Jumping Journal: January 19, 2008

The tide it is a changing...or it has changed.  I'm still not sure which but it does give me a bad feeling.

 

Lebanon Winter Carnival 2008.  The day each year when I try to see just how many jumps I can manage to take in one day.  This year I already knew would be hard pressed to get a big number but I figured I would still be able to get 10-15, down from something like 18 last year.  The amount of practice time before the competition started was going to limit the number of jumps I would get to take more than it has in the past.

 

I arrived at the hill just shortly before 11AM, normally I would have already started jumping by then but practice wasn't scheduled to start this year until 12PM.  After doing a little of ski work that I knew I needed to do I helped get the computer setup and ready to score the meet.

 

Noon time rolled around and just shortly after high noon I headed out to practice.  I was initially hoping to get at least 7 jumps in so combined with the 3 comp jumps I would get my minimum of 10 jumps I was hoping to get for the day.

 

As it turned out my jumping continued from where it left off last night, err sliding downhill with each passing jump.  Granted I did notice that I am having a hard time trying to mix driving through the heel with including a V.  I seem not to be having much luck at doing both on the same jump.

 

The first two or three jumps I was still pulling out of the jump and landing earlier than what I should have been.  My mind still wasn't liking me being in that position.  I was only going 34-36 meters which seemed short.  Granted the environment wasn't helping any.  I get along better with fewer jumpers around.

 

By jumps four and five I was starting to hang out better but I didn't have any kind of power at the takeoff whatsoever. It was definitely getting a bit irritating.  I could jump with power and skip the V and hold the position nicely.  I could jump and add the V and hold the position nicely.  I couldn't jump with power and add the V, no matter what.  By the end of practice I did manage it once but I backed right out of the flight early.

 

I ended up getting lucky and managed to take nine jumps during practice.  The last jump it seemed like I must have been sitting back on the inrun as I ended up sitting back going through the transition and fell down on my butt.  It did seem like I wasn't keep the butt up quite as much today as I had been earlier in the week.  I also wasn't looking to where I wanted to land.  I found myself to be looking just 'a few feet in front of the skis'.  I kept trying to change the scenario but my mind didn't seem to want to cooperate with me and make it occur.  I still am wandering if that might be helping me to want to back out versus staying with the jump.  I going to have to spend some more time and really focus on it and see what the results are.

 

Fortunately everything had been running pretty decent with the computer...so far.  Once I finished practicing I helped some with getting the computer moved from the lodge, where registration was, to the judges tower.  Afterwards I put the jump boots back on and headed back up the jump to get the competition started.

 

I was only planning on forejumping.  I've had my game all figured out since the start of winter and I haven't had any plans of actually being a competitor other than at two meets this year.  I may add a meet or two later on but right now it pretty much looks like I'll only compete at two meets.  Their will be a few others like today and tomorrow where I will forejump.

 

After the national anthem was performed by Cannonball on his harmonica the jumpers headed on up the inrun for the trial round jump.

 

My first jump was pretty much like the rest of them had been throughout the day, mediocre.  I landed it about 36 meters I believe is what I heard.  I've had better.

 

The second jump I just decided the heck with it and focused on driving through the heel and didn't even bother with trying to put in a V.  I did manage to land down at 37.5 meters.

 

The third and final comp round jump I was going to try once again to repeat jump two with the addition of looking to where I wanted to land.  Instead I found myself looking at the same place as normal and landing the same place as normal.  I was weird seeing myself focusing in on a spot and landing right where I was looking.  It makes me think about hearing the number one thing they always talk about learning when going to race car drving school, look where you want to go.  I think it does work the same in ski jumping.

 

They decided to have a longest standing jump and I decided to get myself yet another jump in.  At least it would take me into the teens for the day.  For the thirteenth and final jump of the day I went from the top bar instead of jumping from house.  I knew I wasn't going to win, since I wasn't even competing, so why not go for a nice easy relaxed jump instead.  I wanted to pay attention to where I was looking but it didn't turn out that way. I still managed to land right aroudn 35 meters.

 

After changing clothes I headed back into the lodge to get the results finalized from the meet and to get the nordic offset computed for the  noridc sprint competition that was to come.  I thought I pretty much had everything setup before the meet started but their was a couple of things I had forgotten about so it turned something simple/quick into something that took longer than planned.

 

It turned out their was also a snafu with the judges cards that we finally figured out.  Fortunately it appeared it wouldn't have changed the results.  In the masters class Mark Breen ended up walking away with the 1st place win.  Matt McKenny took second with Jon 'Cannonball' Farnham taking third, Bill Ryan taking fourth, Dan Brown taking fifth and 70 year old Don West taking sixth.  Yes, six masters jumping on K50.  There was one master female jumping on the K10 and one master jumping on the K25.  I was a little surprised that a few of the other masters that have started jumping weren't out competing on either the K10 or K25.  I guess having nine masters at a jump meet isn't too bad.  All the boys that were jumping on the K50 today, except me, will be out in the Chicago, IL area next weekend for US Masters.  Heck half the masters next weekend could very well end up being eastern jumpers.

 

After a day of warm weather for Lebanon, tomorrow the action moves north a few miles, literally about 10 minutes away, and the temperature is moving south.  Highs today under partly to mostly cloudy skies were in the lower 30s.  Tomorrow's high temperature is forecast to be in the low to mid teens.  No major snow on the horizon and no real warm air on the horizon.  Guess that means plenty of jumping opportunities coming up, err down in the next week, hopefully.

 

Crash