Jumping Journal: January 22, 2008

Let the good jumps return.  Even though their is a bad moon arising.  Okay, enough of the lame music paradoies.

 

I arrive at the hill this afternoon under cloudy/lightly snowy skies.  The morning started off cloudy around sunrise but cleared out by 9:30AM to only cloudy back over by noon time.  Around 2PM it started to lightly snow.  It wouldn't amount to anything but it did snow, off and on, until at least 6:45PM.

 

After the usual afternoon of helping out on the lifts for the alpine racing teams I made my way back down to the lodge and Cannonball yelled at me from the K10.  He wanted to talk to me.  I already knew what this was about.  I guess the madman blog reader Bill Ryan had told him about my agony of defeat jump from last night and then he confirmed the details with Nick once Nick got to the hill.

 

After talking with Cannonbal and Bill I walked to the jump inn and changed socks and boots and headed on up the hill.  I know that I generally don't get done helping with the lift until 6:30-6:45 so I just change into the jump suit before I ever head up to the top lift shack that way it saves me time suiting up before I jump.

 

I walked up the landing hill and Nick told me to just remember to play it safe tonight and not try anything fancy.  I walked up the tressel as one of the Hanover High School jumpers was coming down and after the winner/female winner too boot from Saturday jumped I removed the bar from the bar start and put on my skis.

 

I looked down the inrun and did have a very small bit of worry come up so little it wasn't hardly even worth mentioning.  I headed on down the inrun and jumped at the takeoff and had a nice first jump post AODing it last night.  Talking with Nick as I got back up to the knoll I guess I did have the hands down lower than normal on the first jump so I knew I needed to make sure to keep them up.

 

I also knew that I needed to work on finding a decent head position.  I have always had trouble on both the inrun and flight position on keeping a good head position.  Normally on the inrun I'm either looking to down or too much out in front of me.  Last night when I took the AOD I was looking pretty much at the ski tips.  Having the head down that far further helped to pull me up on my toes.

 

I walked up for the second jump and decided to work on keeping the arms up and still riding the whole foot. The second jump went much better.  It almost started to feel like jumps I was taking until late Thursday last week as compared to the jumps I had been taking since then.

 

The third jump I decided to work on adding more power into the jump.  It worked quite nicely as well.  I couldn't complain any at all.

 

Jump four and I decided to add in a V again.  It was the best jump of the nice.  I was smooth in the air, even with the V and I did seem to have some decent power at the takeoff.

 

Jump five, the final jump of the evening, and I ended up jumping late.  I also didn't hold the position as nicely in the air and ended up having some movement with the upper body.

 

Overall the night was the best jumping I've had since mid week last week.  Hopefully things will continue along this same pace.

 

Afte changing clothes I walked back down and watched the newbies jumping on the K25, where I'll probably be jumping with the high school kids tomorrow night before the high school meet.  I believe it was a split between three adults and three kids that were out jumping.  The skies were starting to clear out once again and the full moon was shining down brightly on us.

 

As for the remainder of the week, the masters are leaving in the morning for Chicago and US Masters Championship at Norge this weekend.  I think I'll end up being the only non newbie adult that will be left in the east this weekend.  It will make for quiet ski jumping, no noisy adults to break the silence.  Then again, the kids can break the silence, HA!

 

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash