New Website Up And Running!

Hey guys, this is the final post on this blog. We've had a good run on here but it's time to step it up! Because I now have a full website with a blog as one of the pages. Check it out and please continue to follow and support me on my path to success as a professional pole vaulter. See ya on the new site!! jscottpolevault.com

5.50m/18'0.5" a day before deadline! PowerBar and New Site Coming Soon!!

I finally hurdled that 18 foot barrier that had been avoiding me all indoor season so far. It's been a big year for me so far in practice, nutritionally, physically, and mentally, but I just haven't gotten the results I've wanted yet. You better believe I'm still not even close to being satisfied with 5.50m, but it's a barrier nonetheless. 5.50m is the qualifying mark for the Indoor US Championships NEXT WEEKEND. I already booked my flight, hotel, and planned a flight straight from Albuquerque out to LA on the Tuesday after USA's to leave for Japan that same day. I finally got on my 5m 13.7 pole again and it proved to be a money pole once again! Before this weekend, my season best was 5.41m/17'9"... sub-par for a professional pole vaulter. Being consistently over 5.60m with a few meets over 5.70m and 5.80m over the next year, then higher from then on. Now that you know where my head's at, we'll find out where my results will be throughout the year. On Friday I jumped in the Missouri Collegiate Challenge with 12 other guys and opened up at 5.30m/17'4.5". I cleared it on my second attempt and 3 of us who cleared that decided to move up to 5.42m because we thought that would be the bar that would qualify us for USA's since there aren't many guys over 5.50m/18'0.5" (the automatic qualifying mark). None of us made 5.42m... I never even got a shot at 5.50m, which was my ultimate goal for this weekend. I had entered myself in both competitions at Missouri, the college meet on Friday and the High School/Open Meet on Saturday, held at the same track just in case I needed to jump in both. Well unfortunately I needed that second meet to attempt a higher qualifying mark. I already mentioned that my season best this indoor season was 5.41m... Well I decided to start the competition at 5.50m/18'0.5". I'm not sure how often other people start one of their most crucial competitions at a height I haven't even jumped yet this year. By gosh it was just what I needed! The girls competition started at 8:30am and lasted until 12:45pm. The boys comp started at 2:00pm and 6 hours later, I cleared 5.50m on my second attempt! It was a new record long competition that lasted 6.5 hours total. I proudly took up the last half hour! After I cleared 5.50m (by scraping it pretty good, ha) I moved up to 5.72m/18'9.25" (Olympic and World Championships Qualifying Standard, which I have to clear if I want to make it to those meets). I haven't seen the videos yet, but I had 2 good attempts at it which was what I really wanted. I need more attempts at higher bars like that which was part of the reason why I skipped all the way up to it. The other reason was because I jumped the day before and my legs were fried! To conclude this session, I have officially qualified for the US Indoor Championships next Sunday and I plan on competing for a spot on the podium! I will then fly from Albuquerque to LA, on to Japan, compete at the Nishida Cup in Toyota City on March 3rd, then come back to the States on the 4th!
On another note, I just accepted a sponsorship from PowerBar to be on their Team Elite! So I want to thank PowerBar for the awesome opportunity and I hope to make you a proud sponsor!! So everybody go buy something from PowerBar.com RIGHT NOW!
Last thing, I promise... Nevho Designs is currently building me a new website and I will be launching it by the end of this week if I can get stuff done on my end in time!!

Leap forward, big step backward.

Everytime I make a breakthrough in my vaulting, something else goes wrong. I've been trying so hard to be taller coming into my take-off and driving my chest forward in an attempt to get on longer, stiffer poles. Well apparently those aren't the best key words for me. Last weekend I competed in The New Balance Collegiate Invitational at The Armory in New York City. I felt fantastic during warmups and was determined to have a good day. I even took 2 attempts on my 5.10m - 14.0 flex pole in warmups but couldn't quite penetrate enough on it either time. But it was the biggest pole I'd ever planted outside of the meet itself. I ended up starting the meet at 5.30m/17' 4.5"on a 5m - 14.1, still the biggest pole I've ever started on but scraped the bar on the way down. I managed to clear it on my 3rd attempt, finally. I scraped the bar off on the backside all of my next 3 attempts at 5.40m/17'8.5" and was out of the meet. Nobody ended up clearing 5.40m but I don't care about that because IT WAS A COLLEGIATE MEET! I was embarrassed to say the least that I got 4th place in a college meet. The most frustrating part was feeling great at take-off every jump and still coming up short each time. I talked with my coach after the meet and we watched some film. We determined that it was my lack of "rowing" throughout the middle part of my jump that doesn't allow the pole to roll over into the pit like it should. The goal is to take-off tall and fast, while pushing the hands up in order to get the pole to bend correctly and create the elastic energy you need to perform a good vault. After you stretch through the take-off, you have to push your arms forward all the way to your hips while also swinging your legs in order to get upside down. Obviously it's not something easy to explain, especially in words on the world wide web, but this is at least my simplified version of vaulting. Once you do those essential steps, vaulting is easy. I just can't seem to do those few things in the same jump. I was taking off much better this meet, but then wasn't using my arms during the middle of the vault, which rolls the pole over into the pit if you do it in the right order. This created a loss of energy in the middle of my jump causing me to be thrown straight up in the air to fall straight back down on the backside of the bar. I made a short video of my last attempt at 5.40m where I slowed down the video so you can see the portion of my jump where I was not using my arms at all.



Yes, it's hard to see in the video but the bar does bounce off because my right nipple hit it. My mission this weekend is to improve on both aspects and jump like I was born to jump. I'm tellin you... if I can figure out how to do both of these things in the same jump on a big pole, it's going to blow your mind. I'm going to clear some big bars this year and I'm thinking they are going to come sooner rather than later. Oh and one last thing... I was just invited to represent the U.S. at a meet in Toyota City, Japan on March 3rd. Dreams are coming true after all!! Keep believing in me and we'll go far together! Thanks for reading my friend, My next competition is at the Tyson Invitational at The University of Arkansas. I'm actually on the KU Team bus right now on my way. I'll let you know how it goes! It also might be televised so I'll be sure to update you with details if it is. Wish me luck!

5.37m at the Pole Vault Summit...

Height: 5.37m or 17' 7.25"
Approach: 18 steps
Pole: 5m - 14.5
Place: 3rd

Boy did I get dominated by Brad Walker... haha. That was such a fun competition last night though! Nine of the country's best vaulters competing in front of 1500 pole vault fanatics... you just can't beat that. The energy in the arena was unreal and it got LOUD. My jumping didn't amount to the hype I tried to create on my last post, but man am I close to doing some big things! I opened up at 5.22m/17'1.5" and blew over it on the first attempt. Then I cleared 5.37m/17'7.25" on my first attempt but almost brushed it on the way down. Luckily I didn't touch it very hard and it stayed up, because the height was definitely there. Then the bar goes to 5.52m/18'1.25" and I started doing things a little too good... I started running faster than I ever have. They had "timing gates" that measured our velocity at the last 10 meters from take-off on every jump. I'm not sure how accurate they are so I'll refrain from telling you the speed they recorded until I get a further in-depth analysis from our biomechanist later today. But I was smokin! My legs can vouch for that fact today as they are extremely tired and sore. So I missed all three of my attempts at 5.52m and that was that. I ended up with 3rd place again this year and not nearly as high as I wanted, but that's all a part of the game. My time will come and I must be patient with the bars and urgent with my training and skill. Brad had an amazing night last night from my perspective. He cleared 5.80m/19'0.25" by a foot but didn't quite get 5.91m/19'4.75". He knows he could've had that bar with any of his other jumps but it just didn't happen last night. He's looking really good and I couldn't be more excited to get to jump with him and have him bring me up to his level. It is amazing for American pole vaulting what he did last night. To open up the season in January with 5.80m is impressive to say the least, but its a big year for everyone this year with the Olympics coming up and him jumping so well is only going to bring the rest of us up with him! I'm so stoked for the future of American vaulting and my own career as well. I have big goals for this season and I hope you all get to watch me accomplish them ;) Onward and Upward!

Life At The UCS Spirit Reno Pole Vault Summit

This is only my 3rd time (2nd as an elite) at the UCS Spirit Reno Pole Vault Summit, and i just can't see how it can get better, but it does every year!! If you love the pole vault and you've never been out here, get your butt in gear and plan on it for next year because it is truly a unique experience. Last year when I arrived, hardly any kids and high schoolers knew who I was. Only some of the major fans of the sport and the local midwest kids. And then after the competition where I got 3rd place at 5.50m/18' 0.5" with a sweet hair design and a green mohawk, everyone wanted my autograph and suddenly I realized that I belonged in this sport as a professional. This year when I arrived... people knew who I was. That was the coolest feeling in the world. I was even signing autographs and talking to groups of kids and fans at the airport on the way out here! This event is the single most inspiring and motivational event in the world for an emerging elite athlete, someone who can vault higher than most collegiate vaulters, yet not quite competitive enough to keep up with the best in the world at most competitions. Being around all of these younger vaulters who look up to us and want autographs is inspiring in itself, and then to also be around world champions, olympic champions, world record holders, and everyone in between is just plain sobering. The whole weekend the discussion among the elites is to raise expectations and stop shooting for 5.72m or 5.80... We need to be shooting for 5.90m and 6.00m and higher. Just getting 5.72 and qualifying for the Olympics isn't going to get us a medal or even in the top 8 most likely. The trend has been that the Olympic Champion usually has to clear a new Olympic Record to win. I'm all for raising expectations and I don't think I've ever had a problem with mine being too low, as my goals are constantly to be the best vaulter in the world. Of course I want 5.72m, but as Brad Walker put it, it should just be a stepping stone in the journey to be the best. And that's where my head's at. I'm physically able to be the best pole vaulter in the world right now, at this very moment. There is nothing I NEED to do differently, training wise. I just need to vault higher, because that's the bottom line. Grow a pair, get on bigger poles, run faster, plant higher, and clear the freakin monster bars like I was made to do. I plan on starting that strategy tonight and I'm more than excited to jump with all of these elite guys tonight in front of the best pole vault fans in the world. And just because I admire the guy and hope that I can compete on his level soon, I'll say one last thing....... Bring it on Brad Walker. I don't know about the other guys, but I want to go head-to-head. Let's dance!

2012 Pole Vault Summit Intro Video

Here's my video for the 2012 Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada that takes place next weekend (January 20-21). I had some help from my friend, Micah Brown in shooting the beginning footage, and I edited it. He did an awesome job shooting some quality stuff that I could work with, so thanks Micah! Hope all of you like it, and I hope I see you next week! All of the elite vaulters' videos will be posted on the Pole Vault Summit - Preparing for the Summit page. Check em all out!

5.41m - 17' 9" at Wichita State

Height: 5.41m or 17' 9"
Approach: 18 steps
Pole: 5m - 14.1
Place: 2nd

This week was WAYYY better than last week... I gotta admit, I was a little worried about my performance last weekend, but I feel much better after jumping 14 inches higher yesterday. It was my first meet from my long run (18 steps) and I got on the biggest pole I've ever gotten on indoors - 5m - 13.7 (205lb). I jumped my PR of 5.71m/18'8.75 on that pole, as well as 5.70m/18'8.25" this past summer. So basically it's my money pole. I jumped on it confidently, which was a great accomplishment for me, mentally. This year has been great so far in all aspects, and it's only 2 meets old! I opened up the meet on Thursday at 5.06m/16'7.25" and cleared it first attempt, then cleared 5.21m/17'1" on either my first or second attempt, I forgot, ha. Jack Whitt opened up at this height and cleared it with ease. The bar then raised to 5.31m/17'5" and Jack passed. I cleared it on my first attempt I believe. Next, we go to 5.41m/17'9" and I cleared it either first or second... I need to write this stuff down right away, my memory is just sad... Anyway, Jack and I both clear it and we move to 5.51m/18'1" to attempt a new facility and meet record. It is also an important bar for me as 5.50m/18'0.5" is the qualifying bar for the US Indoor Championships in February. I'm still ahead of Jack at this point of the meet and I'm up first. I blew right through my 5m - 14.1 and grabbed my 13.7 for the next jump. Jack misses... I take my 2nd attempt and barrrrely nicked the bar on the backside and it falls as I hit the mats. Jack misses again, too. This is it, my last jump of the competition unless I step it up and clean up my jump. I bolt down the runway and do the exact same thing... Hit the bar with my chest on my descent. And Jack comes down and cleared it smoothly for the win. Oh well, I guess I won't have an undefeated season, haha. I was extremely happy for my progress, especially in less than a week. My first practice at my long run was on Tuesday but yesterday felt like I never stopped for an off-season. It was fantastic. And I got on massive poles and had plenty of height over 5.51m, which is great this early in the year, with my rough, early-season technique. Jack put together a great video of us jumping yesterday which I will put at the bottom of this post. I can't wait for the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada next week! I hope all of you are either going this year, or have a chance to go at least once in your life. It's an incredible event with more pole vaulting energy than anywhere else in the world. I vault next Friday, I believe. I worked all day today on an intro video of myself that the Summit asked all of the elite vaulters to do for them. I'm no video-editor, but I think it turned out pretty sweet! I'll post it on here after it gets posted on the UCS Spirit Pole Vault Summit website.

First Meet Of 2012 In The Books

Height: 5.05m or 16' 6.75"
Approach: 14 steps
Pole: 5m - 15.3
Place: 1st

Boy was that a hell of a first meet... It was completely not how I pictured it in my head, even after warmups, which went very well. I opened up at 5.05m and blew through on my first attempt. I went up a pole and sailed over it on my second attempt. Boom, first bar of 2012 and a long road ahead... Well when I went to the next bar of 5.20m or 17', the 5m - 15.3 pole that I had just used felt extremely soft and didn't give me anything in return. I brushed the bar off on the way down and was very confused that I might have not moved the pole like I should've. My take-off and positions were great except I wasn't clearing the bar. I was really confused and so was coach, but we decided to go UP a pole and see what happens. We moved the standards in a little and went up to my 5m - 14.9 and I blew through it. Just as we suspected, the 15.3 was too soft so it was over-bending and "shooting" me straight up and straight back down. So by going up to the next pole, we eliminated the over-bend and just about cleared the bar by a foot. Instead, I brushed it on the way up and there goes my second attempt at the scrawny 17' bar. We decided to take the last jump with the standards as far back as they would go and I still hit it coming out up top. Which means either the pole was giving me nothing or I was flagging out really bad/kicking out at the bar. I don't feel like I was kicking out that bad but the whole meet was so weird that who knows, I definitely could've been. Long story short, I had a jump-off with one of the vaulters on the KU team that I've trained with for the past year and a half, Alex Bishop. We were tied at 17' so we each got another crack at it. We both missed the bar on our fourth attempt so it was lowered 5 centimeters, due to the "jump-off, no-tie for 1st place rule"... We missed again, it dropped 5cm lower... and we missed again... and one more time... and then finally I made 5m or 16' 4.75" and he missed. We were exhausted and both pretty upset with ourselves for not doing any better than that during the jump-off. But I came out with the win and that's really all I wanted to say for this entire blog post is that I won. It's pretty embarrassing to have to tell you that I jumped 5.05m at any point during an Olympic year at the age of 23, but it happened and I must move on. Hopefully you still have faith in me because I feel that good things are coming. First, I need to adjust to my recent weight gain of 8 pounds and speed I have acquired over the last 3 months. I have been hitting the weight room hard and eating right and taking a whey protein supplement in order to help gain some muscle mass. I did just that and now I weigh a consistent 184 lbs, which is a big difference on a pole. We'll just have to see how this indoor season goes! Wish me luck! I'm hoping to jump at K-State next week from a long run to prepare for the Reno Pole Vault Summit. I hope it goes a little (a lot) better!

All I Wanna Do Is Sleep

Sleep is so unbelievable important in my sport. Sometimes I take for granted the opportunities I have in front of me and the amount of time I have to get a good night's sleep. Of course I celebrated New Year's Eve with some champaign and not going to bed until 1am or so, but I figured waking up after 10am like I did would've given me the amount of rest I needed to stay on track. Wrong. At times like these, when I'm at work (bored) and had a ridiculously hard time getting out of bed, I remember how important it is to stay on a sleeping schedule. My body definitely needs one nowadays. I mean, by no means am I old, but I used to be able to sleep just a few hours a night and train just fine, but it wasn't until I found the value of sleep when my training capacity increased by leaps and bounds. Sunday night I got about 8 hours of sleep and last night I got 7... it may seem like a normal, if not substantial amount of sleep for you, but my body needs more than that to function at 100%. I need at least 8-9 hours of sleep to feel rested and ready to take on the world. Today is a vaulting day and I absolutely, with all my might, disgustingly HATE not feeling 100% on a vault day. I'm pretty upset with myself for not getting enough rest lately because having good vault sessions is key to one's confidence on a pole. I need these vault sessions to count, especially since we only vault twice a week. Over the holidays I couldn't vault for a week and a half and I've only had two vault sessions in the past 3 weeks! I like to take full advantage of ALL of my few vaulting opportunities. Advice to all: If you want to be successful, treat your body like the machine that it is... There is no excuse for not fueling and refueling and maintaining it as a finely-tuned piece of equipment. It's the only one you'll have so keep it running smoothly!
I failed at this for most of my life, so don't make the same mistakes I have!

2012 Tentative Competition Schedule

Happy New Year loyal fan! This year is going to be the best year in my pole vaulting career. I hope all of you are as excited as I am about everything this year has in store. Training has been going really well the last few weeks and I'm excited to compete this weekend! My first meet is this coming Saturday, January 7th here in Lawrence, Kansas at our newly re-surfaced facility. I was out of town from the 20th through the 27th to visit my family in Georgia. It was a great holiday and I always realize how much I miss them when I visit. Julia spent the holidays with her family here in Kansas this year and had a great time with her sisters. After I got back in town last Tuesday, I worked out the travel day on Wednesday and had a great vault session on Thursday. It was the best vault practice from 14 steps I've had so far this year. Coach and I were very pleased about it, as I was finally able to get a fluid, powerful take-off from 14 steps and moved through quite a few bigger poles. I ended up on a 5m - 15.3 flex pole, gripping 4.75m, and getting over a bungee at 5.50m. It was a good rhythmic practice and I felt really solid on my run. I still have a brazillion things I wanna work on so I'm definitely not satisfied, but things are definitely headed in the right direction! So as I was saying, my first competition is in 6 days from now and I am really excited. I'm not expecting much since it is the first meet of the indoor season, but as every athlete, we're always anxious, nervous, and excited about our first meets. Are we gonna set a high standard from the get-go and send our confidence up on a rocket? Or are we going to realize how much work we still have to do to prepare for the rest of the season? It's always a toss-up, but I feel pretty confident about being more consistent this season. I feel like now I have the experience of a veteran athlete in the professional vaulting scene, at least on a domestic level. Vaulting overseas is still an unforeseen adventure waiting on me, but I'm confident I can take on any competition on any level in this country. I have a few meets on my schedule at the moment and I wanted to share them with you. Nothing is set in stone and things could change entirely, but as of now, here is my plan for meets for the indoor season:

January 7 - Home Meet @ KU
January 20,21 - Pole Vault Summit @ Reno, Nevada
January 27 - Jayhawk Invitational @ KU
February 3,4 - New Balance Collegiate Invitational @ New York, New York
February 10,11 - Tyson Invitational @ University of Arkansas
February 25,26 - US Indoor Championships @ Albuquerque, New Mexico
March 9-11 - Indoor World Championships @ Istanbul, Turkey

Wish me luck this weekend! I think I'll be jumping from 14 steps still but moving back to 18 steps is a possibility. I'll be sure to post a meet update after the competition. I hope all of you athletes set some high goals for 2012. Always aim high, but stay in touch with reality. I've always set abnormally high goals, but how else are you going to achieve true greatness if you aren't always striving for something that no one else dares to think you can achieve. Do your best and never settle. Have a wonderful New Year and go get your goals!!

Gymnastics Training

For the past few months, Ryan and I have been going to Lawrence Gymnastics Academy to work on some fundamentals of body movement and basic "swinging" skills. So far we've gotten a lot better at a lot of things, ha. The first time we went, we had absolutely no idea what the heck we were doing. We jumped on the trampoline a little bit, swung on the bar, and did some flips into the foam pit. Now it's a whole other story! Coach Hays gave us some direction and workouts for us to do while we're in there and I tell ya, gymnastics is no joke. To anyone who ever excelled in the sport, props to ya. My body can hardly handle half of the things we do in there. But we've gotten to where we are doing giants on the high bar (with the sleeve bar of course), we can do all kinds of flips on the spring floor, we can do kips on the bar, a few random things on the rings and some just plain dumb tricks in there. Our first mission when we started going was to be able to do a giant. If any of you do not know what that is, it's where you swing all the way around the bar 360 degrees. What we once thought was an impossible feat, we have now mastered and moved on to more challenging tasks. Our goal, in doing this type of training was to gain more of an understanding of body awareness, control, and balance. Coach thought it would assist in our vaulting and I couldn't agree more. We've benefitted greatly from these skills and look forward to continuing our gymnastics training throughout the year. The purpose of the giants are to learn how to swing a hollow body upside down. It takes a specific group of muscles and exact timing on the bar in order to successfully swing 360 degrees. Here is a video of my first time successfully getting the giants!



This was a couple months ago, so I apologize for the delay. I've gotten better at them since then and can now go forwards when I want to and backwards when I want to, unlike in that video where I accidentally went backwards before I went forwards, haha. Here's another trick we learned how to do. Yea yea, I know it's on the chick bars but it's fun as hell to do! We call it the monkey swing, but I couldn't tell you what it's actually called, if there's even a name for it. But if I've learned anything in gymnastics, there's a name for everything.



Here's another cool thing I learned how to do. Very basic and not impressive to anyone athletic, but it's fun for me! It's a "front full" I think. It's just a front flip with a full turn and a half. It looks like I used the trampoline in this video but this was just from the spring floor. Whenever I use the trampoline, I pretty much jump into the wall... I don't have a whole lot of control yet.



My latest goal is to be able to spin around on the pommel horse. It's one of the most difficult things I think I've ever attempted. I dont know what it is, but I have the most trouble on this apparatus! I've almost gotten to where I can spin all the way around once, but not quite yet. When I get this, I'll definitely post a video cuz it'll be a huge accomplishment for me! I feel so close but so far from getting it. This concludes today's update, but there's a lot more to come! I'm so behind and have a lot to catch you all up on! I'm excited to write, but I just got so busy and overwhelmed with everything these last few months that time just flew by. I'll do my best to provide you with a few more updates within the next couple weeks so you don't forget about me ;)

If I don't update again before Christmas, have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year! I hope you got to visit with your family and friends a little bit. I'll finally be able to catch up with some old friends from high school tomorrow night since I haven't been home in a year. Lookin forward to it! Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a goodnight!

Success at the Convention!

We did it guys! We got the resolution passed to allow athletes in track meets, cross country races, and road races to be able to sport as many logos in as many places as they want to if the competition is on domestic soil and put on by USATF! Now I don't know all of the little details but in a round-a-bout way, that's the bottom line. Please don't quote me on this, because the I'm sure there will be other, more reliable sources to read the exact ruling, or removal of an existing ruling. A lot went on this weekend so I am a little confused myself, but what I was assured of was that, at the US Indoor Championships this coming year, I will be able to wear whatever jersey I prefer (so long as the jersey, itself is within the uniform rules), and I can have as many logos or sponsors, and whatever size I prefer. Now, granted, I may have a big fat ZERO sponsors on my jersey, because I have yet to put any effort into providing this opportunity to my sponsors, but I am very excited about the opportunity for these rights. This also means I can sport a sponsor's logo or name in my hair, which I intend to take advantage of if anyone is interested in this unique, yet very strange opportunity, haha. We'll see what road this decision leads to, but I'm excited as heck to start finding local businesses who would be interested in supporting a future Olympian in his early stages of development! If, by chance, there is anyone interested in these opportunities reading my blog right now, please contact me and let me know! Right now you would be first in line! As for the men working behind the scenes and on the front line for the athletes in this movement forward, I would like to say thank you to everyone involved, especially Jon Drummond. Without you, we would've gotten nowhere on this and I personally thank you. And thank you to all USATF directors and managers and board members for a great experience this weekend!
I would also like for yall to know, I just took a ride up into the St. Louis Arch and it was AWESOME! I had no idea the tram cars were little, round pods that they squeezed 5 people into. It was NOT a place for people affected by claustrophobia. Here are some pictures from the top of the Arch!

Looking down from the top

Looking down one side

We stayed in the amazing Hyatt Regency on the right

The vast Western Wilderness

Busch Stadium

The Rams Stadium

Looking over the Mississippi River to the East

The view inside the top of the Arch

USATF Annual Convention

I'm here at the 2011 USATF Annual Convention in St. Louis and havin a great time. I don't know why every athlete who's able to get funded doesn't come to these things. I've been the biggest sponge here so far and even spoke up in a few of the meetings so far. I arrived on Wednesday and leave on Sunday. And since I drove, I'll get reimbursed for my gas money, and THEN some. Mostly, these conventions are like stockholder's meetings. Athletes, Coaches, Officials, Agents, Sponsors, Meet Directors, USATF Boardmembers, and other entities come together to vote on rules, legislation, proposed competitions, you name it. This is where all of those decisions are made and so far, we're making good progress. Athletes of the Athlete Advisory Committee (AAC) are making a stand for the ability to have multiple sponsor's logos on jerseys. The current "guideline" that is being enforced at domestic, sanctioned competitions is that only one logo can be present on an athletes' body a certain number of places, yada yada yada... The USATF was actually just trying to follow the rules of the IAAF, which isn't necessary. Long story short, there's a resolution proposal that is going to change this being voted on in a meeting Sunday morning. Yes, I will be present and yes, I am passionate and excited about it. I'll let you know how it goes and I promise more updates are coming your way about my recent training! From St. Louis, Good night!

I haven't forgotten about you!

I promise I haven't given up on the blog! I just haven't had much to blog about. But as we're getting into the heart of my off-season training, I'll have more to discuss. So hang in there and get ready for a fun ride with me on the road to the London Olympics!

Things to be discussed soon:
-Gymnastics training
-Dealing with a busy schedule
-Nutrition plan! (a first for me, but loving it!)
-Tentative 2012 competition schedule

I'M ENGAGED!!

She said yes on last Friday night, Sept 23, 2011. I had it all planned out for the weeks prior and finally popped the question. My knees were shakin worse than Baylor's when Texas A&M decided to leave the Big XII. I had bought the ring a few months ago and man is that a tough thing to hide when you live together! But she was completely surprised when I got down on my knee and she loved all of it! So I guess now I can call her my fiance! Thats cool by itself. I've never been able to do that before! cool!

I just started back up with my training for this next season. It's a big one, with the 2012 US Olympic Trials next summer. I'm more than excited, and I'm ready to get the ball rollin! I lifted Monday, Wednesday, and about to lift today. I say this every year but this year it's true... I've never been this sore! Take 3 weeks off and I'm a piece a dough apparently! I got after it pretty hard though for this first week and I'm lookin forward to my weights coach writing up a good workout plan for me next week. This week I was kind of on my own just gettin my body goin again. My shoulder is healing up well from incident in Pueblo a month ago. And my body feels like its almost 100% and ready to bring on the pain. I'll keep you updated with my workouts once I start them! Oh, have you seen any of the "Insanity" work out videos? or tried them? I did one that I found on youtube last night just to do some kind of workout. I'll tell you straight up... I couldn't do it. I made it about 15 minutes before I had to stop for a few minutes. It was a 20 minute workout that's pretty nonstop and I was sweating more than I have in a while, haha. I wanna start doing more fitness-type stuff like that cuz it's different than what I usually do and I like that. If i could do a different workout every day for an entire year of my life, I would in a heartbeat. I have doing repetitive workouts every week, but then again, I don't know how beneficial either way is because I just do what I'm told most of the time. Ha, most of the time... that just came out. Woops. Anyway, I need to get my butt out of bed and do some weights! Peace!

Success!

I ran a 23:09.1! I was shooting for sub-23, but I'm definitely excited about running as close to that time as I did. My #1 goal was achieved... I never stopped running. I ran (jogged) constantly for 23 minutes and that was best feeling I've had in a while! Of course there were several times when I wanted to stop running, but I paced myself pretty well for not knowing what that pace should be, haha. The last 200 yards, I started feeling certain I was gonna yack before I made it across the line so I started running down the side of the course, just in case. Another runner was kicking even harder than I was from a long way behind me and tried to pass me right at the line. As dead as I felt, I was able to surge a little bit harder and hold him off... Another personal success. Right when I crossed the line I grabbed a big trash can and took it behind the timing trailor away from the crowd in case the demons were unleashed. Amazingly, to me, I felt better just after a minute or so and ended up not having to yack. All that being said, it was definitely a good day. And although my body is extremely sore and tired and just plain hurting, I think it was a good way to get back started into the season. I'll start practicing this week and I'm really excited. I'll keep you posted! Onward and Upward!

My second 5k... woo hoo?

Yup! Tomorrow morning (Saturday) I'm running the second 5k of my career and I'm actually really excited. My first one was back in the summer of '09 that I ran just for fun and to help support breast cancer. Ok my ex girlfriend talked me into doing it. Let me inform you that she runs cross country on the national level and I gave it my best to keep up with her right off the line. BIG mistake. I was even with her for mayyybe 500m before i started gasping for breath and cursing the gods. I vowed that was the last 5k I'd ever do. I had to stop and walk 3 different times during that race, while reaching out to try to grab the shirt tails of countless senior citizens and fat kids. I just looked up my time online and I ran/walked/cried a 24:00.83. But things change when you graduate college and you choose to be an athlete on your own terms with all the freedom in the world. No, I'm not good at 5k's. No, I'm not a distance runner. But why can't I do those things to better myself as a person as well as an athlete? Who says I can't be a good runner? Why do people assume I just pole vault all the time? Can I change those perceptions? Can I do whatever I want and not have anyone tell me whether I should or shouldn't? These are the kinds of questions you start asking yourself after collegiate athletics. It's an un-shackling of a chain tied around your feet. I'm finally free to make money doing the sport I love, have any job I can get, and start a new life with whoever I choose! (you're so lucky Julia ;) ... I guess the point I'm trying to make is that life is good, full of opportunities and challenges, but you have to make something of it. I've said this before and my coach was the one who I first heard say it: See how good you can be today. Go out there and see what you can accomplish. Everyone has the ability to break some sort of record on any given day. You just have to want it bad enough and go out on a limb. Take some risks. Do what makes you happy and you'll never regret it. I'm running this 5k tomorrow out of pure love of the game. Which game? THE game. The game we play every day. The game that never ends, that has no point scale, that has no losers - only winners and those who didn't want to play. Tomorrow morning, my knees are gonna hurt, my lungs will be full of cold, wet, tired air, and my time will be less that many of the runners out there... But I'm gonna win this game. My goal is to run a minute faster than my PR. I need to break 23 minutes while not allowing myself to stop and walk. I could go on for days trying to explain the thoughts in my head about sports, life, winning, and playing... but I'll save the rest for now as I need to get some sleep before my 8:00am race. Wish me luck! But I already know the outcome. It's gonna be a win in my book.

Videos from Colorado, finally!

Well folks, after finding and watching the video from the meet, I take back a lot of what I said in my previous post. Turns out you only remember what you want to. I completely forgot that I bailed out on my first attempt on the 5m 14.5. And I hit one off because I went completely sideways. I think it was 18' but I don't wanna watch em again so you can see for yourself ha. I wasn't very happy with the video. I felt a lot better than I looked. You could argue that I'm too hard on myself but I don't believe so. I mean, I love some of my vaults from the Factory vault. So I occasionally like my vaults, I just have such an eye for perfection and I know exactly what my vault should look like in my head and it never happens, ha. I'll get there, I promise, but I'm not even close. I got a lot of improvements to make but I'm ready to start fighting harder than I ever did in college.

Here are the videos of my jumps from the meet on September 3rd. Also, on the website, they have video from all of the Elite competition so you should check out some of the other vaulters! Enjoy!

16' 6" - 1st attempt

17' - 1st attempt

17' - 2nd attempt

17' - 3rd attempt

17' 6" - 1st attempt

17' 6" - 2nd attempt

17' 6" - 3rd attempt

18' - 1st attempt (only attempt at this height, then passed)

18' 4" - 1st attempt

18' 4" - 2nd attempt (last attempt)

Colorado State Fair Vault

Obviously you know I didn't jump as well as I had hoped, since I'm just now posting a recap of the meet from over a week ago. The first thing I have to say is that I had a GREAT weekend in Colorado! Julia and I drove out there Friday morning and drove back Monday morning. It was absolutely great weather and we camped out all three nights! It was so much fun, more fun than I've had in a while. We were just so care-free and did whatever we wanted for 4 days. That doesn't come around very often with our busy lives, so it was well-appreciated. Anyway, I jumped 5.35m/17' 6.5" for 4th place. Everything I had accomplished in practice that week, I lost it during the competition, ha. Ok well I had one excuse for sure... My very first approach down the runway with a pole, just to catch my step, I slipped off the runway and did a shoulder-dive into the box (the runway was about 9" high on the road, like usual) Both of my knees were scraped up pretty bad... my shin, elbow, and hand were also scraped, bruised or really hurting. I was certain at that point that I was going to go back to my short 10 step approach and just jump from there. Obviously I wouldn't jump that high going from 10 steps compared to 18, but I hadn't jumped from 18 steps in a couple weeks and I wasn't able to do very many pole runs from that run during that time either. That equals me not being very confident from that long of an approach after taking a spill like I did. But after walking around for about 10 minutes trying to find some bandaids and looking for poles I could borrow from a short run, it didn't feel right. I was determined to jump high and it was my last meet of the season, so I decided to give my long run another shot. Since I slipped off the right side of the runway, I slid to the left and ran down the left side of the runway the whole way down. It took me a few more jumps than usual during warmups to try to gain my confidence back and I thought I did that pretty well. The meet starts and when the bar goes up to my opening height of 16' 6", I'm ready. I felt good about my warmups (not including my fall, ha) so I grabbed my 5m 14.9 and smoked it. I'm feeling good, the crowd is louder than I'd experienced at most meets this summer, so I was jacked up and ready to win this thing. The bar goes up to 17' and I'm wayyy over it, but come down shallow and hit the bar. I finally clear on my 3rd attempt after moving the standards up all the way to 50... the closest I've had the standards EVER. But I put my pride aside and did what I had to do. Usually I keep the standards back and make myself do things better and penetrate further on the pole and clear the bar that way. But that wasn't the day... there was money on the line. Money that was going to end up paying for that trip! The whole week of practice before the meet, I had been very successful at getting my chest through further and thought I could transfer those techniques over to long run with only a little bit of effort... not the case. And with my confidence shattered from the get-go, I accepted the fact that I probably wasn't going to do anything extraordinary during the meet and just did the quick fixes to make as many bars as I could. The bar goes up to 17' 6" and the same thing happens... hit it on the way down, hit it on the way down, barely make it on the third attempt. Whew... Still in it. The bar goes up to 18' and I do the same thing and come up short for the first attempt. Paul Litchfield clears the bar on his first attempt so I pass up to the next height 18' 4.5" for my remaining 2 attempts. Rory Quiller does the same thing and so we both go to 18' 4.5" with 2 attempts and Paul with 3 attempts. I finally do what I wanna do and get my chest through and get a fantastic jump! Unfortunately, the standards were at 50 so I hit it on the way up... Bitter-sweet moment... Now I have to decide whether to stay determined to get another good jump and move the standards back to 60 or keep them at 50 and bank on the fact that the majority of my jumps have been shallow so I'll play that card. I pick choice #1 and it was wrong. I had a shallow jump with the standards at 60 and barely hit it on the way down. But that's not all that happened. Right when I hit the take-off and left the ground, the back of my left shoulder instantly hurt. It wasn't a "pop", but it felt like I pulled something. I'm blaming my 3rd attempt miss on that fact alone, haha. I felt great on the runway, had a decent take-off position, but just got really thrown off after feeling that pain halfway through the vault. Game over. Paul won with 18', Rory got 2nd on misses, April Steiner got 3rd with her height of 14' 6" I think?? and I got 4th with 17'6". It turns out I strained my Teres Major, a muscle that is involved with similar movements of the lat. Turns out you use it a lot when you take off and start to row, especially. I'm currently rehabbing it, and it feel much better now. It's not going to be a game-changer by any means, just annoying and painful for a week or so. Luckily that was the last jump of the last meet of the season for me. Who knows what caused it to strain because I've never had any problems with that territory of my body. I think it may have been the fact that there was a headwind the whole time and I may have been a little tense during each jump. Regardless, it's healing up and I'll be good to go in a couple weeks after my "off-season" is over ha, yea... a couple weeks = my off-season. Tell me what sport competes for 10 months and then only gets 2 weeks of an off-season. That's the sacrifice of being a Professional Athlete and I'm more than willing to make it. Since I'll be taking the next week or so off, I wont have much to say so I'll talk to you again when I do. In the mean-time, I'll try to find video from the Colorado meet because Julia wasn't able to film. Everyone was telling me that I was over every bar by at least a foot so I'm anxious to see what they were talking about haha. I'll try to post again soon.
God Bless the men and women who gave their lives 10 years ago. I'll never forget.

Best Short Run Practice... Ever?!

Tonight I jumped with Ryan and Kevin (Ryan's younger brother and a senior on the KU team). Kevin only did some straight pole stuff since he's starting college practice with the rest of the team next week and they're on a slightly different schedule than Ryan and I will be on. So Ryan and I were figuring some things out tonight and every time I landed, I wanted to go back and do it again. I haven't been this excited to pole vault in a while and the last week for me has been exceptionally exciting. Perhaps it's the World Championships and seeing that a 22 year old won with 5.90m/19' 4.25"... Maybe it's because I'm back on course with figuring things out about my own technique and forgetting about Kentucky finally. But I've come to a conclusion that it's a little bit of both. Ok, a LOT of both. I watched the whole meet in Daegu and then watched some other videos of the guys that were there that I really liked. I love Lazaro Borges vault. From his take-off to his push-off, I love it. So I've been analyzing some videos and comparing them to mine, particularly my jumps at Texas Relays in 2010 when I set my PR. My attempt at 5.91m/19' 4.5" was quite close. For only having one attempt at it and already jumping a double PR that day, it was amazing at the thought of me being so close to getting over that bar. It's been eating away at me for the last year about what I was doing then differently than now. I'm faster and stronger but just not getting the vaults I know I can put up there. Coach has been trying to teach me about the "chord" of the pole and how it relates to the vault. I drew a picture below to illustrate what I'm talking about. The chord is the invisible line you can draw between both ends of the pole during the vault. It's the green dashed line in this illustration:

As you can see, the chord is always a straight line and it moves to vertical. The key is staying behind the chord until... well I don't know exactly when because I'm not a coach and I'm afraid I'll say something wrong if someone's trying to learn something from this. I do have to say that I don't advise anyone to take my advice to heart or try to mimic things I put on this site. I'm simply trying to keep you up to date on my progress and hopefully give you a better understanding of the vault and everything that goes into it. Although I would love to be able to help people with this, but that's simply not smart nor safe to attempt over the internet. I feel like I don't need to explain that further SO, moving on... I have always, and I mean always have let my hips swing through the take off and get "sucked under." Even the times where I "feel" like I've successfully driven my chest through the take-off, the hips always go with it. Watch any of my videos and you'll see that. Today was the day I was going to change that. I went to practice with one goal, and that was to get a powerful take-off by driving my chest, while keeping my hips from being sucked under (staying behind the chord). And guess what... I did just that. EVERY. SINGLE. JUMP. I was thrilled and pissed at the same time! Are you telling me that I've had such a bad habit for the last 8+ years and can change it with just one practice?! Shut the front door. Now obviously I know it can't be fixed over night and there will come a time, most likely many times, where I revert back to my old ways. But this was a breakthrough - a HUGE one if you ask me. I have five of my vaults from practice below. They are the only ones that were recorded so I'm showing you everything that I got. And just for ease and to emphasize the fact, I put these pictures together for you. The picture on the left is a freeze frame of a vault from Friday night's practice. It's exactly 2 frames after my foot leaves the ground from take-off. I froze the other picture at the exact same frame and combined them to show the difference. If you don't know, it's a complete night and day difference in the vault world.

And here's the video from practice. It's going to look like I was on a very small pole, which I was... but it was still the 16' 17.0 pole that I got on for the first time from that short run a couple weeks ago! With this new breakthrough, I could be blowing through sticks left and right! I'm very excited for this weekend in Colorado. I can't wait to add speed to the equation and see if I can get some better results! I'll have to tell you more about the upcoming trip soon, but this'll do for now. Oh, and don't forget to look for the chord! Try to pause the video and see the difference between Friday's practice and today's!