Fantasy/Reality

It's easy to romanticize big meets and performance goals but the reality is that you have to show up on THAT day and perform them. I train and train and train thinking about a big meet months away but when I get there a whole new reality is present; you actually have to now DO IT!! To me that means I need a 13' 9" (4.20m) grip and a 47' mid from a 16 step run. I have to have worked my way up to that while maintaining efficiency.

When I first decided to jump again in 1988, I was out at UCLA and I looked across Drake Stadium and saw that Anthony Curran had a bungee up for the kids. It looked pretty high and when I got over there it was at 14' (4.27m). I was 36 and thought, shoot I can jump 14' in my jeans and flats. I finally made it in 1997 (9 years later) at age 44 and made 15' 1" (4.60m) the next year. The reality, as I learned, is that you actually have to do it as simply dreaming and believing can't make it happen.

At the World Masters Games in Sydney, Australia I was VERY ready and felt great going into the meet. When I got over to the field for warm up I felt a little queasy and my legs felt really dead. On top of that the wind was blowing HARD from all over the place. It was so loud it was hard to talk to someone. I just felt sick because THIS was the big day I trained so hard for and here I am feeling like crap in bad conditions.

After I got moving around for awhile I felt pretty dang good and also was able to kind of pick up a wind rotation pattern so that maybe it wouldn't blow my pole out of the box or come directly in my face. I ended up winning but it was by totally blocking out everything else around me and thinking about the exact technical mechanics that it would take to succeed.

So the irony is that you romanticize and prepare for the pageantry and pressure of huge meets but when you get there, in order to do well, you have to block it all out. So much for visualizing. Anyway, this was my revelation today as I lifted in the garage thinking about Worlds in Sacramento. As much as I focus on that place and those conditions today, when I get there I can only succeed if I totally ignore them.

Have a great Saturday! Bubba