Back at it in the Gym

Today we headed back to gymnastics to get more work done on the bars. I feel like this is a place where I can really work on the intensity on top of the vault. The most important drill we are doing is on the high bar. Basically trying to pull up to handstand from a very slight swing. My biggest challenge has been to try and forget all of my gymnastics training. In gymnastics all of the swings are done with straight arms and a long body. But in pole vault basically I'm trying to get upside down as fast as possible so that I have the speed and power to get a big push off the top. So how pretty it looks doesn't really matter, it's just the intensity that's being put in. I still tend to have a nice long hollow body and pointed toes, and I swing out too far so I just end up coming back to the bar in a pullover. But every practice it gets a little better.
We did add a couple of new drills on the rope that were pretty entertaining. The first is a backflip on the rope. The flip itself is pretty easy, but being able to get upside down and pull on the rope so that the flip actually gets up in the air isa lot harder than I thought it would be. The second drill was to hang upside down on the rope, then try to hop up the rope. The first time it felt insanely awkward, kind of like the first time you try to walk when you're upside down in a bridge (if you've ever tried that.... haha). Your body doesn't quite know which way to move to get you to go in the direction that you want to go. Challenging, but really fun! One other thing I got to do today was play around a little bit on the rod floor. Tumbling never fails to make me smile. :)

My biggest challenge so far is to figure out how to keep myself from holding back.... I tend to be caught up in making all of the drills and vaults look perfect, and worrying about the consequences and what everyone around me will think. But holding back is not the path to setting records. This is the task that will define my pole vault career. If I can overcome it there is no limit to how high I can jump. If anyone has advice on how to overcome my mental setbacks please don't hesitate to share.