For the dedicated vaulter, the season begins now, mere weeks after the end of summer track.
Those with lofty goals must begin earlier and prepare more fully. Your conditioning, both mental and physical, cannot wait until the official high school season or NCAA start date.
Requirements for a Stellar Year:
1. Desire – Define how you want to feel these upcoming seasons. Unbound? Unlimited? What are the precise words?
2. Grit – Lift the weights. Do the pushups. Leap the hurdles. Run, plant, jump, fall. Complain less.
3. Grace – The powered athlete is the one who encourages others no matter how poorly his own practice is going. It’s less about the bar and more about who you are. When the drive to win stems from merely beating out another it creates a kinesthetic weakness in the body. Physically, an athlete cannot sustain success when she is out to best someone. Intend instead, to improve the life experience of track and field. It is in giving that we receive.
4. Awareness – Realize your athletic ability is something that passes through you uniquely. It is meant to be displayed as a gift to the outer world. Your focus and dedication inspires everyone else to do what they do a little bit better.
5. Energy – A conversation with a coach from a prestigious liberal arts school revealed that he looks for prior success and teachability in an athlete. As important is someone who will bring energy to a team, not deplete energy from it. Bingo.
This year is about being your greatest version of your highest self, no matter the height of the bar or the placing at the end of the meet. Give your best in each jump and every personal interaction, and your Milesplit record will earn you the feeling you most desire:
That you have this.
