Myth #1(Mother Nature killed the sport of ski jumping) Debunked

Myth #2(NCAA killed the sport of ski jumping) Debunked Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Myth #3(The US doesn't have the talent) Debunked Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Mind Of A Ski Jumper Part 1, 2, 3, 4

The Ultimate Coach - Ski Jump Training Device

Jumping Season Digest: (see bottom of this page)

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Jumping Journal: October 04, 2009

September is over, why is this happening now.  At least the weather improved quite dramatically from what it forecast last weekend.
 
Well, I managed to miss the usual Monday evening jump session this past week thanks in part to the weather and also being out doing other things.  Granted I could have made it Lebanon for the regular session if it wouldn't have been for the sky looking like it was ready to rain and the radar was showing rain knocking on the door as well.  I decided not to make the trip and wait until the jump session yesterday.
 
Yesterday came and my plans changed quite BIG time, very abruptly.  Not only did it rain off and on most of the day but I was busy helping someone out as well all day long.  Yesterday was going to be the practice before the competition today.  A couple of master jumpers from Wisconsin contacted me earlier this summer and was wondering when we had a jump meet as they were wanting to get away from home and do some jumping in the eastern part of the U.S.
 
Due to competition schedules having two meets on the same weekend, one in Ishpeming, Michigan and then our meet in Lebanon on the second Sunday of September they asked us if it would be possible to move the meet.  We decided to let them pick a date.  They chose this weekend.  Next weekend is going to the National Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Championship in Lake Placid, New York.  They figured they could come and hit out meet and then go over and do some jumping in Lake Placid and watch US Nationals next weekend.
 
Late last weekend I get an email from one of the masters that was going to make the trip and he decided due to travel problems that had come up that he wasn't going to be making the trip.  It still sounded like the other individual was going to come but I didn't know for sure.  The new glitch in the whole scene was the weather forecast.  After having nice sunny skies for the past couple of weeks the forecast was changing to clouds and rain most everyday, including both Saturday and Sunday.  It looked like both days were going to be a rainout, roughly one inch of rain forecast for each day.
 
I woke up this morning to mostly cloudy skies but it was dry.  It fortunately would stay that way all day long.  In fact by the time the competition was done the sun was out shining beautifully.
 
I arrived at the hill around 1PM and found several cars already in the parking lot.  Quite a few of the regulars was already there, Walter, Bill, Cannonball, as well as several of the junior and high school jumpers.  Slowly but surely 15 jumpers managed to show up for the annual Dion Cup/New England Summer Ski Jumping Championships.  Included in the mix but deciding not to jump was Tom Moore, one of the two Tom's that was planning on coming from Wisconsin.
 
In all their was 9 masters, Dan, Bill, Cannonball, Walter, Brad, Colin(1), Jonathan, Todd and myself.  Turns out Todd finally put the skis on the first time this summer...yesterday.  Also their were 3 juniors and 3 high school jumpers to round out the field of competitors.
 
After spending some time chatting with Tom I suited up and made my way up the jump to grab a few practice jumps before the competition started.  Each of the four jumps during practice were landing around 15-16 meter mark.  I still can figure out why I'm jumping 2-3 meters shorter this summer than I was last summer.  It has been consistent most of the summer with just a few exceptions.  The technique hasn't changed but the distance sure has.
 
Once the competition started things pretty much continued the same.  My first jump was 15.5 meters.  Totally unbelievable.  My second jump landed at 16.5 meters.  It was a bit of an improvement but still left a lot to be desired.  My third and final jump of the competition landed at 16 meters.  The other guys that typically end up competiting against were jumping 17.5-18.0 meters.  Normally I would be jumping the same distance as them but for some reason I keep on coming up short this year.  I don't know why.
 
After the ski jumping results were calculated, the foot race was ready to get underway.  For every point behind the leader in your age group that you finished you were given a 2 second penalty.  My penalty 1:50.  Turns out I had the worst penalty of anybody.  Other jumpers finished with fewer points than me but so did their age group leader.  I was going to bring up the back of the pack in the 1.4 mile foot race.  Gee last year I think I was the third or fourth person off the start line, this year I was going to be dead last.
 
Turns out I managed to pass several of the people that started in front of me including the mighty Cannonball and I was on the verge of catching Walter before I lost it.  I was making up nice ground on him but I just couldn't finish it off.  The back of my calves still feel the tight.  They were really tight from shortly after the start of the run.  I ended up doing the run in 9:11 with an average of just a little over a 6.5 minute mile.  Not bad for someone who has only run two maybe three miles in the past year.
 
Now to take tomorrow off and instead of taking Columbus Day off as has always been the case, other than just once back in 2005, it looks like I should probably be jumping next Monday.  Hopefully I'll be able to get another 15 jumps in on plastic before snow flies.  It would be nice to get another 100 jump summer in.  I think 2005 is the only other time I've managed to get 100 jumps in during the summer.
 
Keep the ski tips up,
Crash
Winter 2010
DateLeb 25Plymouth 25Leb 50And 38
Dec 121
Jan 056
Jan 063
Feb 024
Feb 032
Feb 046
Feb 073
Mar 063
Totals133102