More Stubborn than Gravity — Mind Games

1.5M ratings
277k ratings

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna

Mind Games

 If someone in the audience sees a vaulter run through without taking up their jump, and they don’t know anything about the vault, they may be very confused about why the athlete would do that.

I will never forget when I was working with a coach back in high school, and was having a rough time making changes and taking up my jumps. As if I weren’t struggling enough, a group of kids about my age were walking by the stadium and decided to sit down and watch me for a few minutes. Now not only was I shaky and uncomfortable with the task at hand – to make changes - but now I even had an audience, a very judgmental audience, to watch me struggle. Not an audience of coaches or my parents who understand the pole vault, but one of ruthless high school kids who out of pure youthful ignorance will tear you down.

 Sure enough, I ran through on one attempt, and I will never forget the sound of the boy’s voice yelling out “nice try!” as they then got up and walked away from the stands laughing. This was one of those moments in life where the consoling words of my father couldn’t make me feel one single ounce better. The only thing at that point that could make me feel better would be to go out and improve my game. This didn’t just mean my physical game, but my mental game as well.

I have had many ups and downs in my career of eight short years (and expect many more) but I have definitely learned a lot. First off, never, EVER let your competition phase you in the pole vault because worrying about what someone else is jumping won’t change what you are capable of. My first goal in every competition is to have as little misses as possible… but here comes the hard part…you can’t think about “not missing” the bar. If you are thinking to yourself “don’t miss, don’t miss, don’t miss” then guess what? You will probably miss. What you instead need to focus on is what you should do; but this doesn’t mean think the words “make the bar”, it means think of mental cues that will get your body to do the things it needs to do to result in you making the bar. Example; as you stand on the back of the runway, think about the best vault you have ever experienced. Don’t just picture yourself completing it, but feel it. Feel the way you snapped your feet down at the takeoff, punched your arms into the air, drove your right (or left) knee up toward the sky, and the rest was history. I just described with words what my best vault felt like, but I can also close my eyes and feel my body doing those things. Thinking about “making the bar” will not help, it will in fact cause you to focus on the result instead of the process that needs to be initiated by you telling it to begin. Why can most vaulters jump better in practice? Well, because they aren’t worried about the result, but instead are working on the things that will get them to where they desire to be.

You also have to be mentally prepared to have both good days and bad days. You have to know they will happen. You cannot leave a bad practice thinking that just because you had one bad day means you are at a stand still. I have had terrible practices and then gone out and PRd at a meet just a few days later. You have to scoop yourself up, find your motivation, and keep on truckin’. After a bad practice, I usually go back to my apartment and take a hot bath, then pull up some videos of vaulters hitting new PRs, winning championships, and fulfilling their dreams. It brings me so much delight to see the look on an athlete’s face when they get over the bar and are about to hit the mat, knowing that the bar is going to stay up there and result in them winning. It uplifts me because I know how they feel. I know how sweet that moment is. If I could capture the emotion from every PR moment in my career, it would be enough happiness and relief to make all the sadness on this earth disappear. Although those moments are sweeter than a stick of pure cane sugar, it takes a lot of sour to experience them. You have to experience the low points in order to appreciate the high ones. It is completely unrealistic to think you have to perform perfectly at every competition and practice. That is just not the way sports work. That is why winning championships and accomplishing new goals is so precious; those times only come around every once in a while. And that is what keeps the hungry athletes like myself coming back for more even after taking a beating to my ego. You push through the painful let downs, you make it through the workouts that make you want to rip your legs off because they burn so badly, and you deal with the frustrating practices that tempt you to chuck your pole at the nearest pedestrian (please don’t do that…). All I am trying to say is accomplishing goals is a task that takes time, persistence, and more patience than anything. You just cannot give up. You cannot stop. You have to fight through everything to get to the light at the end of the tunnel.

 I now wish I could find that specific ignorant kid, plant him in the stadium, and show him what I can do now. I wish I could, but I can’t. All I can do is know that he happened to witness one of my many downs, but only I can feel the true explosion of joy I experience when I literally fly over my next goal in the vault. That is what keeps my flame lit. I am an elation-junky. You can expect to see me seeking out my next high at every competition I attend.