Vaulting in the Big Leagues

Patriot Pole Vault Club questioned it’s club members on Valentine’s Day last week, “When did you first fall in love with pole vault?”

I was in the 8th grade.  I was a St. Bernard’s Elementary School student who found herself volunteering working at the concession stand at the outdoor District E Championships at Fitchburg High School’s Crocker Field.  The only exposure I had to track and field was beating my classmates in the 50 yard dash on Field Day and jumping over a few hurdles.  My older cousin Ashley Jollimore, one of Fitchburg’s top 100m dash runners at the time, was competing that day but I had been distracted from her event.  I was pulled to the dark depths of Crocker Field, next to the clubhouse under the shade of the trees, next to the rushing waters of the Nashua River.  Our flirtation had begun.  I had told my mother that if I was going to be on the track team in high school, I wanted to do that event.

My freshman year of high school, I told the coaches that I wanted to be a pole vaulter.  After the usual screening process of, “Pole vaulters are supposed to be the strongest and best athletes on the team,” or “It’s not as easy as it looks,” and “It’s going to take a lot of patience.”  It only made me want to prove myself that much more.  When I cleared 6 ft at practice in preparation for my first meet, that’s the day I became Fitchburg High School’s pole vaulter.

Thinking about it today, as a 4th semester senior at UMass Amherst and still a pole vaulter, that was almost 9 years ago. Pole vault and I have been together for almost 9 years this spring.

Like any long term relationship, over this past season the spark was starting to fade for me–or at least that’s what I hear happens sometimes.  Personally, I wouldn’t know.  It’s not that I didn’t love pole vault.  I still did, but the same ol’ same ol’ was getting boring.  Same heights.  Same jumps.  Same results–after years of learning together and growing together.  I was starting to think that maybe this was as good as it was going to get.

This past weekend at the A-10 Championships, pole vault proved me wrong.  With a “nothing left to lose” attitude, I was jumping like I had never done before.  I grabbed the 13′ 150, and just let whatever happened happen.  This wasn’t a time to criticize.  This wasn’t a time to think about too much.  It was time to jump.  After “5, 4, 3, 2, 1″ I didn’t think.  They weren’t the best jumps technique-wise, as usual, but with a clear mind and confidence the heights just kept coming.

I finished with a new personal best of 11’10″ and ran out of poles for 12’2″.  Three solid attempts under my belt for the New Englands.  Based on misses, I had tied for 4th with URI’s Kaylan Pickford with the same height as 3rd place.  I had also bought myself another day to compete.  I’ll be headed to ECACs after New Englands.

What happened with pole vault and I? Well, I just needed to stop.  I needed to stop beating my head against a wall and trying to ‘fix’ and work on our relationship to make it perfect.  It will never be perfect, but it will be the best that I can make it.  And when it comes down to it.  It’s just about the love.  I love to pole vault.  I love to compete.  I have a lot of fun.  And that’s all that really matters.  Who can really argue with that?

It’s also interesting to see that now my relationship with pole vault is back on track, it rolls over to other aspects of university life.  I’m more motivated to finish my last semester of classes strong instead of breezing by.  I’m more focused.  I don’t feel as aimless or passionless.

It feels good to have the spark back.

I’ve had such a fabulous time vaulting lately. I’m no where near perfect (ask Iggy and Coach Ken) but I’m so happy that I’m finally starting to do things right!

1. I’ve started actually running. That doesn’t mean Coach Ken doesn’t still make comments about me being slow. I am still slow on occasion, but there’s actually some oomph to my run now!

2. I’ve learned the magic of actually planting the pole with my arms up and not just flinging myself towards the planting box. Get this- IT WORKS. I’ve had poles that I thought I was blowing through, but it turns out I just wasn’t planting right and harnessing the power.

3. Coach Ken makes really really really good food.

4. I know there is something to be said for quality not quantity, but I’ve been having longer pole vault practices lately. I used to feel bad whenever my mother would take me to practice at patriot and I wouldn’t vault for long, but now I’m taking advantage of the two days of the week I get to actually be with pole vault coaches.

I’m really excited to get going with outdoor competitions, but alas, I won’t compete again until March 31st. So until then- lots of pole runs, pole plants and work on my swing (ex. I said to Coach Ken at Harvard today “So THAT’S what a swing is supposed to look like?!”)

And I’m also super excited to keep being rewarded with Coach Ken’s food. If you haven’t had it, you’re seriously missing out.

Peace Love and Vault

Jacqui

So far this season has been a lot of playing around and figuring it out.  I’ve still had some great jumps and have come into meets very calm and collected.  I’ve been waiting for it to all come together.  Whether it’s finding the right pole or putting practice drills into play at a meet.

And that finally happened.

Too bad it was during warm-ups at the The Charles Torpey Tribute Meet at URI and not the actual competition.

The most significant thing I have been working on this season is breaking in my trail leg after a powerful swing, bringing my knees into my chest (but not to my face!), and just going along for the ride.  I swing pretty long and that just slows everything down.  So after many drills, watching videos, and visualizing what I wanted to do–it finally happened.  I warmed up on a 13′ 135lb pole getting after a bungee and I FLEW.  It felt great.  It happened! I was so excited and Coach Jackson was thrilled too.

At competition time, I passed to 10’10″ and had to wait patiently for the bar to go up.  This gave me a lot of time to focus–but it turns out I was focusing too hard.  My brain was running a thousand miles a minute: What did that feel like again? How did I do that? Remember to really pull hard. You’ve done it before now just do it again.

To cut to the chase, I choked.  No one would even recognize me on that runway.  Slow approach.  Weak plant.  And crashing into the crossbar and never actually finishing the jump.  It’s interesting to go from blowing through that pole just a week before to barely getting on it the next week.  I did clear my opening height of 10’10″ but that was it.  The rest of the jumps were absolutely useless.

It’s been a while since Coach Jackson has had to tell me to, to put it in nicer terms, “Remove my head from my–” Ummm… “opposite end.”  But I couldn’t even process what was going on during the meet to even try to fix it.  I had no idea what was happening.  How could I go from having a huge breakthrough to jumping so poorly?

After the meet, Coach and I both needed our space to cool off (I swear, this is like a marriage in itself–I don’t know how Jenn Suhr does it).  Then we were able to talk to each other without being mean.

“What happened?  What changed between warm ups and competition?  You had the girls out here nervous watching your warmups!” he asked me.

“I just wanted it so bad.  I kept thinking, ‘Do it again! JUST DO IT AGAIN!’ I don’t have much time left.  It’s this week, then BU Valentine, then A-10s.  Then only a few meets in outdoor season. And I’m graduating in the spring.  This is it.”

“But the fact that you did it during warm ups without even thinking shows that it’s in your brain.  It’s in your muscle memory.  It’s more natural now.  You don’t even have to focus on it anymore.  If you focus on it and work too hard on it, you actually end up resisting the jump and not letting it naturally happen.  You have to trust.”

So I’m just going shake off this meet and get ready for the next one.  Preparation for next week isn’t going to be about the drills or the technique that I’ve been working so hard on.  It’s going to be to trust myself and just letting the jumps happen.