My dad, Tim Winder, had a rule at his pole vaulting camp that he ran at North Central College for 25 years. It was actually the number one rule, and to him the most important rule of them all. That rule was “No Talking on the Pit”. It was developed after an unruly teenager, that later became my high school…
How fun is it pole vaulting during the spring time in Northern Illinois?! I hope you can sense the sarcasm. I can only speak to this time of the year in Illinois, but I’m sure that this blog post will resonate with many pole vaulters from different regions across the country. Before you dive into this blog, please understand, as…
If you have read the blog, 8 Reasons to Keep a Pole Vaulting Journal, you are probably wondering, “What should I keep track of in my Pole Vault Journal?”. That is a great question since we want to make sure that we are keeping track of workout data that is measurable and can be reliably counted on to keep you…
When interviewing American record holder Sam Kendricks on episode twelve of the One More Jump Podcast, Sam talks about the importance of keeping a pole vaulting journal of his workouts and meets as a pole vault equipment for him to reflect on and track his improvement. I can also testify that logging or journaling my workouts helped produce my best…
So after a long hiatus from pole vaulting, 6 years to be exact, I have chosen to start doing some vaulting again. For the last 5 years or so, I got into ultra running and it all culminated in me finishing a 100 mile race in 29 hours and 22 minutes. It was very hard and it hurt very bad.…
I had to come to complete acceptance of where I was at. I remember coming to that point and thinking to myself, “well Jake, you are much worse than you were in high school. You are very far from where you once were, and you are in a hole that will take a while to get out of”. It hurt for a second to admit that, but when I admitted it to myself, then accepted my current state as my new base line, I was able to start comparing my progress to that baseline and seeing that I was slowly getting better compared to where I was CURRENTLY at.
Have you ever felt like your best performances are in practice? Do you ever think to yourself, “If I could just pole vault in a meet the way that I do in practice, I would crush it!”? YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Competing is tough, and I would bet that many of the most elite vaulters succumb to the pressures of…
