Speed City

Follow Lake Region HS sprint/jump star Kate Hall as she blogs about her senior indoor season & the quest to be the best. Hall is one of the top ranked returner long jumper in the US this winter. Her accolades are impressive, she has never lost a state championship race or jump a perfect 20-20 so far. She currently holds Maine State Indoor All-time bests in the 55m, 60m, 200m, & long jump. Outdoors she holds all-time best marks in the 100m, 200m & long jump. Last winter she was the National runner-up in the long jump at the New Balance Indoor Nationals.

Hello!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! It's hard to believe that the indoor season has begun once again. Every year I've started out with a decent performance in my first meet, although this year started out slightly different. My first meet was the Bowdoin Relays on the 20th and I was beyond excited to begin one last indoor season before I graduate. On Saturday morning I was as nervous as I was when I was a freshman at my first meet. I had been working on my long jump approach for months and all I wanted to do was get it right in a meet. Things had been going very well in practice, so I kept telling myself I just had to do what I did in practice and everything would go smoothly. But, of course, as 80% of my meets have gone as a high schooler, I was way behind the board every jump and didn't do as well as I wanted to. It wasn't so much that my jumps weren't as far as normal, but that all the work I had put in seemed as if it didn't matter.

Since my first meet didn't go well, I was even more nervous to compete in the RI Classic the following Saturday. During the week of practice before the meet, I realized I just needed to stay relaxed and focus on driving hard those first couple steps of my long jump approach. I found my mark that had been working for me every practice and decided that I wouldn't change it unless I was several feet over or behind the board. If there was a problem with my steps, it was because I was doing something different in my approach than normal (like not driving as hard or as fast or exaggerating my first steps too much). The problem wasn't that my steps just changed every time. Thinking about it this way, my steps were very consistent in practice because I was able to tell what it felt like to do it right every time. However, the hard part would be reproducing it in the meet.

Long jump started at 9 am on Saturday, which I believe is the earliest I've ever long jumped to date. My run throughs were slightly behind my mark of 101 feet, but instead of moving it forward, I pushed harder from the start. After about three run throughs and getting my mark set, I was ready to jump despite my overwhelming nerves and high blood sugar. My first three jumps were exactly in the middle of the board. And let me tell you, it's so nice to actually feel the board when I am jumping. At this point I think I was still getting a feel for the atmosphere, what it's like to hit the board, and my landings because those three were in the high 18s. After being somewhat satisfied with my performance so far, I ran in the 55m prelims. My start didn't feel as quick as I wanted it to be, but once I got going I felt fast and was happy with my time. After a few minute break, I went back to long jump and jumped my first two jumps in the finals. My first jump was slightly behind the board, but ended up being 19-2. My dad told me to keep my mark and push harder for the next one and I jumped 19-7 1/2. I rushed over to the 55m finals and ran 7.06, but also feeling my start was slow like the last race. My last long jump was right on the board at 19-6 and I was beyond happy that I had finally figured out how to keep my mark consistent.

 

I guess it was good that my first meet didn't go as planned because then I wouldn't have learned what to do differently for my next meet in RI. It's all about being patient and really getting a feel for things. Once you find what's comfortable, it's a lot easier to produce consistent run throughs and jumps. I know that if I can stay consistent, this will be a huge step for me in terms of future meets like States, New England's, and Nationals where every inch matters.

 

Good luck this season everyone!!