September 8, 2008
Greetings all,
Hopefully your weekend was a good one and you were all able to survive Monday!
I am just returning from the USA Push Championship that were held in in Calgary, Canada this past week. It was a pretty productive weekend for me and I am excited going into team trials. Nothing like the smell of competition to get your blood going. It was a very competitive camp this year and it showed in the closeness of the results. On the first day of testing we had individual testing, where each push athlete (24 total guys) took turns pushing from the Right, Left, and Brakes of a Bobsled. As you can see from the results below in the attached document finished 7Th overall after the first day of pushing. Of course I was hoping to take first overall after the first day but it did not happen that way, but I am still in great position to be racing on one of the top sled heading into team trials starting in October.
After the first day of pushing I went back and looked at the video of my pushing and I realized where I had lost the time. When it comes to pushing a bobsled there are two different phases of the push. The first phase is your drive phase which happens in the first twenty or so meters of the push, the second phase is your more traditional sprint phase and comes as you cross over the crest of the hill. As I watched film I began to kick myself in the butt after realizing that I stayed in my drive phase over the crest, not really ever getting up into my sprinting phase and not allowing myself to reach that foot speed or turnover that I am capable of. "Yeah I know right!!" It is a race to be perfect at that exact moment and to keep that perfection every time you touch the sled, it needs to be unconscious to the point where you can do it in your sleep, when you are sick, if you are injured or tired, that is the perfection I am chasing and I will achieve when its all said and done. From the results you will see how a few hundredths of a second separate the top ten USA Push athletes. These hundreths of a second translate to the difference between having one foot out of position on one step or even two that has made difference in the final result.
On the second and third days of pushing we began our three man (a brakemen at each pushing position of the sled) and four-man combination's ( a complete sled 3 brakemen and a driver). These two days of combination allowed me two more days to show my abilities. During these days the team I was on posted the second and third fastest times on both days! My personal film review aided me well, allowing me to correct my first day mistakes by opening up my stride over the crest, applying more force, and speed as I pushed. I definitely held some drivers and coaches attention from my performance which is what I needed to do. I am very confident that I will continue to improve and make small correction's each time that I step on the ice!
Below is the the videos of me from Push Championships. Please take a look at this video so that you may and get a better ideal of what I am talking about when I refer to the drive phase and crest of the hill.
God Bless and thank you all for your support!
Sincerely,
Jesse
