Team Tuxedo: Presenting Sam Pierson the New Tuxedoman

Team Tuxedo: Presenting Sam Pierson the New Tuxedoman: Photo Courtesy of Richie Hahn   This weekend, at the USA Indoor National Championship, some of you may notice that there is a gentl...

Team Tuxedo: Get Ready for the Summit

Team Tuxedo: Get Ready for the Summit: Every pole vaulters favorite event of the year is right around the corner. The Reno Pole Vault Summit is such a wonderful event that sneak...

One Year

One year ago I felt like i had become inconsistent with my back therapy. It was easy to feel the difference in how a felt, slept and trained. What started as a ten day challenge quickly turned into a 30 day challenge and so on. An easy goal of committing to doing therapy everyday rain or shine, sick or healthy, busy or free. After the 10 days breezed by I decided to go for a month, then the 100 day goal followed which went by quicker than I expected, so I shot for one year. I'm pleased to announce that Saturday Nov 2nd 2013 I have done back therapy everyday for one year and now that I'm here I think it only makes sense to shoot for two. The ultimate goal of the experiment is to train my brain to do it everyday without thinking. Making It as necessary and automatic as breathing.

Character Development

This is an excerpt of something else I just wrote that I felt like sharing.  

My goals as an athlete linger, but I am no longer capable of pursuing them fully. A new set of priorities and responsibilities are steering the vehicle that is my life, and pole vault has been placed in the back seat. It will always be there, making chatter and occasionally kicking the back of the front seat, but it will never again be the primary driver.

As a high level athlete you are forced to design a perpetual state of consciousness that is entirely focused on your event, training, and psychological health. In this state, material things, media, financial survival, and even family and friendships are pushed into the back seat, always there but quietly competing for second place. It takes an immense amount of time and effort to shape this persona. It’s almost as if you are creating a character for a movie, and you are stepping into it, without any after thought of someday needing to step back out. You don’t look further ahead than your athletic goals, you can’t, because if you do, it can invite or represent the option of failure, and failure does not fit into the formula, thoughts that propose any minuet level of probability of manifesting stress must be eliminated. In your minds eye, there is no such thing as life after your athletic career. 

For more than a decade many of us stand inside of that character, working tirelessly everyday to reinforce its walls, making them impenetrable. Then, like a flash of lightning, that other life shows up.........

Team Tuxedo: An Awesome Pierson Visit

Team Tuxedo: An Awesome Pierson Visit: It’s been a crazy three weeks after the birth of my son. It was strange and awesome to be a father on father’s day. Meanwhile, we have had ...

Team Tuxedo: Summer Practice Schedule

Team Tuxedo: Summer Practice Schedule: I actually have people interested in coming out as soon as June 5th and June 9th. I just pushed it back to the 12th on the flier because...

Team Tuxedo: Backyard Record

Team Tuxedo: Backyard Record: After 5 weeks of mostly physical boredom, do to fear of a medium threat knee injury, I decided that it was time to test it out. I started pu...

The Glue

For whatever reason, the glue that has been holding me together for the past few years is starting to give way. My back has been feeling great but my left foot and my right knee aren't behaving like I'd prefer. I was speaking with Steve Chappell of UCS down at Mount Sac last week and he had a great line for it. I said "I guess I'm just getting old." and he replied "Your not old, you've just got high mileage."
Training has been more creative than usual as my schedule continues to be very complex. Despite the injuries and lack of time I have managed to stay extremely fit and light weight, and each time I vault I'm on much larger poles than I expect to be (poles I have jumped PR's on). With an absence of direction in the pole vault, I've allowed my other obsessions to take up space in my life again, Mountain Biking and Rock Climbing mostly, and its been fantastic. I've also decided to start coaching and allow athletes to share my training grounds with me. It's great to be working with vaulters again.

The Pole Vault Family

                                                            Backyard session 3/10/13

I'm realizing that I've become a Pole Vault fan again. That may sound strange, but let me explain. For years I have been trying to avoid searching and reviewing pole vault results from all over the world because at times it would bring me down, feeling as if I was being left behind or having a poor season. But now when I see great results I'm full of excitement and pride. Pride for our sport as a whole. Although we compete with each other, we are all a big family and in this together. In a time of economic crises, where budget cuts and fear effect all of us, Track and Field being a smaller sport in the US seems to come up on the budget chopping block all to often and at all levels, and with the potential to be dangerous and expensive Pole Vaults removal number one on the list. When I see great results and success despite the odds against our sport I swell with happiness and pride. Thank you to all of those who continue to persevere; from facility access, to coaching, to competing. Long live the Pole Vault family.

If you need some fresh inspiration today, look at the results from NCAA Indoors.
http://www.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/files/DI%20TF%20finalresults.pdf

Making Time

There has been a lot going on in my life. If you’ve stuck around you are probably close enough to me to know most of it. I will get into greater detail another day but for now I will leave you with this. I didn’t care about the indoor season and almost skipped it entirely. I can almost count on one hand the amount of days I pole vaulted between practice and competition (3 meets, 3 practice days). But some competitions are just way to fun to pass up on. I work two jobs, and neither pay well. But I get by, I still have time and capacity to train as my regiment has remained intact, and I’m happy and having fun in these Sierra Foothills, my version of Neverland.  

120 days. That is what my journal reads. This is the number of days that I have consecutively completed therapy for my poorly designed spine. When they were handing out bodies, someone should have taken a moment to match my personality with an indestructible vessel. Unfortunately, situations like that only happen in Fairy Tales and Mythology. So I am bound by the ongoing quest for knowledge, followed by physical routine bordering on the religious and an unequivocal patience paired with a presence of mind for a healthy and active lifestyle in the present and for many years to come. One hundred and twenty days without a miss. My goal was a mere one hundred. Triple digits seemed admirable, but as you all know, once one goal is achieved, it never seems to fill that empty space it had reserved in your pride. So now I’m chasing after 365 days. If I make it that far, who knows? It’s an interesting and fun challenge. At times embarrassing and others empowering. For example, last night after work I was doing therapy on my friend’s living room floor at 11:30pm. On long road trips (which are a weekly event now that I travel for pole vault, and work) I find myself doing it at gas stations and restaurants, hotels, fitness centers, public parks, parking lots, and regularly inside my place of work (which I can’t really disclose specifically on the internet unfortunately). Sick or healthy, rain or shine, amongst tragedy, celebration, positively charged days, and days shaded by the darkness of the negative, I always make the time, and so should you.  

Reno Recharge

I must say that the 2013 Reno Pole Vault Summit was one of the most exciting and memorable Summits to date. I would like to say thank you to everyone who works so hard to make such a massive and complicated event possible. I would also like to say thank you to everyone who attended. Winter travel can be difficult and people brave the trip from all over the country and even from all over the world. Its all those crazy vault fans and athletes that make this event so very special, so once again, thank you.

My story continues on. I wanted to be indifferent about my outcome in Reno, stay relaxed and enjoy myself. After watching the event on Friday night a small unplanned fire was lit inside of me and a powerful hunger for success on Saturday grew overnight and into the next day. So what wound up happening was that I tried to hard. You here that term often and sometimes I think it starts to lose its meaning, but that's exactly what I did and there is no better way to describe it. I tried to hard and it cost me. When coaching the vault I am constantly teaching athletes about the importance of relaxing on the runway emphasizing posture, position, and mechanics rather than focusing on pure speed and power. When you finally get it, you realize you actually feel like you are doing less work but running faster, hitting better positions, and ultimately jumping on larger and larger poles. I created a common problem for myself this weekend by forcing my run. Caving to the excitement and trying to move down the runway much faster than I did the previous week, my pole drop was still timed up for the slower approach, meaning I was planting the pole late on each approach and while rushing it down into the box I got into a very bad position (leaning back) at takeoff. That being said, I enjoyed the extra speed (or feeling of speed, not sure what the numbers are yet) and honestly didn't realize that I was able to move that well right now, finishing on a bigger pole than I jumped my 2012 season best. My back is beat up from my mess of travels and competitions over the past two weeks, so a one or two week break from the vault is imminent but when I return I plan to try and time up an earlier pole drop for a more aggressive approach in hopes to yield better more forward body position at takeoff and higher results. Timing, as they say, is everything.

Do to the complexity and importance of my life outside of this sport, I operate on a week to week basis on focus for my own, most likely short, future as a vaulter, but at the moment the good old Reno Recharge has me all kinds of inspired.

I do want to start writing about ideas I have to help support the upcoming group of post-collegiate athletes. Times are tough, and they are going to need our support more than ever. Enough talk for now, but we will start to tackle this next time. Regards, and stay relaxed.

Daniel Ryland: Reno

Daniel Ryland: Reno: It is the week that for most of the years I pole vaulted I could not stand the time going by so slow waiting on the day I packed my poles an...

The Privilege

    I don't have a terrible amount of time to write, but for almost a week now I have felt a strong obligation to write something. Earlier this week my good friend Ben Allen was in town, and I let him know that on Tuesday the temperature was supposed to hit 60 degrees and that we should not pass on the opportunity to vault under the sun. The indoor season has begun, so I thought it was a good idea to try jumping from a competition approach (full run, 18 steps, "9 lefts" if you live on the west coast) since I hadn't done so since October. So I threw myself at it with a workout goal of being relaxed and care free regardless of the outcome, no technical goal at all, just emotional. To my surprise, on my second trip down the runway I was off the ground and sailing through the air, an involuntary scream of excitement blast from my lungs as time slowed down and I gently drifted back towards earth from heaven. In that moment I remembered, I remembered everything, the first time I bent a pole, won a meet, stood on a championship podium, the times it was taken away from me and the powerful feeling of wanting it back, all the years of laughter and joy all compiled into a fraction of a second. Pole vault makes me so happy, we are all so blessed to be a part of such an amazing sport. As I departed the pit, and strolled back down the runway, I thought back on all those times I was angry, anxious, and even sad when I was pole vaulting, they seem so strange and foggy, inappropriate and out of place, and I see now just how utterly stupid that is. I try to compare it to something else; like winning the lottery and tearing up the ticket cursing the sky on your bad luck and horrible existence. How is it that we are able to pole vault and not just be grinning ear to ear the whole time? Doesn't seem right, and for me that has changed. From now on, every jump I take is a gift and a privilege,  never again will I let it feel like an obligation or a chore. This is and always will be my most beloved and favorite activity on the planet.

    So next time you 'no-height', have an undesired session outcome, or don't reach a competition goal, smile about it, and laugh because I would bet money you get the privilege to jump again within the week and their are probably billions of people on the planet that wish they could do, what you can do. 

Sun in December

           It’s been awhile since I took the time to post something on this site. I do feel a little guilty about it. Honestly, I have been writing, and most of the articles or blogs, or whatever the proper terminology is to describe such, were started with the intention of being posted to this site. But as the words crept down the page they continued to be borderline insulting to others, and sometimes too negative or personal. After rereading, editing and revising I decided not to post any of them. I tried changing them for the better, but I couldn’t force myself to remove large pieces of material, and I enjoyed the writing too much to destroy it. So I think this is something like attempt number four in the past month. There have been a lot of great things worth talking about.  

            Living in California is pretty awesome when it comes to weather. I’ve pole vaulted outdoors twice this month, in the warm sun, with a tailwind, both times being in my backyard. Earlier in the month 2-time USA Champion Mark Hollis came out, and we had a few short days to train together and put on a pole vault clinic. It is always inspiring to hang around Mark. He is such a powerful athlete, and a positive person. A few years back, him, Daniel Ryland and I had one of my favorite training camps of my career down in Jonesboro Arkansas spending priceless time at legendary Bell Athletics. Pole vaulting with a National Champion on my homemade runway was a blast, and being able to do it outdoors under the sun in December was like icing on the cake.

            NCAA All-American Derick Hinch grew up in this area and sometimes when he comes home for a holiday we get the chance to jump together. He was able to come over after Christmas and get a vault session in. We were graced with another sunny day and tail wind in December. It was still a little brisk for Derick having the luxury of 80+ degree weather where he lives in Arizona, but we still managed to have a lot of fun and even make some “Christmas bars”.

            Training has been different than in the past year. I must admit that I’ve been taking more risk, as I feel that I don’t have a whole lot to lose anymore. Also I changed therapy for my back, and it feels stronger and healthier than it has in two years. It has allowed me to readopt a handful of my old favorite training methods, and the change in routine has been well appreciated. I feel extremely strong, but not as fast as I’d like. It is still very early in the year, and the old legs are always fatigued, so I’m trying not too dwell on it.  My work has been inconsistent and it’s frustrating because I need the money, but it also allows me a great deal of free time to train.

            The indoor season is about to start and the only competition I really cared about was Reno (I just reread this, and I take that back. I am very much looking forward to the Simplot Games). Unfortunately this year I didn’t get the invite to Reno. They make a set of criteria to justify having to choose and fund a small group of vaulters out of such a large group of great vaulters in the US. A difficult task, that many would not be able to handle. I didn’t make the cut this year. So I’m still trying to decide if I will attend. It’s a shame because I have only missed one since 1998 and its probably going to be a very memorable Summit, but I’ve got a lot going on, and I can’t justify paying $120 registration fee to pole vault, not to mention travel costs. I’ve been offered some help by some nice people. But there is some underlying principle that still itches in the back of my throat, tied for 11^th in the US in 2012, and having to pay people to compete. It just doesn’t sit right. It’s not just the Summit, but all over the US, always a registration fee, always out of your own pocket. Our sport is really a mess. I wonder how much the USA’s 11^th ranked NFL, Tennis, Golf, NBA, Soccer, MLB, Hockey, Snowboarder, Skier, NASCAR Driver, or even Bowler pay to compete? Probably zero, and if so some sponsor likely handles it. Even more likely, they are the ones being paid, seems logical in a business sense.

            Anyway, that’s not productive talk, those discussions drag on and on, and tend to go nowhere.

            Like I said I have a lot going on outside of pole vault and my priorities have definitely shifted. Engaged, with a son on the way, the issues surrounding pole vault suddenly seem less and less critical. I can see how so many people move on, and leave our great sport behind. I’m not going to move on, or give up on myself and our upcoming stars. I intend to continue to put forth an effort, in any way I am capable, to helping make there careers a success and keeping this remarkable sport alive. To be continued…..

The Fine Line of Destruction and Glory

           My body is aching all over. I've definitely had a sudden shift in gears from my lighter training regiment to getting after it lately. I’m excited about all the great things coming up, and its easy to get a little crazy during intervals or lifts. I actually was chatting with a coach the other day about how I took a different look and approach to a fall conditioning period this post Olympic season.

            Every one of us had a specific training and competition plan designed for the Olympic season, and I guarantee at least 80% dropped right off that plan in May and June. The sense of urgency to achieve the Olympic A-Standard becomes all that matters leading us to the US Trials. The only way to achieve it, is too compete, and compete, and compete. Without any notice you make a compromise in your plan, than another, and another, and suddenly your plan, that was prepared a year or more in advanced, goes right out the window and you are flying by the seat of your pants. You start doing what Track and Field athletes call “Mark Chasing”. You are chasing after a performance mark instead of sticking to your plan, your tapering, and taking proper care of your body. Then what happens, suddenly you are two or three weeks away from a major championship you should be rested and peaked for, and you are doing as many as four or five competitions a week, chasing that god damn continually elusive mark. What does that leave you with, injuries, lots of them. They may not any alone be too detrimental, but as a group, they must be. You continue to ignore them, starting with IB profen, then the icy hot, then atomic balm, the wrap, the neoprene sleeves, the heat to get started, the ice to finish, and this list can go on and on. ‘You put a band-aid on a wound that needs stitches’ and you carry on towards the task while it tears, you continue on for the mark.

            With that being said, you have left yourself a mess through the summer, your plan is long gone, and now you need proper time to heal (sometimes mentally more than physically). Is that amount of rest time and reintroduction to conditioning the same for a 22 year old man, as it is for a 32 year old man? Probably not. It makes sense to me not too continue to follow a seasonal training pattern that I have followed for the past 14 years, especially this post Olympic season where I laid mind and body on the line bordering destruction and glory. So I took time to rethink, and retune my training. Older and wiser you could say, or maybe just older and tired. The best way to describe it; is skipping the annual horror of fall conditioning after a late summer rest period and going straight to early to mid season type regiments with a much slower transition into such, and the rest of the season to follow a fairly similar timeline to those in the past, minus the mistake of “Mark Chasing”.

            That was a lot more explanation of sore muscles than I had planned. As you have read, I’m normally used to doing a heavier load of training at this time of year, and the excitement of the “Ultimate Vaulter” clinic and comp this weekend, getting to hang out, train and trade secrets with Mark Hollis, and the indoor season right around the corner, I did a little too much this past two weeks.

            There is also one other underlying reason for the additional workload, the weather. It’s been gloomy lately, and when it’s gloomy, I get gloomy as most of us do. I do value my time outdoors. In my opinion the best anti-depressant in the world is exercise, and sometimes you need a little extra to get you through those gloomy days. So if you’re feeling these seasonal blues like I do, get out and break a sweat, its not that hard, find something. It’s not just the nice endorphin's you get during the training; it’s the brief emptiness of mind, and the lasting feeling of confidence that comes with the knowledge of achievement on the day. 

Routines, Working, Playing, and Training

I don't have much new too report for the few who remain curious. I basically work crazy long hours one week a month and which week is generally relayed to me totally at random, (up to 18 hour shifts now). I try to spend my free time working on future unique Pole Vault Clinic curriculum and how to improve and promote our sport, coaching privately, training like a mountain man/pole vaulter, and being happy. It seems odd to list happiness as a chore or a routine, but sometimes you do need to look at it that way when you lose site of its importance, or it slips through the cracks of your ultimately important schedule of survival.

Speaking of routine, during an awesome training camp with Daniel Ryland and Mark Hollis two years ago, Daniel introduced us to his ideas and beliefs in the importance of "morning warm ups" or daily routines. We were all racing through a warm up every morning together, and continued doing so the following months out on our own. Over time it seemed logical to mold my own into a daily therapy routine everyday and shooting for over 100 days in a row. Then some harsh life events broke my will to continue doing so. But I started up again, 20 days in a row now, and my back and shoulders are feeling fantastic, I'll get 100 days this time around, and I'm hoping that after doing something 100 days in row, it just becomes automatic and will stay with me for the rest of my days.

Meanwhile, I'm preparing for this Mark Hollis clinic and competition("The Ultimate Vaulter"). It should be a great event, and will be awesome to have my friend in town, and a World Class athlete to train and trade ideas with for a few days.

I've been trying to create a short video trailer for the clinic and have been digging through a lot of old footage. This clip is something really fun I stumbled on from my days back in MN. Thought you guys might get a laugh out of it. Enjoy.

This is the first and only time I have ever attempted this, but would love to build one and attempt it again. If you have one and you live nearby, contact me. This is the kind of stuff you would normally find only at Daniel Rylands house.

A Side Effect of Passion

It’s November, hard to believe that the regular season starts again in a mere eight weeks. Are you prepared? I think I am, oddly enough. This year of 2012 did not play out near what I had planned for. I can remember having an extremely powerful focus, a state of mind unparalleled even by my most successful years. It was almost like a feeling of invincibility. I knew what I wanted, I knew how to get it, and I knew it was going to happen. However, when the season progressed, the months and weeks full of small defeats chipped away at that focus. I did my best to ignore this fact or even pretend like nothing was happening. I felt it all along, and at some point in early June, I lost the state of mind I worked so hard and sacrificed so much to achieve, and I did it at the worst time possible. Do I regret this fact? No. Regret is a huge waste of my precious time and energy. Divert what could be regret into knowledge. Knowledge of a mistake that can be prevented in the future, for myself and others in my web. There is always a valuable lesson in the darkness, typically blurry at first, but with time and patience it will come into focus.

I have had my “out”, as one could say, too retire. Many times now, I could have said ‘well this obstacle is too great, and it’s time for me to bow out.’ On a regular basis people ask. My answer is still the same; I am hurt by the harsh reality that is now in the past and defines my 2012. I don’t see myself continuing on four more years. I am unsure of my physical and emotional strength to do so. But I remain utterly unsatisfied. I am so much better than I have shown. I have a number in mind, and if I could only achieve it, it seems as if it would put my soul at ease. I don’t want to define my career by a number, I know that it is much more than that, but the number haunts my every conscious moment, continually eluding me with cruel taunt and malice. This is the sharp pain of addiction that can emerge as a side effect of passion for many athletes. When is it good enough? When are we satisfied? Can we even be satisfied? If not a number, than a team, a record, a legacy, is it ever enough? When the ultimate goal is achieved, than a new one presents itself within the hour.

I may never achieve my own, but as long as I am capable, I will continue to try. 

The Ultimate Vaulter Pole Vault Clinic

The Ultimate Vaulter

Mark Hollis   vs.  Tuxedoman Paul Litchfield

On December 8^th and 9^th 2012

Location: TheYolo Striders Vault Factory (460 Harter Ave. Woodland, CA)

Registration: https://cui.active.com/camps-reg/login?a=283139402

Come to a Pole Vault Camp and Competition that is the first of its kind.

All athletes in attendance will be split into two teams based on lifetime best.

Team Hollis, and Team Litchfield.

Each team will be coached under one of these great athletes for an intense day of instruction, then compete against each other the following day, too see which Team will be crowned the Ultimate Vaulter.

Day 1: Instruction will be different for each team. A curriculum specifically designed by Hollis or Litchfield to get their team to have a high learning curve and give them what they feel are the most valuable tools needed to compete at a winning level the following day.

Day 2: The competition will be held on two runways parallel to each other. Where Hollis and Litchfield will take each team through a pre meet warm up, and then coach each team member through the entire competition. Athletes final heights will be scored on an IAAF scoring table, and the highest score wins.

But that’s not all. During the competition if a vaulter goes out with three misses, and their coach thinks they can make the height to stay in, they can “buy” that athlete an extra attempt with a specified point deduction from there teams final score. The higher the bar, the higher the deduction.

Then Hollis and Litchfield will go head to head in a show down. Due to ceiling restrictions it will have to be from short approaches, but will still prove to be exciting as they push each other to the point of hitting the ceiling. Hollis and Litchfield’s final heights score will be doubled for the overall total, and they can also buy extra attempts with the permission of there team.   

All proceeds will go to maintaining and improving the Yolo Striders Vault Factory, and the Mark Hollis and Paul Litchfield training funds.

Registration

Ø Go to Active.com to register: https://cui.active.com/camps-reg/login?a=283139402

 Ø Early Bird Registration ends December 2^nd at 11:59 PM.

Ø Online Registration ends December 7^th at 11:59 PM.

Pricing

Ø Early Bird Special: $200.00

Ø Regular Registration: $225.00

Ø Same Day Registration: $250.00

Dog Shit and Television

There is always a certain level of stress following you around as a post-collegiate pole vaulter, I would say as an athlete, but I’m not sure how it works in every discipline. Obviously you don’t have to be an athlete to have this same dark cloud following you around either. This stress usually spawns from financial problems, social pressures, and family needs. To get deeper into the details of each is not my goal right now, you can use your imagination to drum up plenty of scenarios to support all three. I am more interested in the discussion of dealing with the stress on hand and creating a healthier emotional atmosphere around ones self.

It comes to us all and it comes in many forms, how each of us deal with it and press on makes us unique and strong. For me that comment has a literal meaning lately. Everything I have been doing to block out the negative has been physical. So much to the point that I have had too mold my training around it this past week. When some people have a hard day, week, month etc., they like to go home, eat food, have a drink or a smoke or both, and turn on the television until they melt into a zombie state, forget there problems and fall asleep. This seems to be, I would say the ‘natural order of things’, but a more defining term would be the ‘unnatural order of things’. It’s a routine that has been created since the dawn of the television and has been passed through a handful of generations. On an even further tangent, everyone blames fast food chains for the obesity problem, I bet if you had the data and could go back far enough the correlation between obesity and television is much stronger.

But I digress. The point I was trying to make is that this terrible anti-stress routine that has become the norm in modern society actually has a negative effect on me. I realize that it is like throwing a newspaper over the dog shit in the kitchen, rather than cleaning it up, and while I’m sitting there I feel a growing sickness of guilt for wasting precious years of my life with mind numbing activity when my precious gift of time on this earth could be used for such greater purposes. That thought alone provokes another tangent that is an ongoing conflict in my mind about seeing time as having much greater value than currency, but I will save that for another day.

Back to the TV: The BLS American Time Use Survey says that the average American watches 5.11 hours of television daily. That is insane, do you understand how those numbers pan out over time? These are rough numbers mind you, but still.

5.11hrs/ day

= 35.77 hrs/ week   : You’ve already lost a day of your life awake (1.5 days actually)

=155.85 hrs/ month: Now you’ve lost 6.5 days in just a month, almost lost a week.

=1865.15 hrs/ year : Now you’ve lost 77.71 days, which is over two and half months.

How long does it take, to lose one year off your life spent awake and in from of the television? Every 4.7 years, you lose a year of your life to the television.

Think about it.

So, I have a hard time sitting there even when I have completed a great deal of tasks throughout the day. That is the situation I have been attempting to address throughout this incessant ramble. 95% of what helps me relieve stress is physical. Working out works better than anything, not only do you kill time, remove your mind from the outside stressors, create a wave of endorphins, but you gain a lasting confidence of accomplishment that will carry you for hours. But you can’t work out all day, so then what? I’ve been doing a rash of manual labor around the property, things that have needed to be done for years, are finally being taken care of, and each time one task is completed I feel a lasting amount of gratification and boost to my overall confidence. These daunting tasks, that we continue to ignore, hang over our heads and will eventually grow into terrible monsters in the back of our psyche, haunting us on a daily basis. There are other things, indoor things that I need to complete as well, but I save those, for when the sun is down.

So what am I even trying to say today?

Fight stress with exercise. 

Complete the tasks you continue to brush aside to experience relief and joy.

And stop watching so much damn television. 

Halloween Pole Vault Clinic and Competition

I'm doing a Halloween Clinic and Competition at the end of the month. Going to be a great time. Here is the information for those who are interested.

We all had a great time with Paul at the September Pole Vault camp. The experience was definitely one to remember. We are now gearing up for the October camp and this time we want to mix it up a bit with a Halloween theme. Come in costume, something jumpable would be best. Remember this is a limited event, only 20 participants per camp so there’ll be plenty of personal instruction and 1:1 time. The clinic will be held Saturday October 27th and 28th mixed in with an Open Halloween competition Sunday the 28th

.

Location: 

Yolo Striders Pole Vault Factory, Woodland, CA

Registration
Ø Go to Active.com to register:
https://cui.active.com/camps-reg/login?a=283139402

Ø Early Bird Registration ends 10/21/2012 at 11:59 PM.

Ø Online Registration ends 10/26/2012 at 11:59 PM.

Ø Camp is limited to the first 20 paid participants.

Pricing
Ø Early Bird Special: $150.00 (Before October 21st)

Ø Regular Registration: $175.00

Ø Same Day Registration (If space available): $200.00

Day 1 Schedule
11:00AM - 12:00PM Registration

12:00PM - 1:00PM Introductions, Safety Discussion, Warm up

1:00PM - 2:30PM Drills and Specific Strength

2:30PM - 3:30PM Lunch, Review

3:30PM - 5:00PM Pole Vault Session

Day 2 Schedule
8:30AM Doors Open

9:00AM - 10:00AM Group Warm up and Drill review

10:00AM - To Finish Halloween Competition

Post Competition Pole Vault Gymnastic Conditioning