New T-Shirt Designs!

Hey everybody! I am very excited to tell you that I have new t-shirts! I have been working with Ashley Whittaker of Go Go Creative Consulting. Ashley designed the first shirts and I loved what she did the first time around, well she blew me out of the water with these new designs! Also when I say Ive been working with her I just asked her to design me new shirts, all the credit is hers. Seriously if you guys need any design work done please check her website out and contact her.  Right now I have about 15 of each shirt, as requests go in I will probably pick the 2 with the most interest.  If you are interested go ahead and order as many as you want, these are costing me a bit more so Im upping the price to $18 which still includes shipping.  Thanks guys, these shirts have been a huge help to me and offsetting my training and travel expenses, things would be a lot harder without help from all of you.
Always Pursuing
Mark

Kansas, Arkansas, and a little clearing of the air.

This past week I drove to Concordia, Kansas to Jonesboro, Arkansas and back home, and put about 2200 miles on Amanda's '95 Chevy Corsica, all with the poles strapped to the side of the car. I went to Kansas for the Tailwind pole vault club's Doctoberfest competition. It was an awesome short run competition where we all ended up jumping from 4 or 5 lefts, Jeremy Scott ended up winning with 17'. I ended up making 16'6" after a couple of mulligan attempts, but had a great time at Doc's club. Tailwind Pole Vault Club is is the tiny town of Jamestown, Kansas but the coach Mark Breault brings in over 150 kids each year and teaches them to pole vault correctly and safely, what a great guy and great place that I will hopefully visit again in the future.

 After Doctoberfest I drove down to Jonesboro, Arkansas home of Bell Athletics and famous pole vault coach Earl Bell. I drove down with Paul Litchfield and stayed at Daniel Rylands house while there. What a great time of being around like minded friends all with goals of competing to be the best. Waking up training, eating right all the while being accountable to great friends who are also competitors. Seeing the things that others are doing on a daily basis really made me think about the things that I needed to be doing at home to make sure I am the best that I can be.

 I know that there has been a lot of talk going around about my recent coaching change and who I am working with now. I started working with Danny Wilkerson back at the start of 2008 and can not give enough credit to him as a coach and the improvements I have made because of him. Danny is one of if not the smartest guy I have ever had the opportunity to talk to and work with. His insight is not only on the mechanics of the vault but everything that goes into being a successful athlete at any level. For the better part of 3 years he wrote every workout I did, and was at 99.9 percent of those workouts and practices. I have no doubt that I am the athlete I am today because of his expertise, knowledge and hard work, and Danny I cant thank you enough for all youve done your are a great coach and friend. In the past year Danny and I have had differences in opinions on a few things, maybe just a disconnect between the model in his head and my understanding of that model. I was struggling in competitions, having some of the greatest opportunities of my life and not being able to capitalize, even make bars that I could of blindfolded in the past. Frustration mounted and finally peaked with me making the decision that I needed to go in a different direction. At the time I didnt know where that was but made the decision that it was ultimately up to me to improve and get to the place I want to be.

 For the past month and a half Ive been searching, asking, and studying to find that breakthrough and if youve read my last couple of posts you know that Im excited about the improvements Ive made already. So to clear the air, I am my own coach, I am utilizing the knowledge of every coach I know but at the end of the day I am the decision maker and thats the way its going to be for the duration of this year.

 Now that is out the way I can tell you I didnt discover a magical secret while down in Jonesboro in my jump, if there is one it is the group of people working together to push towards a shared goal. One thing that was really cool about Earl was he didnt try to change anything drastically in my jump, he fed off of what I was feeling and added his opinion. Which was cool because I think Ive already got a great start on what I need to do and changing that would have just been a step backward. I jumped twice while there and on my second session I was able to put a few things together and on my last jump I made a 5.20m/ 17' bar from 4 lefts! I have never really jumped at bars from that run so it was definitly a new PR for me which was a really cool way to end up a great week of training.

 I drove back to Mishawaka Thursday night and started my training monday. Im sore today but know that soreness just means its the start of a new season. Im looking ahead to a great year and many more great opportunities. So I'l leave you tonight with video of that PR jump and Im sure Ill have many more to post in the near future. Always Pursuing -Mark

I love pole vaulting....right now

In my last post I told that while watching the world championship vault comp I was inspired and motivated. Motivated knowing that to have any chance at a medal I need to be jumping 5.90m/19'4 or higher and inspired because I am just as fast, and strong as the best guys in the world, which led me to ask what am I missing thats allowing them to jump so much higher than I am. I came to the conclusion that I need to perfect my technique, there are major parts of my jump that are holding me back from utilizing the skills and athleticism I have. So im not really taking any time off of vaulting, I need repetitions to relearn proper mechanics and technique. In the past I have taken 3 or 4 weeks off of training but more like 2 1/2 months off of vaulting, then it takes a while to get back in to the flow. So this year Im never getting out of the flow, I had a major breakthrough just last week while watching video of myself and comparing that to other vaulters, something so small that I had never noticed before even tho I had watched the same videos over and over. In the vault, its all about getting on the biggest pole so that you can jump the highest, well to get on the biggest pole you have to be able to"move" the pole which means continuing to put energy into the pole as you takeoff and swing so that it doesnt just unbend and throw you back onto the track. Something that I have struggled with is moving the pole, a lot of my jumps especially this year you see me getting off of the pole at the top, well I believe that is because the pole has stopped moving and so I feel the need to push myself into the mats to finish my jump. After seeing this epiphany, i practiced in the backyard a little, which is tough because Zoey my black lab chases after the end of my piece of broken pole. I was anxious to try out my new found theory so I went and practiced, Ive never had one thing make such a noticeable difference in my jump immediately. When I did this small movement just a little differently it allowed my chest to come through which then allowed me to swing more powerfully, keeping the pole bent and I was able to catch a great ride off the top of the pole. Also this is my 10 step pole that Im using from 8steps! So not only did it allow me to get on bigger poles immediately but also to move those poles and jump pretty high in the air. Anyway Im excited! its really cool when you can find something that really clicks that gets you excited about vaulting again. This is a 15'7" 195lb pacer carbon holding about 15'4" jumping at a 17' bungee, next practice im jumping at a bar so I should have some more good vids up after that.

Always Pursuing -Mark-

Daegu and wearing the Red, White, and Blue.

Im sitting in the Tokyo Narita airport waiting for my flight to Detroit, Ive had a great time here, being a part of the World Championships and having the privilege to wear USA across my chest is something I will never forget.  My performance here at the meet was like a lot of this outdoor season has been, dissapointing.

Now dont get me wrong I had a great time, the hard part is knowing how much work Ive put in this year and knowing that I am capable of much more.  The tough thing about the vault is sometimes you dont get to leave it all out on the track, you get three jumps to make a height and it doesnt matter if you try your hardest and give it 110 percent sometimes that bar just doesnt stay up and your day is over.  Those are the toughest days to deal with as a vaulter, the day that you wish you could change the most is the day when everything feels right, the weather is great, your fresh and jumping well and for some reason you just cant capitalize.

On Saturday at prelims I felt the best I have in a long time, I was finishing jumps in warmups and even made an 18ft bar, most of the summer I barely even left the ground in warmups!  I felt confident in my run and was excited for the competition.  I passed the opening height and came in at 5.35m/17'6" I came down and made the bar with ease!  If youve ever vaulted you know that once you make that first bar you have total relief, the pressure is off and you can get to work, and thats the way i felt after this make.  We went through the height very quickly with only a handful of misses from all the guys.  The bar went up to 5.50m/18' I came down, and was definitely under on my takeoff, which lead to me not putting all the energy from the run into the pole and I came down on the bar.  My 2nd and 3rd jumps were all very similar to the first I had tons of height in the air but not enough depth into the pit.  Just like that my day was over, frustrating, not because I thought I was going to win the meet but because I had an amazing opportunity and just wasn't able to compete to my ability.

Now that that is out of the way, I had an awesome time in Daegu, I got to mingle with the best athletes in the world!  I had a beer with Trey Hardee, 2 time World Champ in the Decathlon.  It really was inspiring to be among so many great athletes and to see the level of competition and performance was amazing.  I got to hang out with my German friends, Malte Mohr, Tim Lobinger, Rafael Holdzeppe, and Karsten Dilla, Korean Yoo Suk Kim, and my good buddy Mexican vaulter Giovanni Lanaro, just to name a few.

I had some time after I competed to really look back at this year, analyze, critique and get a plan of what I need to do to not just make the finals, but to win the gold medal next year.  I can tell you that I am very excited about the future, about training and vaulting better than I ever have in my life.  Gotta get on the plane now, cant wait to get home and see my beautiful wife.  

Always Pursuing -Mark-

Daegu Baby

Its my 4th day here in Daegu, Korea and at the moment it's raining but for the most part the weather has been nice.  I know I haven't updated the blog recently but as you can tell I made the team for the World Championships!  What an amazing experience, just to receive the USA gear in the mail, to try on the uniform and know that in only 3 days I will make my debut as a member of the greatest track and field team in the world!
I've been staying in the athlete village the last 4 days and its really something, there's a track right across the street so training and working out has been really convenient.   Last night Brian Yokohama, the chair of US pole vault development and my good friend Giovanni Lanaro went downtown and saw Plame of the apes in 4D!  It was pretty cool the seats moved like a roller coaster, wind and water blew in your face and there was smoke coming from the floor.  

I had a jump session on Tuesday from 5 lefts which I've posted a video on Facebook of.  Practice went really well, i was hitting the pole really good off the ground and so the one pole i had ended up being way too small, which was a good thing.  That workout left me with a very good feeling about this weekend and also very confident about my chances.  Right now my focus is on doing whatever I can to make it through prelimns and on to the final.  The last 2 world champs it has taken right around 18' 6" to make the final, and I know that i am more than capable of doing that.  Is been great to see so many friend from around the world, its amazing how close the pole vault community is, we really are a big family.  
I've been trying to use Twitter a little now so I will try to update that more often, you can find me there @Hollispv

Always pursuing,
Mark