RE: the new approach initiation. I don’t like it but I’m willing to experiment…especially as these next two meets are not championship / major competition settings. Nick’s been asking to do it basically since he started working with me last year and I’ve always insisted on not doing it because he was already inaccurate enough with a static start that I didn’t feel adding greater variability on to an already unknown would help. Also, I’m kind of of the viewpoint that Nick’s speed is not his limiting factor right now. I think he has the wheels to go 8.0m+ if he brings 95+% of his maxV to the runway, hits a nice takeoff and doesn’t flub the landing.
As he said, it’s an experiment. The agreement I made was that we can try it for the next two meets. If any of the process goals aren’t met (which he’s exceeded at every meet thus far) in the next two meets then we have to go back to the static start. The number one thing I’m concerned about is the fouling. Even if he goes to the next two meets and jumps 7.85m (pr by 0.25m) but fouls more than 50% of the jumps I would say it’s not worth it because the goal of this season (all of 2009) is to improve accuracy, consistency and average competition performance. Getting a single huge PR is actually secondary to me at this point in Nick’s long term development. Additionally, I don’t think the start was where Nick’s problem was. I think we both agreed that his last 15m at the last 2 competitions lacked his usual aggressiveness to the board.
Having said all that, if it works and Nick is still able to hit the process goals that I’ve set out I’ll be fine with it. I’m not sure if jumping further will actually impact my opinion since I don’t think that type of start produces a faster last 5-10m.
