Vaulting in the Big Leagues

Alright guys this’ll be a short post before work tonight (6 – midnight, bleh). Preseason starts soon. Time sure does fly… just yesteday I feel like I was coming into college with plenty of time left. Well time’s running out and it had me thinking about the legacy I’ll be leaving with this college and the vaulting community. I hope it’s a good one haha either way to all you young vaulters out there, don’t take any minute of your life for granted. You only get one life, one chance to show this world what you as a person can do. Time runs out and before you know it your chance to shine comes to an end. Don’t let your life just pass you by – do something with it. Show the world who you are and what you can be and don’t let anyone or anything get in your way. I know you’ve probably all heard this before and they may just seems like words but I hope with my performances and the example I’ve hopefully set people will start to see that nothing’s impossible. Broken bones, sickness, drama, don’t let any of it knock your hussle. You only get one chance, one life to reach your potential. Don’t let it go to waste

Well this past weekend was a blast. Vaulted at Springfield college on a perfect vaulting day: 60 degrees out with a tailwind. PR’d in the 200 with a 22.8 and vaulted my old PR of 15’6″ with one attempt (easy right?). I was over 16′ twice, once with an actual swing and the second with a cannonball technique (go figure) but I couldn’t get the bar to stay up. SO who’s going to challenge me? Someone’s got to step it up… c’mon who wants it?

I apologize this isn’t a full fledged blog post or journal entry… I just wanted to say that from here on in I’ve decided that motivation truly does come from within. For any of you out there questioning whether you should run anymore… …do it for your teammates, do it for the highschool or college or club you vault for, do it for all those times in the future when you won’t be able to do it anymore, heck do it for me and all of the coaches that’ve ever taught you anything, but most importantly, DO IT FOR YOURSELF. You are the star of your life. You write your story and don’t let anyone else influence you otherwise. YOU ARE THE MAIN CHARACTER(!) and how your life unfolds is ultimately on you. Do it for yourself and for that fire and passion we’ve all come to know as competitive athletes. The only thing that matters when everything is said and done is whether or not you are happy with the life you’ve lived. Therefore, now is the time to take advantage of the opportunities you may not have when you’re older. So please, as a fellow athlete I urge everyone not to let the bad times get you down, or the unmotivated teammates discourage you from being your best, for when you look back it will all be insignificant and all that will matter is whether you tried your hardest or not, regardless of circumstances. Do it for YOU and show people you have what it takes to be an elite track athlete (that is why we’re here is it not?) I want to really thank everyone who’s helped me out of the funk I was in. Every response I got was much appreciated. I love you all and you guys really are the best; I couldn’t ask for a better vaulting family Finally, I’ll end with a quote that’s always been at the core of my track experience: RUN FAST and JUMP HIGH!!!

Well it’s most certainly been awhile since I’ve posted Miss me? hahaha just kidding. But seriously now, I bet everyone’s thinking oh jeeze here comes another philosophical vaulting post about who knows what and the olympics and cereal boxes… well sort of. Things have most certainly changed since then. Priorities have shifted, people have come and gone, and reasons for being competitive have changed. I’ll get right to the point in saying that I’ve sort of lost my step as far as wanting to compete is being concerned. Well I LOST my step, past tense and currently I’m in the process of getting it back. For those who don’t know I cleared 15’9″ at the Indoors All New England competition and split 49.0 in the 4 by 4 at the same meet. Personally it’s not something I expected to happen but I had had the goals of going sub 50 and getting a new PR for awhile and it was nice to finally have achieved those goals. However, this came with its vices as well. So as it turns out, most people compete in track for two reasons: 1. Being competitive for themselves due to an innate competitive spirit and 2. competing for their team that’s depending on them and also looking to them to do better. Obviously 2. has priority over 1. in most cases. This however, is where I’m having trouble. After meeting my goals indoor, I found a lack of motivation to continue to compete… due mostly to the fact that the WPI team this year has been everything but aka everyone’s competing for themselves under one team name. Obviously that’s something that I’m currently working on getting back with the help of Coach Chabot and the captains (who haven’t seemed to show much interest in leading lately aside from one). Needless to say though, this lack of team spirit was very discouraging and it got to the point where (just last week) I had to take a week off because I wasn’t competing at a level of competitiveness that I myself was happy with. Now as said before there are things being done as far as the team is concerned to fix the reasons why this happened team-side but for myself it’s proving to be a bit more difficult. I’ve always had a team to fall back on and keep pushing me forward and now they just aren’t there. Granted this’ll be getting better over the next few weekends and I’ll be working on helping myself out a bit more as well, but my reasons for posting all this is because I had a question for anyone who’s read this far into my post. Actually it’s more of a request… I’d like anyone reading this to give me a reason to be the best I can be when I compete in Track no matter what obstacles I may face in the future. Why do you think I should continue to compete to the best of my ability? And it can be anything personal to the most general answers. For example something as simple as “Compete for me” all the way to the meaning of life

P.S. Totally just spilled water all over myself… don’t you just hate those wide top water bottles that you go to drink out of and put it up just a little too much and it spills all over your shirt… it’s annoying… maybe it’s just me

This will be a long one people so sit back, relax, and prepare to get some insight on the mind of Kyle (concerning the vault) in these past few weeks. To start, I’d just like to say that vaulting for me since the beginning has been a passion. Something that I’ve ALWAYS loved to do and never saw it as just another track event or just something else to compete in at meets. I have and always will look forward to vaulting . So, in light of this, I must ashamedly admit that about two weeks ago I started questioning this passion of mine and the reasons why I vault. These questions being: Why do I still vault? Why should I put so much effort into track and the vault when I could just quit and have a normal college life? Why put myself through all the negative aspects of the vault? I mean it can hurt a lot, it always ends in failure (think about it), and it just takes so much effort and time to master. Also I have already shown people that I can be the best in D3 and I’ve won plenty of meets so why should I do it anymore? Now, let me tell you, this kind of attitude is quite… infectious if you will. To summarize, I asked some what if’s and a lot of why’s and doubted my reasons for vaulting in the first place. Not a good place/mind set to be in right before championships start. Even last weekend when I competed it affected me in my vault. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I vaulted way high over 15′ 6” (with most people saying it was about a foot over it if not more). However, because of this mind set, I allowed myself to be lazy after clearing it thinking “Ya I got this again… woopedeedoo” and consequently, right at that moment, I knocked the bar off with my elbow on the way down (it was my 3rd attempt too). I lost the meet to Greg Tao from MIT because I let that attitude affect me so much as to influence my vault. How could I let such an attitude affect my vault? I mean my vault is my pride and joy and it’s the culmination of all the efforts I put in to practices. Yet I let it affect me THAT much, making it a low point in my vaulting career I must admit. However, after some inspiring speeches from people close to me (girlfriend, mother, father, and Connor), I re-discovered my passion for the vault. I vault because it’s something I love and have always loved to do. I vault because I’m happy when I do and I find I inspire others. Among other things I’ve been told that I have the attitude that no matter what people say, whether impossible or not, if I believe I can do it, then I’ll do it. So, with respect to this attitude and the very recent re-discovery of my motivation to vault, I’ve doubled my efforts in reaching a goal I’ve had since the very beginning: becoming the best vaulter in the world and setting a new world record. Yes that means beating even the great Sergei Bubka (my hero and ultimately my greatest competition). Now some might say that’s reaching too far or the chances of it happening are very slim BUT (going off what I said earlier) I know I can make it. I will be the best in the world, I will get there someday. Cocky? Maybe a little bit, but for those who know me… not in the least, and I’m very, VERY appreciative of all the support I get . So for all you vaulters out there who question why you vault just remember how much you love it and never give up on your goals because you never know, you might be the best someday

P.S. Another goal of mine is to get my face on a cereal box

So the outdoor season officially started last saturday with our first outdoor meet here at WPI. Yay exciting I know . It wasn’t a bad meet, just got back into things with a clear of 15′ and a split of 50.4 in the 4 by 4. Then yesterday at the Engineer’s Cup (MIT vs. RPI vs. WPI) I vaulted 15′ again although I should’ve had roughly 15’6″ (?). Well it was 4.73m in metric at least and I was pretty comfortably over it except I came down on the bar twice :/ It was disappointing but I got on a new pole: 15’3″ 170. At least it looked like a 15’3″ because lined up next to the 15′ 165″ it was longer… either way it turned out that there was a vault off between me and Greg Tao from MIT and I lost . It was fairly disappointing but I realized that it’s only one meet’s loss and even though I did lose, I found out I could comfortably vault on a 170 and vault even higher than I have been vaulting lately. So moral of the story: a loss might suck sometimes but it’s important to focus more on what you learn from it Well off to study for a Stress in Structures Analysis test… yay…

YAAA just got back from D3 New England’s and I got second! yayy. Also, I cleared 15′ with one of the best jumps I’ve ever had! yay to that too haha. And I just barely missed 15′ 5″. Apparently it was because of being inside due to all the adrenaline and what not but still! It was so nice to finally have accomplished a goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year during just the indoor season. Shootin for 16′ outdoors by the way . So ya, I got to vault with Alex and some of the other vaulters from previous college meets. Good bunch of guys in my opinion. The guy that won it from MIT jumped 15’9″ which was pretty cool to watch. And then I ran the 4 by 4 relay… which we won’t talk about . Yep yep so that’s my second post. Hope everyone’s vaulting well and staying healthy

Hey everyone.  My first post on the blog yay! Hope I’m doing it right .  So in case people don’t know I’m going to WPI now majoring in Mechanical with a concentration in Aerospace.  I know, sounds fun right?  So I haven’t had too many hard classes so far, just some bad teachers but I’m keeping my GPA up enough to keep my scholarship so it’s all good.  Other than that school is fun meetin new people and stuff.  Track’s been going on for awhile now, including pre-season training.  Right now we’re more or less done with the smaller meets for the indoor season and are about to move on to some of the D3 championships.  I’m currently placed 1st for the D3 New England meet (yay) with a vault of 14’9″ at last weeks Tufts meet which is exciting, new PR for me.  Actually, I’m tied for first with Alex which will make for some great competition at the New England meet I’m sure.  And I’m currently on a 15’1″ 165 pole from 7 steps but I’m hoping to move up to a 15’6″ 160 pole sometime soon.   The only thing I don’t like about pole vault at WPI is that WPI’s Track and Field program doesn’t really get much funding so… no poles or pole vault coach to coach us every day.  However this is an excuse to see coach doug and iggy every tuesday and thursday up at Holy Cross , so there is a bright side to it all.    Other than that things have been going well at WPI and hopefully I’ll be able to post often and keep everyone updated, during classes or otherwise

P.S.  if anyone wants to watch at my 14’9″ vault and comment/criticize it, it’s on my facebook