Vaulting in the Big Leagues

Finally, the blog post you’ve all been waiting for (or didn’t know was coming) has finally arrived. I told Ingrid that I would post well over a month ago after PR-ing at 16′ 0.75” (4.90m), but I started and scrapped numerous blog posts due to the blasé subject matter and shameless self promotion. Let me sum it up as follows: biggest meet of the season + adrenaline + big pole + grippin’ and rippin’ = results. I wish I had more to say about it, but I just started my approach, blacked out, ended up on the pit and the bar was still up. The jump didn’t feel special, it just felt lucky. Today, however, I had some jumps that made every practice, every pole run, every session in the weight room worth it.

Let me set the scene: coming off an indoor season that was the best of my career on paper (a conference championship and a PR at the IC4A championship with a few other accolades to top it off), I approached this outdoor season with a feeling of apathy. How am I supposed to respond after meeting my career goals and draining every ounce of energy and willpower in the process? The hunger just wasn’t there, and I was scared as the Dickens that it wasn’t coming back. Worst of all, garbage weather and a stomach virus made the first three outdoor meets a wash. I knew things were bad when I told friends to not even bother coming to a home meet because I was uncertain about how I would perform. It seemed there would be no respite, but blessings often come in disguise.

This weekend’s Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton is usually one of my favorite meets of the Spring: we get to cut out early on a Friday morning, the weather’s usually nice, and the competition is always strong. It all started well enough, but my optimism was literally and figuratively dampened when I woke to the soft patter of rain drops on my hotel room windowsill. “Great,” I thought, “the pole vault Gods are frowning upon me again.”

After several hours of deliberation amongst the officials, the vault was moved inside to Princeton’s not-too-shabby field house. I felt like I’d caught a break, not having to deal with the weather and all, but you’d think I was running into a headwind based on how my warm ups went. Jump after jump, I struggled to move poles that I was crushing indoors. It seemed like I was in for another lackluster meet until a bit of advice I’d gotten from resident vault Yogi, Coach Hoogasian, popped into my head: on any given day, you don’t need to be on your biggest pole to jump your best. While this is a sentiment that has been echoed many times over, it was his countenance that popped into my head and encouraged me to swallow a slice of humble pie. Feeling like I had nothing to lose, I grabbed a 15′ pole that I was comfortable with for my last run-through, loaded it up, and got off the top unlike I have in a long time. It was that moment that captured the essence of pole vault that had been missing: fun.

Calm and composed, I cleared the first two heights of the meet (4.40m and 4.60m) on my first attempts. For lack of a better term, I could just FEEL it. It’s such an indescribable, but incredible feeling to be “in the zone”. The essence of which is so hard to capture and can be frustratingly ephemeral at times. Fortunately, I was able to catch lightning in a bottle, and I loved every second of it.

By the time I was up to attempt 4.80m (15’9”), I was ready to put together one of the most complete jumps of my career. Sure enough, despite a slight tap of my chest, I cleared the height, but most of all, I did it on a modest pole.

You see, the moral or the story here is that you can’t measure success in feet and inches. Yes, there’s a certain satisfaction to PR-ing or winning a meet, but there’s nothing quite like vaulting well. When everything comes together for a good jump, it’s like kissing that boy or girl that you’ve had a crush on for a long time. The weight of the world melts off your shoulders and you’re overcome by the most pure and infectious joy possible. This is why I pole vault, and this is why I will continue to pole vault until I’m wheelchair bound or suffering from the lasting side effects of enjoying the sport too much. I may never vault this high again, but I know darn well that I’ll be able to jump this well again, and you bet your boots that I’m going to have this much fun again.

As I’ve said before, this is a sport that can tie people in knots. While, we may struggle at times, it’s always an opportunity to take a step back and consider why we engage in such an esoteric and convoluted sport. I had a pleasant reminder today why I devote so much of my time and energy to vaulting, and I hope you all find what drives you.

Until next time, vault safe and vault happy!

So this is it folks, the blog entry you’ve all been waiting for. After countless re-writes and scrapped entries, I have decided to finally throw together some bloggage to boggle your minds. In an attempt to condense all of my thoughts and pole vault philosophies in one place, I ended up with a rambling diatribe that doesn’t actually say any of what I originally intended to say. It’s a start though, and hopefully this will provoke a more prolific output from yours truly. Without further adieu, on with the blog.

Being a college athlete is tiring. Being a college athlete and an engineer is downright exhausting. There’s enough time for everything, but balancing life on a day to day basis requires diligence and time management. While there’s still time to have fun on the weekends and on weeknights here and there, taming this two headed beast is a constant exercise in “keeping your eyes on the prize”. That having been said, I would not have done anything differently with my college experience. If electrical engineering is the nagging wife I’m married to, pole vaulting is the mistress on the side. The sports provides an invaluable respite from the frustration and agony of school, giving me something to feel positively about when everything else appears to be bleak. That is, however, when pole vaulting isn’t complicating my life even more.

Pole vaulting is 50% physical and 100% mental. Do the math. Don’t get it? Well let me lay it down for you like this: you can only jump as well as your head will allow you to. Never have I stood at the end of the runway, doubted myself, then successfully cleared a bar. If you can’t feel it happening, visualize it, and believe it’s going to happen, it’s not going to happen. Ever. Maintaining this confidence and positive attitude is what ties vaulters in knots. We all know how difficult it can be to cope with challenges like a new pole, a cross wind, and tired legs; competing at the peak of your ability against consistently good vaulters, however, magnifies everything. And when something goes wrong, the impact can be crippling.

The ongoing battle I have with pole vaulting is dealing with disappointments in a constructive way. Let’s face it, we’re not going to PR every meet, and it may take months to PR (or not even happen at all!), so it’s easy to feel like you are underperforming. In fact, there’s a sense of entitlement that comes with good performance: once we clear a height, we expect to be able to clear it every time. For this reason, the sport has such a “what have you done for me lately?” aspect to it, where poor recent performances can undermine months of good training and practice. Undoubtedly, there have been times where I felt like a washed up stiff who would never clear a bar again, but these lows only made the highs that much better.

Whenever I get bent out of shape over pole vaulting, I realize that it’s because I’m doing it for all the wrong reasons. The sport is about more than just competing and getting on the biggest pole you possibly can. It’s about getting off your butt, getting outside, and spending time doing something fun and unusual with good people. This mindset can make all the difference, both on the track and off, and it helped me to accomplish all of my goals for the semester.

This year I set the school record, won the Atlantic 10 Indoor and Outdoor championships, pulled a 3.5 GPA out of my hardest year of undergraduate classes, and had a darn good time doing it. After a year like that, it’s going to be hard to improve upon. Regardless, I’m proud to have these achievements and the invaluable experience gained while accomplishing them. College vaulting has been such a fulfilling experience, and I could fill pages just talking about all the perks and benefits that come with along with it. Moral of the story kids: eat your vegetables and grow up to be a big strong vaulter.

There’s so much more to say, but so little time, so I hope to see you all on the runway in Westborough!

You all remember the movie “She’s All That” starring Freddie Prinze Jr., right? Well for those who don’t, the film centers around a bet between high school heartthrob Prinze Jr. and another classmate that he can’t turn the bespectacled, mousey nerd played by Rachel Leigh Cook into a prom queen. Aside from the hunk status that me and FPJ share, there are many parallels that I feel can be drawn between myself and the film. Most notably, I would compare my indoor season to Cook’s character and her transition to being “all that”. Like Cook during the  the rising action in the film, my season showed promise, but was dominated by the forehead-slapping, sigh-releasing, curse-word-filled frustrating moments. Despite the set-backs, there was plenty to be optomistic about. We all know that Cook is a smokeshow, but obviously it takes a pair of contacts, some make-up, and wardrobe that doesn’t look like it came from a Nirvana music video before you realize it. Likewise, I’ve had some really good jumps this season, but I need a heavy coat of polish, especially off the top of the pole, before I can be prom queen, er, get the heights that I believe I’m capable of.

My break between indoor and outdoor seasons is going to be like the montage of clips, where in about 2 minutes time, Cook’s character undergoes a complete metamorphosis set to “Everything you Want” by Vertical Horizon. My personal montage will consist of clips of me drenched in sweat, toeing the line to do one last 200, setting up to do yet another 3-stepper, furiously benching several hundred pounds, and then swirling around a few erlenmeyer flasks in front of my face with a deeply inquisitive expression (clearly representing the academic spectrum of being a student athlete). When I emerge transformed from the cocoon, it will time for the outdoor season, and time for some domination on our home track here in Amherst.

With that lengthy analogy complete, I would just like to say it was wonderful seeing Alex, Kyle, Daly, Ingy and Coach Combs in my travels. The patriot network is growing like one of those slime molds you see in biology books, and it’s a pleasure to be part of the fungus. Hopefully I’ll be able to practice with you all at the Hit Quarters over my break, and we can all regale one another with the stories we’ve accumulated over the long fall and winter months.

On that note, I bid you adieu!

!THE IMPERVIOUS!

Merry Christmas, joyous Kwanzaa, and Happy Channukah to all. The holiday season is quickly approaching, and my approaches are getting more serious as the winter season looms. Apparently this is my third post (the first one is was an accident), and my most recent attempt at allowing everyone else to live vicariously through my blogging.

It sounds like most everyone else is wrapping things up academically, but I’m readying myself mentally and physically for the beating I’m going to take during this upcoming test gauntlet. My engineering classes are hard, but when the going gets tough, i get… however that cliche goes…

I’m getting some closure on the school end of the spectrum, but I really want a meet to culminate all of my fall training. Since Umass doens’t officially compete until the end of January, it’s tough to make it out to Boston with poles and a day that I don’t need to study or do work. Hopefully I’ll make it out to one of the BU mini-meets coming up wearing the Patriot colors loud and proud.

I feel like I’ve improved in a few key areas this fall, but what I feel most fortunate about is the fact that I didn’t regress. I struggled last year preparing for college competition and didn’t have the year I wanted to, but this year, I was able to carry the momentum from summer through the changing of seasons and I’m ready to hit the runway running (i’m so punny!). I’ve improved my game at the top a little bit and I’m quicker and more clean with my pull-turn and now I have something that I believe resembles a fly-away. I know that I can try and get faster and stronger, but I believe that an improvement in my PR will come from refined technique and focus. Lastly, I’ve been fortunate to stay healthy and I’ve had the benefit of an injury-free fall which has allowed me to practice without the burden of recovery.

I’m still hoping to eclipse 15′ in one of my first meets, but until I do it, it’s just a dream. Hopefully I’ll see all of your shining faces at the Hit Quarters right after I come back! I will end with a mantra that I’ve kept to this year which I think sums up the sport for me: “Good attitudes make good vaulters”

Can’t knock the hustle

Sean “The Impervious” Busch

Do you see that children? No need to look closer or squint, your eyes don’t deceive you. Yes, that is Sean Busch, aka Buschleague, aka the Imperator, aka the Impervious, aka Juan Carlos Delgado (says my New Mexico driver’s license, long story) writing his FIRST blog entry. Take a moment to savor the occasion, put on some party hats and crack some bubbly! You will have to excuse my year and a half absence from blogging as I’ve been trying hard to fight off a bad of the nerds, a little known disease which includes a tumorous growth from the chest known as a pocket protector and an unsightly swelling of the brain due to extreme engineering. Without further adieu, let’s get on with the blog shall we?

In light of previous blogs, I would like to declare myself the undisputed worldwide IMPERVIOUS of the pole vault as I am the only person bombastic enough to make this claim and the only male vaulter at Umass. Being the black sheep of the track team, I don’t really have someone train with, but I like running sprint workouts with the rest of the team and vaulting 2-3 days a week with the infamous coach Hoogasian. Each week’s workout is a mixed bag of running shenanigans, usually consisting of a bunch of hills, 300, 200, 200 x 2 (like brian said) amongst other sprint workouts, abs and plyos days, and 3 days of lifting a week . Suffice it to say, college track makes you faster and stronger and makes the occasional candid flex-in-the-mirror that much better (shameless!).

The vaulting has been good, but is about to get even better as the festivities are moving indoors for the winter. Christmas came early today as coach Hoogasian hopped off his sleigh with a sack of toys on his back, including some of Patriot’s “cannons” like a 15′ 170 (you can have it back as soon as we’re done, Mariah). Injury free, and full of youthful exuberance(!), I’m ready to test the waters of huge poles and get myself ready for some PRs indoors. The vault is now coming to the forefront of my training as I’ve spent most of the fall focusing on increasing my speed and refining my stride in anticipation of the winter.

Vaulting here has really made me miss all of you Patriot vaulters, as the experience is totally different now. Instead of getting to hang out for two and a half hours just vaulting and watching other vaulters, I have significantly less time to “chill” and I really need to condense my workouts to fit in my schedule. Also, I miss having the opportunity to mentor all you little cherubs and the rewarding, intangible sensation it gives me. The older vaulters I know tend to be really set in their ways and don’t react the same way to observations that you guys do. It has been nice, however, to give pointers to the “pro” (quoting “Mind Warp”) Kristin Bakinowski and watch her blast off.

Seeing as I’m getting a little verbose and my fingers are tired from all this typing, I think it’s about time to wrap it up. Thank you to all who have read this (if anyone actually DID read this) and i hope to write again. One last thing, if you want to stay aliiiiiiiiiive BE COOL ABOUT FIIIIIIIIRE SAFETY (be cool!)

Greetings avid Patriot vaulters,

It’s Sean, aka The Impervious, aka The Imperator, aka Buschleague, aka Juan Carlos Escobar (Only in New Mexico and Arizona), signing in for the first time this season, and EVER. This is an occassion worth celebrating so put on your party hats and crack some bubbly. And without further adieu, I would like to give you the premiere of my blog.

As I sit here ignoring this programming class, I would like provide some perspective for all the curious minds who would like to live vicariously through this blog. In a nutshell: college, track and otherwise, is the berries. This year is particularly special as our assistant coach quit over the summer making room for the one, the only, the renowned and legendary John Hoogasian!(!!!!) You all now the guy, and if you don’t, then you should. I did a double take when someone first dropped the news, but when I caught a glimpse Hoogasian cruising around the track Monday, I knew I didn’t need to pinch myself because it was real.