After some uncertainty about whether or not I would be competing at the meet at all, I received my flight itinerary a little over two hours from the “wheels up” time so I was in hustle mode from the get-go. With my flight leaving from Baltimore as opposed to Washington National airport for some reason, I had a 45 mile drive in some thick Friday afternoon traffic before making it onto the plane.  Thanks to my tight schedule I found myself running from security to my gate (of course I first cut the security line to save some time) which is something I laugh at when I see other people doing. Guess I won’t be laughing anymore.

The flight to Kingston itself isn’t a long one really, but with the layover in Miami and then passport control in JA, I was exhausted by the time I got to eat dinner at almost midnight. Even so, I felt mostly rested on the day of the competition but the fact that we competed after 8PM didn’t help my cause. The meet itself was amazing though. It’s no mystery that track and field might as well be the national sport in JA and the crowd definitely reflected that fact. With probably no more than 25,000 people in the stands, it sounded as if there were 60,000 and the athletes definitely responded. For a meet in the first weekend of May there were some amazing performances across the board so as a fan of the sport, I had a great time! Ayanna being at the meet to compete in both the triple jump and long jump definitely helped my overall experience too though.

As far as the triple jump competition is concerned, like I hinted at above, we started a good bit behind schedule (about 40 minutes to be exact). On top of that, with all of the winds being headwinds, I’m not sure why we didn’t jump in the opposite direction. In any case, while I wish I had some video to share, I’ll just say that I ran through the board for the second time this season and jumped 16.80m into a 1.2m/s headwind on my first jump. The other jumps ended up being all over the place (all of them fouls either because I was over the board or ran out of the hop because things didn’t feel right) but the 16.80m felt easy and that’s a great thing. Getting the W is a good thing too and that jump was enough to do that. The distance could have/should have been a bit farther but my jump phase wasn’t as long and patient as it usually is but that’s an easy enough fix and a fix I’ll make at my next meet in Brazil.

This is a good starting point as the meets get more and more serious and competitive from here on out.

My approach this year has been, respectable. Not great and not “exactly” where I think it should and eventually will be, but it is far better than last year. As a result, I am hitting the board with far more speed and my timing on each phase is a bit out of wack because of it. I feel as if I end up rushing things on the jumps rather than taking advantage of the extra speed and enjoying the ride on each phase. It boils down to timing though, because that is what influences foot placement and arm position; the two things that help to minimize ground contact time and also determine the amount of speed conserved throughout the jump. As I learn to be patient I have also got to slow things down in the air until exactly the right moment when I end up exploding into the next phase. So with that said, here is the product of my competition at the Armory this past weekend.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The above jump is actually the main reason that the competition wasn’t a complete waste. It certainly wasn’t my farthest jump of the day and the approach wasn’t even as good as it has been in recent competitions, but this jump teaches me enough to make up for the lackluster distance of my best jump of the meet. After all, indoors isn’t about distances anyways remember? Even though I am actually “mostly” happy with the approach on the jump, the hop phase is what really caught my eye. I was more patient than I had been at other competitions and got some good distance on the hop. The final two phases are horrible but that is where the timing becomes an issue.

Once I get my timing down I won’t crash on the transition of the hop-step and will be able to explode into the second and then into the third phases. I will also be able to make efficient use of my left arm rather tucking it like I did here. Even though I slowed things down a little, it wasn’t slow enough considering the ground I was covering and I ended up basically falling back onto my right foot rather than being active and exploding into the next phase. The end result is a horrible second phase and horrible posture in that phase. It seems I also cut the cycle of my right left short on the hop phase. It’s always the little things.

Even with all that, I can say that this jump is a quality one in my book because of the lessons learned from it. Even though my hop phase is the only worthwhile piece of this jump I feel as if this jump will be the template for the huge ones to follow. It’s just a matter of time before I get my timing down.

…And when I do…

Click here to view the embedded video.

As you’d expect, even though was mostly pleased with how things went I am able to pick out plenty of things that I’m going to have to address to get where I want to go both indoors and moving into the outdoor season. Of course my body position and posture from the second phase into the final phase need some serious fixing. To be honest, I think that if I wasn’t fighting to avoid falling on my face on my step phase the above jump actually would have been an indoor personal best; especially considering where I ended up after two phases from a 41 foot board. My jump phase wasn’t half of what it typically is or should have been thanks to my being off balance and out of position but I’ll take it for the first jump/meet of the new year.

Combine the above adjustment/correction with the patience that comes from just jumping from a full approach and competing and I’ll be right where I want to be. Some other, more minor adjustments will always be necessary like tweaking my arms in my first phase but considering how my approach looked, after this meet it seems that all systems are definitely a go.

The next outing should be in 2 weeks…

Meet Advertisement Featuring Jesse Owens

I had my last “workout” workout of the year yesterday afternoon in Belgium. I say “workout” workout because my coach already let me know that I’ll still be working out a bit once I get back to the States, in spite of the fact that tomorrow is my last meet for 2010. He said that he’d rather I ease into my couple weeks off by gradually doing less work than just abruptly halting my training altogether. I agree of course, but then again I guess it wasn’t really my call to make.

As I mentioned above and in previous posts, I’m out here in Brussels now for the Diamond League final. The event happens to be the last meet of the 2010 Diamond League series and also the finale for the triple jump. I managed to get a straight flight over here which was a must considering that in spite of the fact that I was in economy plus, the 5 extra of inches I was allegedly getting didn’t have the effect on my flight that I was looking for. At least I had an aisle seat though, so I was able to get up and stretch several times. Once I made it to baggage claim in Belgium I was immediately spotted by my driver and we shot over to the meet hotel, which is in the Brussels city center: no complaints here since I’m here until Sunday.

One of the toughest things to do while out here on the circuit is finding ways to pass the time when there are only one or two television channels in English. Fortunately enough, one of those channels this time around happens to be “ESPN America,” which is pretty much just regular ESPN. Also, since I’m in Belgium I get to watch some TV in French and work on my multilingual skills a bit. I don’t mind that at all. As always though, I made sure I brought enough movies and episodes of random shows that I follow to help fill any dead space that I had. That said, after filling some of that down time with Smallville, a nap and a couple meals, I got to check out Stade Roi Baudouin/Koning Boudewijnstadion…the stadium, which is sold out for the meet. That means 50,000+ spectators; which I got to experience at the World Champs last year but I’m sure the crowd and atmosphere will be no less awe inspiring.

I felt a little flat in the initial stages of my workout, which is to be expected after sitting on a plane for over 7 hours. As things got going though, I felt the explosiveness and “electricity” in my legs that I was looking for start to come back to me. I have no doubt that the massage I got following the workout probably helped out as well so I’ll be more than ready once tomorrow arrives, especially since I’m getting worked on a little bit today as well.

The forecast for tomorrow is calling for a high of 64F/17C degrees and some light rain in the morning. I don’t compete until nearly 9PM which means that it’ll at least be dry by then but I’m guessing that it’ll be a bit cooler than the high for the day. Good thing I checked the weather forecasts before hopping on the plane so I have some warmer gear with me and the temperature shouldn’t pose a problem with a good warmup before going out to the runway.

I’m ready to end the season on a high note and use this meet as momentum going into training for next year’s World Championships and beyond; first things first though…

Most of the rest of what I picked I simply absorbed by being a fly on the wall and observing and listening to other athletes, agents and meet organizer types. Some other veteran athletes were also nice enough to school me on some of the finer points of the international track and field game. I generally like to believe that I am in control of my own “achievement path” so to speak; of course within the confines of what He has in store for me. But I set goals and then set out to achieve them in the manner I see fit and typically without interference from other people who may or may not have the ability to make my path to success more difficult (never impossible of course). As a result, I am the ghost writer of my own story.

The world of professional track and field seems to be mutually exclusive with this sort of “take the reins” approach to things though. Don’t get me wrong, you always have control of your training and thus performances which no doubt gives athletes some leverage on the circuit and I love being able to have control of things in that regard since I’m always seeking to push my body and thus personal bests to new levels/distances. But even that leverage is somewhat illusory, save for the Usain Bolts out there. I say Usasin Bolt(s) because he’s not the only athlete who owns their event and is able to use their name and reputation as a weapon as a result.

I won’t make this post any longer than it has to be but a frequent criticism of team sports in the US is that the leagues and owners play with and treat players like property or pieces on a chess board. In spite of the fact that there are no true teams (although the big time sponsors do represent teams in a way) or leagues in track and field and athletes consider themselves to be self-employed, agents, meet directors and sponsors seem to know better. Sitting in the lobbies of the hotels that I stayed in, it struck me how many money-motivated athletes don’t realize that even our sport is rigged and dictated by the aforementioned triumvirate of agents, sponsors and meet directors.

Don’t get me wrong, being money-motivated is a necessity to some extent, so this isn’t a criticism of that. After all, training full time means that you have to have sponsors and supporters to allow you to do basic things like pay your rent/mortgage, eat decent enough meals to have energy to train, get to and from practice and clothe yourself and your family. But it also seems to blind you from the fact that those with the true decision-making power will attempt to serve their own interests 98 times out of 100, with the exception being those agents who work with and for their athletes rather than operating under the impression that the athletes on their roster are under their employ. To some extent the job of agents is to even the playing field to some extent so that athletes have someone on their side; that’s a large portion of the reason that athletes employ agents right? Of course, money-motivation causes plenty of other problems as well, including some for our sport as a whole as was pointed out in a recent View from the Finish Line post.

Perhaps this sort of set up of the sport is something that I should have anticipated but it’s tough to really see these things until you’re actually in and around the game for a bit. Can/will things be changed? Probably not; after all, it’s the same system that our major sports leagues operate under although they have player’s unions. It would be nice for things to be a bit more transparent since it seems like much of the business of athletics is played out in the shadows. Of course, that doesn’t sit well with me considering, as I mentioned, I’m the type of person who likes having a hand in where things are going in my career; and that goes just as much for my track career as it does for my legal career. In any case, I’m fully aware that my task as an athlete is to perform and perform better than my competitors. I have no problem with that considering my only goal in this game is to be the best in the world and to do that I’ve got to beat the best. So I’ll keep climbing slowly but surely and keep playing the game. I just figured I’d share my observations with the people.

I’m down here in Mayaguez, PR though and compete on Thursday. I can safely say that I am not a fan of bunk beds, particularly when I’m relegated to the top bunk! But hopefully I’ll be able to get up a CAC Games related post soon, especially since Haiti’s team is stronger than ever before and I’m feeling 110% ready to wreck shop when I get on that runway.

The Men's TJ Field During Introductions

So my Diamond League baptism came and went and it certainly wasn’t what I was looking for. Needless to say, I still genuinely enjoyed the experience, the competition and the fact that my parents, coach and friends were finally able to make it to a meet. The competition on the other hand was pretty disappointing. The track fan in me was also excited to watch the numerous world leading or near-world leading performances in other events. That said, once again I got to watch other jumpers, who I know aren’t necessarily faster or stronger than me, jump distances that I know I should be jumping. Still, as with every meet in the past (whether it goes well or not) I have to simply go back to the lab and work on what I need to work on.

In the end I finished 6th with a jump of 16.60m. The 6th place finish isn’t necessarily the worst thing that could have happened considering the fact that the 7th and 8th place jumpers only got 3 jumps as opposed to 6. Also 6th in a Diamond League competition is somewhat respectable…I just wish I had jumped farther. Oddly enough, you don’t even have to ask what it was that held me back because the easy answer is: my approach! What else is new?

Honestly, I do feel as if this weekend’s meet was  a turning point for me, although it seems that I say I’m going to nail things down after every meet. This time I realize that I am holding myself back mentally.  My mental shortcomings aren’t in the confidence department like many athletes however; and although the field on Saturday included 3 current and former World Champions and just as many Olympic medalists, it also has nothing to do with nerves. Believe it or not my stuttering problem also isn’t driven by a desire to avoid fouling! It seems that for me, my issue is that when it comes time to jump for real and I’m making my way down the runway, I get anxious at the sight of the board and concern myself with “jumping far,” “being comfortable at the board” and “making sure I can handle the first two phases.” Of course, if you’ve read any of my previous posts you would know that the only thing I want to be concerned with halfway through my approach is continuing to run.

While I think that my “problem” is one that can be worked on in practice by getting down an approach rhythm that I am comfortable with and that becomes 2nd nature; what I really need to do is simply compete. By getting on the runway more often in competition settings I’ll be able to get used to the feeling of turning off my instinct to worry about the board or my first phase during the approach and in turn I’ll get used to running allllll the way down the runway. For as long as I can remember I’ve always been concerned with actually jumping in the triple jump. Who would have thought that thinking about jumping and actually trying to jump was, for the most part, the wrong way to go about things?! Wherever I end up competing next, I am excited to try just running the whole way down the runway and not even thinking about my jump until I’m halfway through my hop phase (or even until I hit the sand, that would be ideal since most of the jump is instinct anyways). I’ve felt it before and it did feel pretty odd, not to mention I fouled all of those jumps…but fouling is the least of my concerns. At this point I think I’d rather see a bunch of Fs or Xs (for fouls) next to my name on a results sheet as opposed to sub-16.90m jumps.

As always though; on to the next one…

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog post but considering that I’ve got a bit more free time thanks to my graduating last month I’ll try and blog a bit more regularly. In any case, this weekend’s Adidas Grand Prix will only be my 3rd meet of the season but it’ll also be my Diamond League debut and I’m looking forward to it for that reason (among others of course). I also consider the meet to be a homecoming of sorts since it’s being hosted in NY which means that my family and friends there can actually come watch me compete which is a rarer occurrence than I’d like thanks to most of my meets being overseas or on the other side of the country. Needless to say, I’m anxious to get back on the runway and back in competition…a meet schedule this spread out is new to me; although I must admit that I’ve gotten some quality training sessions in as a result

Considering that I’ve gotten some really good jumping work in the last couple of weeks, including a short approach personal best of 16.41m from 12 strides (which I plan on pushing out to 16.65m+ in the coming weeks), this week and part of last week have been about speed and sprinting mechanics. We’ve also gone from 3 to 2 lifting sessions for the past couple weeks. Here’s the end of the power clean portion of my workout from Monday:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve never “cleaned” that much before (301 lbs/136 kg) although my goal from the fall was to hang clean that weight so I’ll be checking that off of my list next. Before the rep above I did 5 reps @ 85%, 4 @ 90%, 3 @ 95% and 2 @ 100%. And yea I definitely need to learn how to get my elbows all the way through and catch the weight in a front squat position, but considering that I’m a triple jumper and not an olympic lifter I suppose the catch isn’t quite as important as the rest of the lift (for now). Anyways, as you can imagine, I’m feeling pretty explosive and at the meet I’ll just be focusing on my approach and speed through the board like I’ve been trying to do in just about every meet since indoors because the rest of the jump tends to take care of itself after that. Like I’ve said before, the whole running down the runway and through the board thing is much easier said than done. But I suppose I can’t expect it to come too easily since it IS the key to jumping far after all.

As far as the meet is concerned, I fly up to NY on Friday and compete Saturday evening at 5PM. I keep telling people that I would have been fine with taking the bus or train from DC straight into Midtown Manhattan as opposed to flying to Queens and then dealing with the hassle of getting from there to the hotel but hey, at least transportation is taken care of so it won’ t be as much of a hassle as usual. Besides, “beggars can’t be choosers.” If you’re in the States, the meet will be live on NBC from 4PM to 6PM and believe it or not I actually think they’ll show a good amount of triple jumping, if the coverage of other Diamond League meets to this point is any indication. There are also plenty of ways to watch the meet live on the internet if you’re outside of the U.S. In any case, regardless of how much triple jumping they do or don’t show, the meet will be worth catching if you’re a fan of track and field at all considering the start lists for all of the events have some pretty amazing fields.

Since they’re having the high jump this weekend I’m also looking to catch up with a friend of mine, fellow Longhorn jumper Andra Manson, whom I haven’t seen since World Outdoors in Berlin. Of course I can’t forget the other Longhorns I know that’ll be there on Saturday (Jacob Hernandez, Leo Manzano, Michelle Carter) or my Haitian teammate Mo Joseph who will be running the 800. Sad to say, Mo is a Gator and not a Longhorn AND I’ll be the only Crimson at the meet.

Presentation at Athlete's Reception

“Meet day” went mostly according to plan and thanks to a brief nap before hopping on the bus to the track, I was able to minimize (not eliminate) the yawning I did while warming up. That said, my warm up went pretty well considering I started off feeling a little tight; but I felt like I was ready to rock. The stadium setting and crowd were both amazing. It wasn’t quite sold out, but there were at least a good 25,000+ people thanks in no small part to Usain Bolt making his 100 meter debut. Of course the atmosphere helped us jumpers get into the competition and enjoy ourselves as well. But, about the jumping…

To sum it up: I didn’t jump as well as I should have. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very positive experience overall. I competed against a very high quality field and took 3rd. I also jumped farther than I had on all but two occasions last year (16.64m), but that point is hurt a bit by the fact that I came out the gates with that 16.92m performance in April. My speed down the runway and even at the board were also better than almost any time before. So I’m aware of the positives I should take away from this past meet. All that aside though, I am just particularly disappointed because not only did I not execute, but I made mistakes that I wouldn’t make 98 times out of 100. I can post the video here or on vimeo/youtube if enough people want me to, but for now let’s just say that it was beyond hideous for a near 55′ jump. I didn’t exactly stutter step at the board because I chopped my stride for about 12 of the 16 total strides of my approach! As a result I didn’t actually run off of the board and my hop was short and choppy in the same manner that I was running down the runway. To be honest, I’m not sure if the hop was even 18 feet which of course caused complications in the step phase and even jump phase which was the only saving grace of the jump. I couldn’t believe what I saw when I first watched the footage.

Myself and Some of the Other Guys in the Field

Fortunately enough, this should be a relatively “easy” fix! This was of course only my second time using this new approach in competition and I just have to remember to stay fluid on the runway going forward. I also have to get my hop trajectory and rhythm down which will only come with competitions and time; especially considering how well practices have been going. So on that note, I know that I’ll be competing for sure at the Diamond League meet in NY on June 12th. It would be nice to get one more meet in before then so I can get some more “practice” in a competition setting. We’ll see if that desire comes to fruition. In the mean time, my graduation is Sunday so I’m definitely looking forward to soaking that all in and aside from that I’ll be doing everything possible to make sure all systems are a go on June 12th.

Huh?!?

Can ANYONE tell me what the heck an “Express” Drive-Thru is??! We figured it had to be something like Express E-Z Pass lanes on the highway where you don’t have to slow down and the toll amount is still deducted but didn’t get a chance to try ordering chicken nuggets at 25 mph. There’s probably a somewhat more sensible explanation, but I still don’t think the sign makes any sense.

Now that I’ve gotten that out…I opened up my outdoor season this past weekend at the Mt. Sac Relays, right outside of Los Angeles. This is two weeks later than I’ve started things out the past couple years but the extra time was necessary given how long my indoor season was and the magnitude of the changes I’ve made since then. After trying an 18 stride approach for a season, my coach and I decided to go back to 16 strides + a slight modification.

While the approach work has been going well in practice, this weekend let me know that there is no substitute for getting in a meet and seeing how things feel and work. As I’m sure you can guess considering what I struggled with indoors, I ended up stutter stepping before the board on what ended up my best jump. Continuing to chip away at that gaping hole in my armor that will make a huge difference right off the bat. On top of that, it seems I was a bit impatient in my step phase and flat in my jump phase. I know I sound like a 3rd party observer by using the phrase “it seems,” but I really couldn’t feel that I was rushing things while jumping and only noticed when I watched the footage. That tells me that the patience is something that will fix itself as my rhythm and timing come together with some more meets.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Oddly enough and thanks to some fouls and bailed jumps, that’s my first jump above that ended up being my best jump. Although it held up as the best mark throughout the competition and I’d gotten the “W” before my last jump; I still wanted to use my last attempt to put a bigger jump out there or at least run all the way through the board for once. I ended up fouling a jump that was maybe over 17 meters but anyways “there are no big fouls, only big jumps.” Here it is:

Click here to view the embedded video.

All in all, I’m happy with the performance considering that it was a season opener and I went in healthy and came out healthy. I know that if I fix nothing but my approach, I can jump a whole lot further and when I fix the rest of my jump…well I’ll let the jumps that come speak for themselves. In the mean and in between, finals are around the corner so I’ll resume the role of legal scholar for some time. I’ll update on what the next step on my track schedule will be as soon as I find out for certain.

Myself, Jeff, Ayanna and Moise with Ambassador, Raymond Joseph

Not only is education not guaranteed for children in Haiti, but neither is 3 square meals or clean water. Likewise, sports programs are relatively non-existent, as are venues for kids to run and play in safety. Since its inception the Haitian Sports Foundation has provided thousands of children with the opportunity to receive basic education on a daily basis, as well as at least two full meals. As an added bonus, children in HSF programs get the opportunity to learn sports like judo, boxing and tae kwon do from people who have excelled in them and want nothing more than to work with kids in need. There are also sports oriented summer camps, where the kids can continue their exploration of different sports and although the track and field season extends through August we (myself and the others in the picture above) are looking forward to going down and working with the HSF for a time. We’ll definitely be recruiting other US based Haitian athletes (and even non-Haitian athletes a la Ayanna who represents Trinidad and Tobago) who may want to make the trip. That said, apparently track and field has become pretty popular in Haiti so I think we’ll have a great time; although the work itself would have been more than worthwhile either way!

With Mario Arthur, President of the HSF

The USOC has also been doing an immense job of assisting Haitian sports on the international level. They have helped facilitate the transportation and outfitting of some of the Haitian teams for the Central American and Caribbean Games to be held in Puerto Rico in July. They’ve also donated a ton of money and equipment which I’m sure will be put to good use as long as it ends up in the right hands. While I’m looking forward to standing atop the podium at the CAC Games in July, I must say that the support that the USOC has shown and the efforts of others whom I met on Friday evening are beyond heartwarming. It means much more than people realize.

In related news, the Haitian track and field team now has a website up and running so feel free to check it out:  www.rohtf.com. For me, meet number one is less than a week away. Mt. Sac Relays here I come; “I’m going back back, to Cali Cali…”