Creating & Using Power

I remember in 1997 I had won national indoors in Boston and was getting ready for worlds in South Africa, when my coach, Dave Johnston (DJ) sat me down for a conversation.  I was committed to vaulting so I did ZERO workouts except for strides and vaulting for the whole year.  Though I was making good progress he wanted to tell me that soon I would need bigger poles and would probably not be strong enough in the upper body to use them.  The message was I needed to get back to creating power.

Bob Fraley (founder of USATF PV Development) once said that after you know how to vault that 70% of your improvement is based on how strong and fast you can get.  The message was you had always better be working on technique AND speed/power.  At our age that challenge is even greater as we will continue to lose muscle mass as we age.  So what does this have to do with today?

As I continue my training and am not quite so consistent on my diet, I've managed to put on a few pounds.  Not bad pounds but not too light like during the championship season this year.  The SHOCK was that at 3-4 lbs. (2 kg) heavier I found I had better control of the pole and actually got more lift out of the pole than when I was lighter.  Not quite sure I understand that but Kris and I decided I need physical mass as well as strength in order to be effective.  I'm embracing the strength and power part of my training now and really enjoying feeling explosive again.

Hope you have a great day!  Here is Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away", which I saw on the Today show this morning.  Bubba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvuL5jyCHOw&ob=av2e