So although I went into last weekend’s meet with big plans, I didn’t accomplish my goals; any of them. But believe it or not, I am quite alright with that. Although the meet results say something different for some reason, I’m pretty sure I ended up jumping 16.25m, which would be a season best by 3 centimeters. I guess the fact that I’m not entirely certain what I jumped lets you know how little the distance mattered to me in the end. Right from the start of the competition my approach was WAY off and to make matters worse, I was stutter-stepping about 6 to 8 strides out from the board so I couldn’t really get a read on where I should have moved my mark. Needless to say, I also couldn’t work on having a consistent and fluid rhythm through the board like I planned so I was neither fast nor efficient in the 2 or 3 legal jumps I got in. That said, the best way to bounce back from a disappointing competitive performance is to figure out exactly what went wrong and toil away in practice until things are corrected; especially since World Champs and the outdoor season are the true goals.

So in spite of the fact that the snow in Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia this week has made it pretty difficult to get to the track on some days, I’ve managed to have a great week of training thus far. My coach and I tweaked my approach once again and it feels amazing, far better and more comfortable than it did before NY. On top of that I’ve been working, little by little, fixing my left arm on my hop phase to ensure that it gets back, even if it’s just a little bit.

Here’s the product of that work from a short, very short, approach. Some more speed should push each phase out a bit more, particularly the step And please excuse the commentary from my roommate/training partner/videographer Jeff, I suppose he enjoys workin’ the camera; although he is right about the road to Doha:

And I’ve added one more meet before Worlds, so I’ll be competing somewhere next weekend, though I suppose I should figure that out ASAP; and I’ll also be taking a couple jumps in Liévin, France before heading over to Doha. I was pretty excited at hearing about the invitation to my first “pro” meet. The meet in France will act as a final systems check before the big show. Check out my meet schedule for the links and more info.