Brian as a coach, it’s just really different and is going to take some getting used to. Being coached by someone that you’ve been a teammate with for so long is just so weird. Anyway, I’m trying to stay positive about all these changes, but it is a lot to deal with.

Welp, it’s only the 2nd day of classes and I already have a ton of work to do. I have 2 clinicals this semester so I’m going to be super busy. So I best get going on the loads of reading I already have. Hope everyone else is having a good indoor season so far!