First half of the Season

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas everyone and have a Happy New Year! 2012 Here we come!!

The Curve Ball

Ah yes the surprise….Well not all surprises come with balloons and happy faces which ironically was actually the type of surprise this was.

I might not have explained this earlier but after the National Team is chose the Head coach has final say on who races and who does not. This allows coaches to make changes if for whatever reason they believe that a particular athlete(s) on a team production may have decreased. In an attempt to start figuring out what was going on with the start and why considering the push athletes testing numbers our start times were not in the top ten or higher, they informed the team that they were taking me off the 4-man team this week and were replacing me with the alternate!! Without me saying it you can imagine what was going through my head, actually from the expression on my face everyone in the room knew what was going through my head as well. The coaches asked if anyone had any questions and surprisingly enough I was able to hold my tongue because I knew that with the way I was feeling nothing positive, coherent or proper would have come out of my mouth.

After the meeting one of my teammates came over to speak with me about the coach’s decision. We talked about a few different things, resulting in me calming down enough so I could speak to the -coaches about the decision they just made. I ended up having about a forty-five minute conversation with the coaches, doing my best to understand their logic. I won’t go into the details of the conversation that was had but they were not happy with my two-man push the week before and as I mentioned before they had not been pleased with our four-man pushes either. They explained that this is the first of many evaluations and that they will possibly try something different next week. I admit I did not like their answer but I had to respect their decision just as they had to respect my reasons for why I thought taking me of the four-man was a mistake. Regardless their decision was their decision and for this week I would not be racing.

I would like to say that after talking to the coaches my anger had subsided but that would be a complete lie! In my head I was kicking over furniture, burning down cities, blowing up cars along with a million other things that would not be politically correct to type. Along with those thoughts a part of me was feverishly repeating the Lord’s Prayer to keep me calm. While this was going on I reached out to one of my sisters asking her to pray for me. The extra time from not racing made me really think about the bible verses that I read in the book of James ch2 v14 that says “what good is it my brothers if a man claims to have faith but has not actions?” It made me realize that if I claim to have faith that no matter what is going on in my life, no matter how horrible it looks from my perspective that if I truly have faith and trust that God has my best interest in mind then it will work out in the long run. Having those thoughts in my mind I decided to use this time to my advantage; I studied a ton of mines and others push video with my head coach as to identify any possible inefficiencies I may have in my push technique. That week I did have some intense lifting and sprinting sessions since I was not worried about my legs being too tired before a race. I even created a couple of new drills designed to reinforce proper push technique; personally although I was not racing it was a great week of training for me. On Thursday training it was my turn to push, allowing me to apply drills and technique I had been practicing. This resulted in me pushing closer to USA 1 in practice than I previously had; it was good sign from my stand point.

Like normal the 2-Man Race was scheduled to take place on Saturday with the 4-Man Race to be held on Sunday. Although I was not racing I still helped with sanding the runner along with all other normal sled preparations. At best the feeling of racing felt extremely weird but to counteract that weirdness I had an intense sprint workout before the start of the 4-man race, but sorry I am getting ahead of myself. For this week 2-man race it was Chris Fogt’s turn to push with napes once again the start was not exactly what people were expecting but being that Napes is a good driver and the track was long they finished in 11^th place. As I mentioned the next day was the 4-man race and I was definitely feeling like I was in a Bizzaro Land having to watch. Once again I kept repeating the Lord’s Prayer to keep me calm that along with doing a sprint workout helped me to keep calm. On this day the USA 2 sled was 12^th off, I helped carried the sled to the line for the guys as they prepared to push; placing it in the start groves for them as the sixty second start countdown began. While watching the guys push my adrenaline was pumping for them….I felt like a Wyld Stallyns(Be Excellent to Each Other! Thank you Bill & Ted) tied to a two-thousand year old tree forbidden to help my team! The guys pushed and the time was relatively slower to the field than it was our past races, once again Napes was able to drive to 13^th. After the race not much was really said we just packed up the gear like normal and headed on to the next race in Winterberg, Germany.

A day after we arrived in Germany one of my Teammates informed me that I was back on the 4-Man Team for the race; I thought the coaches would have informed me about this but I was wrong in that thinking but I was racing again like I should have been so who cares how the info came about. In their continual attempt to figure out our start issues the coaches decided to have a 2-man race off between Johnny Quinn and Adam Clark to see who would race in the 4-man race. This move was a bit unusual since the race off is normally in the discipline that you are racing i.e. if you race of for the 2-man position using the 2-man sled and switching out the two guys in question and you race of for the 4-man position using the 4-man sled plus crew switching out the two guys in question. Regardless Johnny won the race off thereby keeping our team together, now for the life of me I don’t understand why I was not given any type of Race off before they took me off the sled but that is just some of the things I have to deal with. Yeah not fun! Now our 4-man team was back to its original group, the man 2-was another story. In order to try and get Napes a faster start Justin Olsen was chosen to push 2-man with napes this week. Me and the other guys did not take it personal at all, we just figured do what you guys feel you need to do to get a faster start plus we were more concerned about getting a good 4-man result.

I feel like I keep repeating myself but the first half of the season was just not going the way any of us could have imagined. We thought we were good to go for 4-man until Fogt started showing flu like systems forcing us to use Adam for the day of 4-man training, allowing Fogt to rest up for the 4-man race. The 2-Man race went off as planned with bit of snow in the forecast that was pretty sporadic snowing for some sleds and stopping for others. Napes and Justin pushes were once again not as fast as people expected and initially they were in 20^th (only the top 20 sleds get a second run) but we thought they were in 21^st and we almost packed the sled up! Luckily Gomer the Russian coach told us he thought we were in 20^th so we waited for the official results from the first heat and Gomer was right! The sled was very close to being put on the truck!! It’s a good thing when the sled came back up we just left it in the scabbards and never attempted to take of the runners otherwise we would have been disqualified!! Once we found out that they had a second run we told Napes and Justin, they did a quick warm-up and were back on the start block. Their second push was better but still not where the coaches would have like to see it and in the end they finished in 14^th.

The weather conditions were pretty much the same for the 4-man race if not worse. The warm-up for the race if you want to call it that was straight blizzard conditions on and off, added to the fact that Fogt was still throwing up before the race and would be afterwards. In conditions like this the plan is to get the sled down and into the start groves as soon as possible before more snow builds up in the start groves and within the track itself. We get to the start line with our plan in effect! The sled before us goes off and half way down there run we all begin stripping down to our speed suits so we are ready to go as soon as possible. They clear the start of the track for our run, the 60 second clock starts, we drop the sled and are getting ready to go. However the light system that is a secondary measure is still red and not green! So they stop us from going! They then reset the clock and the light but by this time more snow has built up, my coach then stops the guys at the start and asks them if we can get the start swept again (it was a good catch). First of all they did a crappy job of sweeping out the start and snow was building up in the track as well since the message to sweep apparently got out slow. Meanwhile we are getting colder by the minute and this is not helping Fogt’s flu systems by any means of the imagination. Finally we get the go ahead to start and we fire out the hole…..yup at the bottom we find out our push is not what we had hoped compared to the field. Napes then tell us about the snow build-up he saw in the track and wouldn’t you know it that after the run the snot STOPS!! Are you Kidding me right now is all I’m thinking as I see sleds we out pushed coming down the track faster than us by a good amount. The second heat would not go much different except the snow had stopped but it was a lot to recover from and we finished up in 15^th! We were not happy by any means but sometimes racing is not always peachy keen. However it does mean that we have to work harder second half to fix whatever issues we are having and God willing second half will go better! I have to take my hat off to the guys on USA 1 because they have had some great finishes but I know we are capable of being on that same level!

The Break and Second Half

Due to this year’s Race schedule we only had a ten day break. I arrived in the States on December 20 and left for Frankfurt Germany yesterday, arriving in time to ring in the New Year!! Over the break I stayed at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs so I could regroup and focus on how I can help my team get better on the second half of tour. I took a few days off while I was back but then it was back to training. Along with lifting and sprint workouts I continued to break down my pushing form working on the small details that go a long was; slowing it down in my head in order to improve my overall technique. While I was back in Colorado I had the opportunity to meet some really great people who I am still getting to know but I’m pretty sure we will be friends for a very long time. I met one gentleman on the plane ride back from Frankfurt he name was…….well this e-mail is getting long so I will finish in my next installment!!! Yeah I just did that!

Sorry you all know I have a weird sense of humor

I am almost done labeling my pictures so check them out in the next couple days. They will be posted on the Media page on my web site under the title 2011 First Half Photos!!

P.S we just rang in the New Years at Hotel Mercure in Frankfurt Germany!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE AND GOD BLESS!!!

Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

EC and WC Update 12-12-11

Bonjur,

Yes I am in France right now how did you guess, Belle Plange, France to be precise. It’s pretty exciting since France has been of the Race Circuit for a while, and none the current members of Team USA have ever slid here well besides our coaches. It should be an exciting time. We are staying at the Ski Resort La Caralina, located in the French Alps! Yeah no big deal lol

Europa Cup races

I hope you do not mind but I have to back track for a minute. This year before the Official start of the World Cup Season we decided to Two Europa Cup Races as we prepared for the Season. The Europa Cup tour is a lower ranked tour but there is still a ton of competition on that level, similar to Division 1 and Division 1AA or whatever it is nowadays In a Europa Cup Race you can have anywhere from 45-60 2-Man sleds in a race while World Cup will have about 27-32 2-Man Sleds in a race. The race week is also very different; on world cup we have one 2-Man race and one 4-Man race a week that are held on Saturday and Sunday. On Europa Cup you have two 2-Man Races and two 4-Man Races in a week; we were racing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, along with our normal sprint and weight lifting routine. Needless to say it was a tiring couple of weeks. We flew in to the Munich, Germany Airport picked up our rental cars (Shout-Out to BMW for outfitting the USA team with 6 BMW X5’s while on tour!!) and rental Vans that we transport out bobsleds in as we travel from venue to venue.

The first stop on our Europa Cup Tour was Igls, Austria which is two-hours away from the airport; while in Austria we stayed at the Sportshotel. It’s a massive hotel complete with the always needed Hot Tub, Cold Tub, Sauna, Steam Room, and pool or simply put a Spa. The Spar area is really nice but the only catch is…….is that it’s a nude area!! Yeah that’s a whole other story now back to bobsled. Unlike in Team Trials our crew was finally able to race in its proper positions, I pushed from the left, Fogt from the brakes and JQ from the Right, but we still needed repetition as a crew and these Europa Cup races would provide that. The race two 2-man races had 49 sleds in it. On the first day Napier and Fogt finished 7^{th (Thursday)}, in the second day of racing Napier and I finished 10^{th (Friday)}. The first day of 4-man we finished 12^th, on the second day of 4-man we finished 9^th. A top ten finish was good but we always want top 6 if we don’t win. In both of the-man races we dropped between 5 and 7 hundredths between our first and second pushes!! It was good that we went faster on the pushes but we need to be more consistent and not leave so much time at the block on the first push. It basically comes down to timing and the crew being on the same page, but the more reps we have together the better our timing on the hit and our load will get resulting in a faster start time.

Directly after the 4-man race we went back to the hotel, showered, packed bags and the trucks then hit the road for a two and a half hour drive to Konigssee, Germany; the next stop on the Europa Cup tour. In Konigssee we usually stay at the hotel Fischer during the World Cup but they were booked, so we stayed at a hotel that was closer to the track called Hotel Brunneck. I have to interject for a moment: since we have been traveling over to Europe every hotel we stayed at served these five course meals that took a good two hours till completion. We accepted it and figured it was tradition and when in Rome blah blah! OUR THEORY WAS PROVEN WRONG AT THE HOTEL BRUNNECK!!! It was a staff of three people in the kitchen (2 cooks and a waitress) and they served all five courses in a good thirty-five minutes. This German lady was on it, running out salad, soup, drinks, bread before we thought about asking and the main meal came out just as quick! Meanwhile when we were in Austria they have a staff about ten preparing our meals, taking two hours to finish. Needless to say we loved the food and service at Hotel Brunneck added to the fact it was five minutes closer to the track it was definitely a good spot to be at.

The track in Konigssee is about ten minutes away from Berchtesgaden, Germany; it is also home to Hitler’s Crow’s nest and is a stone’s throw away from the Austrian Border. It’s a beautiful area, but you will be able to see it in my picture album. The races in Konigssee, Germany went about the same as they did in Igls. I did not race 2-man this week instead the duty feel on my teammate JQ and Fogt. JQ and Napes finished 13^th in the first 2-man Race, then Fogt and Napes finished 5^th in the second 2-Man race. We only had one 4-man race where we finished in 13^th place just .05 out of the top ten. Our timing was a bit off and one of the guys got hung up on the load which did not help; It was a race we definitely felt we should have finished higher in but that is why we race and practice you never know what’s going to happen.

World Cup Races

Ironically enough he start of the World Cup Season began in Igls, Austria; and yes you guessed it after the 4-Man Race we packed up, showered, and hit the road another two and a half hours back to Austria and two hour dinners! Lol However this time when we got to Austria our Team Manager Lenny spoke with the staff, informing them that they need to be quicker in their meal service for us since we don’t have time to sit around for hours enjoying the ambiance. Lol We were all glad he talked to them because it allowed us to come in and just have the main course then leave or they set it up buffet style saving us a ton of time. That’s Right AMERICA!!! Lol

I may have mentioned this before but whenever we change the normal operations of something in Europe, Drive down a road we may or may not supposed to be on, pull a U turn in the wrong place or do something like the Honey Badger would do we SCREAM OUT AMERICA (Movie: The Other Guys) and it Makes it all OK!! Lol Oh and Completely Legal!! It’s a rule written on the back of your passport, don’t bother looking trust me it’s there!

Going into the World Cup week I won a race-off against one of my teammates and the right to race the 2-Man race that week. The days of training leading up to the race went well we were pushing fine in 2-man and in 4-man; we all were feeling pretty excited going into our first World Cup Event of the year. I wish I could sugar coat it but I’m not good at that, the 2-man race was a bad day the start was not what we wanted and we ended up in 18^th place. I went back and looked at the film with my coaches to see how to improve and the film looked pretty good but we did see that my ground contact could have been longer. Since looking at the film I have been correcting that issue in my pushing and sprint work out making sure that will not happen again. Because in my sport you are only as good as your last push, if you give people a reason to doubt your ability it will snowball into a ton “is he really that good” theories no matter what you have done in the past. My sport is measured in hundredths of a second and if they are not fast then one race can be your last race. It’s a harsh reality but sometimes one mistake is all you get if that depending on the year. Please do not confuse my tone it is one of passion and determination knowing that my next race will be a thousand times better than my last.

Thankfully the 4-man race went a bit better, we were 12^th off in the starting order and after the first heat we were sitting in a tie for 10^th position. The first heat we pushed a 5.16, we were pissed because we knew we had a lot more in us than that. Going into the second heat we got our mind right! Emotions started to fly, words were said, and our blood was pumping a million miles per second!! My eyes were blood shot red and beads of sweat and adrenalin were pouring down mine, JQ, and Fogt’s face we were ready to blast this sled of the hill! We step to the line each of us grabbing the sled in our designation position. I call out “GOOD” to Fogt letting him know me and JQ are ready, Fogt screams out “BACKSET”!! Napier Yells “FRONTSET READY” and we all hit the sled with more power and speed then in the first heat! We can feel it as we are pushing down the hill and the load was a lot smoother and quicker than before. The trip down the hill felt good! When we got down to the bottom we were told that we pushed 5.11 dropping .05 of our start but the Canadian before us had a smoking r had a hell of a run and they pushed 5.10 beating us to the bottom by .02 at the bottom and a Netherland sled had pushed a 5.07 beating us to the bottom by .01 landing us in 12 position by .03. If we would have pushed at least 5.11 both heats we would have been in the top 10 to 8 sleds. Anyway the race was over and all we could do is take what we learned and apply it to the next race in Laplange, France which by the way was a 9 hour drive away!! Once again we headed back to the hotel showered, ate a quick lunch, packed the trucks and were off to France for World Cup race #2.

The drive to France actually went by pretty fast but at the team meeting that night the Coaches had a little surprise that I will tell you about in the next e-mail. Yeah I’m a little stinker I know.

God Bless

Jesse

P.S I will have to post pictures when I get back to the states

www.jessebeckom3.com

Bobsled Race Broadcast Information

Greetings everyone between the hectic Europa cup Schedule and now World Cup Schedule my Updates have been a little slow, hopefully I will be able to catch you all up to speed by next week.

In the meantime I wanted to provide you all with the race broadcast information below detailing when and where you can watch bobsled races live or on delay.

The IBSF will provide LIVE streaming for World Cup events on their website at www.fibt.com. (Click on live broadcast on the opening page and remember we are 6hrs ahead of EST) Universal Sports will also broadcast the events with commentary and interviews on one-week delay. Programs will air Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 6 pm EST.

Universal Sports Broadcast schedule (schedule subject to change)

ALL TIMES ET

Fri., Dec. 9 6-7 PM World Cup #1 Igls, Austria

Sat., Dec. 10 6-7 PM World Cup #1 Igls, Austria

Sun., Dec. 11 6-7 PM World Cup #1 Igls, Austria

Fri., Dec. 16 6-7 PM World Cup #2 LaPlagne, France

Sat., Dec. 17 6-7 PM World Cup #2 LaPlagne, France

Sun., Dec. 18 6-7 PM World Cup #2 LaPlagne, France

Fri., Dec. 23 6-7 PM World Cup #3 Winterberg, Germany

Sat., Dec. 24 6-7 PM World Cup #3 Winterberg, Germany

Sun., Dec. 25 6-7 PM World Cup #3 Winterberg, Germany

Sat., Jan. 5:30-7PM World Cup Team Competition Igls, Austria

Fri., Jan. 13 6-7 PM World Cup #4 Altenberg, Germany

Sat., Jan. 14 6-7 PM World Cup #4 Altenberg, Germany

Sun., Jan. 15 6-7 PM World Cup #4 Altenberg, Germany

Fri., Jan. 20 6-7 PM World Cup #5 Konigssee, Germany

Sat., Jan. 21 6-7 PM World Cup #5 Konigssee, Germany

Sun., Jan. 22 6-7 PM World Cup #5 Konigssee, Germany

Fri., Jan. 27 6-7 PM World Cup #6 St. Moritz, Switzerland

Sat., Jan. 28 6-7 PM World Cup #6 St. Moritz, Switzerland

Sun., Jan. 29 6-7 PM World Cup #6 St. Moritz, Switzerland

God Bless
Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone from the Powerful Men of USA Bobsled!

Back Row: Steve Langton, Justin Olsen, Adam Clark, Chris Fogt

Front Row: Jesse Beckom III and Curt Tomasevicz

Calgary Training and 2011 National Team Trials Update

Hellooo Peoples and Gouls I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!! Remembering to Eat the Split Pea Soup before the Split Pea Soup Eats you!!! (Harry Potter)

Yeah I know, I know, I've been a bad updater but Its been kind of busy with going op to CalgaryTraining and National Team Selection Races. Since it has been a while I guess I feel a bit obligated to give you a quick short version of what has transpired.You can also can choose to read on for a more detail story.

In order not to ruin the story for those who want to read everything if you scroll down to the bottom of this e-mail the Very last paragraph is the short version.

The Long of It

As I mentioned in my last e-mail the top two push crews USA 1&2 headed up to Calgary Canada for a week of on ice push training in the Calgary Olympic Park Ice House, since we do not have such a facility here in the States. The Ice House is exactly how it sounds, it houses a 100 meter iced push track equipped with built in timing eyes that allows us to time the speed and velocity of our pushes, and coordination required in a four man load.

While in Calgary we did our weight/sprint training inside the Calgary Olympic Oval located at the University of Calgary; which also has an indoor speed skating track (this is and important fact). I think I have mentioned this before but my teammates and I are very..very...very...verry competitive in everything! Literally EVERTTHING!! What’s that!? Jesse please give us and example? Of course I will anything for you guys!!! Now in order to get into the Olympic Oval you have to be issued an I.D card that you scan at a pair of locked glass turnstile. These barriers are nothing to serious and we could just as easily jump over them if we choose to. However there is a trick when scanning these I.D cards, you can't just press them right up against the laser light scanner or it will not work, you have to hold it back a good four inches or so. After we got our I.D cards we approached the two access gates and whatever two guys were standing there kind of paused look at each other, squinting our eyes a bit and we know the Race WAS ON!! lol we immediately started to scan our I.D's faster than the other person to get through the gate faster!!! It just so happened that there was some arbitrary red lined just past the gate that we made the finish line just on pure instinct!! Some bags were getting stuck on the gate, almost breaking the gate but we did not care we each just wanted to win!! The lady who issued us the passes was just laughing her head off at us in amusement and disbelief!! She later informed us that every athlete that comes through the gates tend to do the same thing if they are with their teammates!! lol Oh and by the way I won the Great Gate Race of 2011!

Speaking of racing there was actually one more race that came aboout (that's Canadian for about). For the the first couple of days in Calgary we did a normal dynamic warm composed of different foot work drills and sprints before we lifted. Until Justin Olsen one of the guys on USA 1 noticed a sign for skate rentals (yeah its all downhill from here lol!), and it just so happened that the open ice time was right before our normal lifting time. At that very moment the gauntlet was thrown down for a USA 1 vs. USA 2 Ice Skating Race around the Oval!! It may not have been the smartest thing we ever did but a race is a race and it was on!! Two days later on Friday we made sure to bring a video camera to document the race!! I have to admit that Justin and I were the two worst skaters of the bunch hands down!! Here were the teams USA 1 ( Steve Langton, Curt Tomasevicz, Justin Olsen) USA 2 (Jesse Beckom, Chris Fogt, Johnny Quinn); each team had a strategy going into this massive relay race where we used The Stick as a baton lol it was awesome!!

Each team had a strategy going into the race USA 1 decided to have their slowest guy (a.k.a Justin Olsen) go first and we opted to have our slowest guy (a.k.a ME) go last! I suggested to my team that I go first and they could make up ground at the end if need be, but my team was thinking "lets get as big as lead as we can and I could finish it off, I was out voted so we went with their plan. The first leg of the race was Johnny Quinn (our fastest skater) vs. Justin Olsen (Slowest skater)! JQ got into a hockey like stance and took off with Justin tinkering behind him! JQ was a good 40 meters ahead of Justin 30 seconds into the race. JQ looked like a NHL player all the way, he had told us he knew how to skate but this was beyond anything we would have guessed. After a minute into the race JQ was out to a 200 meter lead on this 400 meter track!!

The second leg of the race was Chris Fogt (Second Best Skater) vs Steve Langton (Second best skater); Langton grew up in Boston so he was a bit better skater than Chris, but regardless we had a huge lead of about 200 meters by the time Christ got the baton!! At this point I am thinking all I have to do is not fall and we are good! lol Before the race we did two practice laps to get warmed up so I was feeling more confident than I had before, being that this was my third time Ice Skating ever. Now it’s the last Leg of the race Me ( Worst Skater) vs Curt Tomasevicz (Best Skater). I get the baton from Chris and in my mind’s eye I took off like Shanni Davis!!! Yeah about that.....it was more like Shanni Davis when he was two years old and his mother handed him some skates for the first time and he said Ooooo pretty skates! lol. I was just tinkering along like a baby dear learning how to walk! I thought I was going so fast! lol When we watched the film you could just see Curt eyeing me up for the kill!! Fyi Curt’s parents apparently had a lake house he often visited as a Kid and he frequently skated on it growing up (he failed to mention that before the race) As I continued to tinker around the track thoughts of opportunities where I could have learned how to skate better flashed through my head. The most recently being the offer that I passed on from my friends on the USA Figure skating Team who wanted to give me lessons this summer!! Right about now I was wishing I had taken that offer! Continually inching my way around the track (keep in mind we are in Canada where babies are born wearing ice skates) this 8yr old kid and his father come flying by me at what had to be 80mph! lol and all I could think is how badly I wanted to trip them both, watching as they crash into the boards! I approach the last turn I start thinking just don’t fall and don’t go to wide, but as I try to turn I find myself having some difficulty and almost fall. Then right as I am recovering from running into people there goes Curt pushed me and passed me for the me for the win!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Ok so maybe he didn't physically push me but he definitely pushed my Ego! lol I was so mad we ended up losing by about 50 meters or so but I finished the race and did not fall on my face....Well I fell over the side barrier after crossing the finish line but the race was over so it did not count! This summer I am going to learn how to skate and next year will be a whole different story!! Stupid Stupid Curt! lol

And did I mention that we got the whole race on video and at some point in time when one of the guys puts it to music and edits it, I will post it. The video and interviews are classic to say the least.

After finishing up Training in Calgary on October 9th, it was on to Lake Placid to prepare for the USBSF 2011 National Team Trial Selection Races. Our Team Trial Races were scheduled for Oct 21st for men’s and women’s 2-man, and another race on October 28 men’s 4-man and women’s 2-man (women solely race 2-man and not 4-man). This time frame allowed for a week of training on the track before the races, in order to ensure that both drivers and brakeman have enough time to familiarize ourselves with the track again. It’s an exciting time for both athletes new to the sport and for those of us who have been around for a while because at team trials anything can happen!

Luckily the only major thing that happened or should I say did not happen is that we got absolutely NO Snow at all during team trials and the days leading up to team trials temperatures were in the mid 60's. The high temperatures led to some days of sliding being cancelled and some of the skeleton races being rescheduled.For the most part team trials went smoothly, there were about 3 or four crashes and thankfully no one got injured. No one likes to crash, but I think when you are a rookie its best to get that first crash out of the way so you understand how not to get hurt when the sled rolls over and that you can survive it. I do have to say that the talent pool in Bobsled is getting a ton better. The rookies this year are really picking up the technique and concepts of pushing a sled quicker than rookies in the past have. That being there still remains a learning curve in properly applying pressure and force on the ice in the right direction to propel the sled forward, learning how to shine up runners for the race, as well as moving and maintain the sleds etc..etc..etc..

Going in to 2-Man race week I was giving the nod to race with Napier over the other two guys on my team. The race went well and I pushed Napier to his second fastest start time and the same time he had pushed during Olympic Trials. I was feeling great, and after my first push my teammates told me I looked powerful and my angles looked good. After the first heat we were in first place. Going into the second run I was feeling just as good as the first and my push was only a hundredth off my first push, the run felt good but we ended up in second by .11 of a second. I was a bit upset because like anything else in life I want to WIN plain and simple, but at that point in time I needed to reassure my driver of his abilities to drive and I needed him to have his head in the game because we still had a 4-man race coming up the following week that we needed to do good in. I told him "listen yeah we did not finish where we wanted but we are still in position to be on the National Team, and that he had tonight to mope but come tomorrow its 4-man time and we need to get the job done!" Even though Napes was still feeling a bit down he got my point. After the race we broke the sled down, removing the runners and putting on the travel transports so we can move it into our travel crates. That Saturday and Sunday we have off, which was really relaxing. We hit up church and were back to work on Monday.

Monday we began our prepping our 4-man sled for the race, adjusting handles and foot pegs to fit our ridding position because it had not been touched since last year and that was a totally different crew. After we set the sled up we work on dry loads (Practicing loading into the sled while the sled is in the garage and not moving) to work on or timing and loading position. Then the unexpected happened!!. On our second dry load Chris who pushes from the brakes loaded into the sled, reached for the lever that pulls the side push bars in, missed them and cut the inside of three of his fingers on the piece of thin metal that the push bars abut against! The cuts were really deep Chris ended up rushing to the emergency room where he received eight stitches in his fingers and was out for the next two days of training. On Monday and Tuesday we used a kid name Jeremy who was a rookie but had pretty good speed in his sprint testing similar to Chris. It was Big Time that Jeremy was able to step up and take trips with us, and we all expressed our gratitude to him for doing so! It also took us back a bit because he was so excited to be able to slide with us even if it was just for practice. It once again made me realize how privileged I am to be on one of the Top Sleds in the USA and representing my country! On Wednesday Chris was able to train with us, but because of his stitches he was unable to push from the breaks so he and Johnny switched positions so not to risk Chris ripping out his stitches. The loads in training were not as smooth as we would have liked but considering the circumstances that would have to do.

The race was not until Friday night and as usual everyone took that Thursday off to prepare the sled and runners for the race.As Friday rolled around it felt like forever waiting for when it was time to head out to the Bobsled race. For our team trials we follow the same format that we would if we were racing World Cup (Meaning that the sleds need to be at the top of the run/track, flipped and all sled work done forty-five minutes before the start of the race). Everything was going according to plan, our war-up was good and we were all ready to do our thing, to do what we were trained to do, to do what we were born to do, Glorious, THIS IS BOBSLED!!! lol (300 reference) We stepped on the block Johnny on the brakes, me on the left, Chris on the right and Napes on the Drivers Bar! Johnny screams out BACK SET Napier replies FRONT SET READY!!, we all hit the sled push giving it our all! Napes hopes in I take three more cycles in my sprint and load after him, Chris hopes in with Johnny following directly after! Johnny screams DOWN! we all sit, hands in the sled and Johnny hits the side push bars in right before entering curve one. We drew fourth in the race draw and at the bottom of the hill we were in second place behind USA 1 (USA 1 raced but had a bye because they finished 3rd in World Championships last year).

For the second run we went in reverse order from last to first. We stepped on the line and like before Johnny sets the sled then proceed to call the Cadence and Napier finishes it! We hit the sled like normal and I am feeling great pushing, Napes hopes in and like before I load three cycles after him but this time I do not feel Chris hope in directly after me so I know something is wrong, then I feel Chris hoped in with Johnny following after! I hear the down call so I sit down bringing my arms into the sled. I instantly feel that Chris is a bit out of position and he is not holding on inside the sled with his hurt hand. I then change my position a bit and push back against Chris more than usual as to securely lock him into the sled. We reached the bottom of the track in first position with USA1 waiting at the top to come down. As we are pulling the sled of the Ice I asked Chris what took him so long to load, he told me he had slipped then ended up running on the short wall for a bit before pulling himself into the sled! lol Its funny because he made it in the sled safely and we made it down safely. If we had finished outside of second I would not have been amused and to tell you the truth I am only amused as I type this e-mail because I was not so happy at the end of the race. After USA 1 pushed finish their run they still remained in first place with us in second and qualified for World Cup/National Team!!

It was a stressful few weeks at times but we did what we needed and on November 11th we head over to Europe and Ingls, Austria to Begin racing!Oh and before I forget you all need to check out two Things!

The first, is a Video that one of the guys made about Steve the number 1 Pusher in the World and Member of USA 1! Its a spoof video but its all true He won the World Push Championships In Italy last year! Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE-kPQeDsbo

Second, is series of new all natural cleaning and washing products I have been using at http://www.shutoutsolutions.com/(Tell Them I sent you) These products are great for people with sensitive skin, personally I love them and have been using the body wash, athletic spray and laundry soap for the past three months. Their cleaning line is amazing on all surfaces, leaving behind not chemical smells. Seriously check them out.

Pictures are posted on my web-site www.jessebeckom3.com, click the media tab then click on Calgary Training and 2011 National Team Trials

The Short of It

Here we go.......Training Up in Calgary wen really well; we got some good four-man training pushes in. One day to switch it up we had a USA 1 vs. USA 2 Ice skating race at the Canadian Olympic Oval where we lift at. Comedy ensued and USA 1 won. After a week of training we packed up and headed to Lake Placid, NY for our 2011 National Team Trials. In the Two-Man race I pushed my driver John Napier to his second fastest start since Olympic Year. We were in first place after our first run but ended up in second by .11 after the second heat finishing in Second/Silver Medal Position. During the four-man race we had to make some changes in race positions since Chris who is normally pushing from the fourth position sustained cuts on his right hand requiring eight stitches changed places with Johnny Quinn who usually pushes from the 3 man position to alleviate pain in Chris's hands. The race went well and we finished in Second/Silver position after two heats.

I and my teammates made the 2011 National Team and will be heading over to Europe on November 11, 2011 to begin racing, we will be there until December 19, 2011 so please say a prayer or two for us.

God Bless you all

Jesse

http://www.jessebeckom3.com/

2011 Push Championships

Good Day Everybody!!!! (This e-mail is longer than most)

How Bout Dem Cyclones!!! 3-0 With Texas coming into Ames!! Time to make some all-beef patties, throw them on the Grill! Oh Yeah!!! Oh Yeah!!! They call me VECTOR!! It’s a mathematical term represented by an arrow with both Direction and Magnitude! VECTOR! That’s me because I Creating Crime with both direction and Maaaaggggnitude!! (Despicable Me)

If you have found yourself wondering hmmmm….where in the World is Jesse Beckom III, well I am back in Colorado Springs at The Olympic Training Center training for the approaching Bobsled World Cup Tour. I finished up a great Planning Internship at HB&A www.hbaa.com on September 15, where I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by a brilliant group of Planning Professionals and Architects. I owe them a ton of gratitude for what I learned over the summer and their willingness to work around my demanding training schedule. If you get a chance do me a favor and check out their web-site, they are doing some great work!

Sunday night I returned to Colorado Springs via a Giant Metal Bird that soars through the heavens with the speed of a million eagles from our annual Testing and Push Championships, which were held in Lake Placid, New York. The physical testing portion of our Push Championships consists of 5 events: a 60m sprint, standing broad jump, shot toss, Clean (150 kilos for 1), and squats (200 kilos for 3). For the push testing since the men each take one push from the side (as seen on four-man push) and from the back of the sled (seen in two-man and four-man), the women push from the back of the sled (As of now women only race two-man). As you may have guessed, the fastest person down the hill wins.

Overall things went pretty good but there was a bit of up and down that occurred. Before I get started…I Warn Thee, that thou shall get an insight into a portion of the crazy that is my mind.

I am not exactly sure why but every year in Lake Placid when we have testing the weather is always horrible; having rain, snow or a mixture of both. It never fails, days before and after testing are always sunny but soon as we get ready to test BOOM!! Rain and Clouds! However Hurricane Irene did give Lake Placid a valid excuse this time. Also ,thanks to that wretch of a woman Irene my flight to Lake Placid was changed from leaving Sunday August 29^th to not leaving until Wednesday August 31^st. Actually the fact that my flight was postponed did not bother me at all; I was just happy that I was alerted of my flight cancelation while I was still at home and not in the airport. My flights went smoothly and the OTC Shuttle that picks athletes up from the Albany Airport was on time. I and a few of my teammates who had arrived at the airport the same time as I did all hoped on to the shuttle did what we could to enjoy our 2 ½ hour ride to Lake Placid!! (This feels like the longest part of the trip, especially after flying all day) After a few game on my Droid and a short nap I find myself back in good ole Lake Placid ready to put in some work.

After getting settled into my room, I did the normal meet and greet with the teammates I had not seen since last season. Later that evening in order to loosen up my legs up from that day of traveling I rode the stationary bike for about 30 minutes. In preparations for testing I spent the next few days doing a combination of 50 meter over speed sprint work; 15 meter starts; and pushes at the push track. All of which are designed to keep me running fluid, while maintaining my explosive nature. Sunday September 1^st the day before our 5 item test I did my normal 30 minute pretesting day warm-up and everything felt the way it should have physically but still a little bit uneasy for some reason. I think part of the uneasiness was due to the fact that weather conditions in placid had our scheduled testing on Monday questionable. That Monday morning our Head Coach sent out a Text confirming we would definitely be testing today rain or not. Yup, you guessed it! It was definitely raining all day! Thank you Lake Placid!

As I began my warm-up I did my best to block out the rain while focusing on relaxing when I run, but with rain hitting me in the face it complicated things a bit. Unfortunately this type of things happens in sports and you just have to push through, and that’s what I and the other guys did. The sprint testing began and most of the past bobsledders were running their normal time if not a tad bit slower. Suddenly it was my turn to! (ok actually it was not sudden I knew the order but “Suddenly” makes the story better) Moving on, I get to the line and I am thinking just stay relaxed Jesse and be smooth! In hind sight I should have been thinking be fast, stay low and be a little pissed! My sprint time was not what I wanted it to be at all!! During my training I ran a 2.05 in my 15meter and in testing I had just run a 2.15 (Same as last year)!! I was feeling like I was in a nightmare! I was pretty upset because I had been training extremely hard, making huge gains and wanted to show everyone how much faster I had gotten. I wanted to make a Statement, I wanted to be perfect but evidently it was not meant to be. The good thing is that I realized why I ran so much slower. In my sprint I did not stay low for the normal 15-20meters working my drive phase, but instead I immediately popped up with complete disregard for my drive phase and started running resulting in a loss of power/speed from the start. Not my best sprint day at all.

Being that testing was far from over I needed to quickly re-gather myself, forget about the sprint and worry about the next events on the testing. Next was the Broad Jump I jumped a 3.0 meters (same as last year) but I was hoping for 3.1 or better, so once again I was not as pleased as I would have like to be.

After that was the shot toss, where we throw a 16lb shot for distance. I step on the block to perform my toss, throwing a 15.3m (I threw 16.25m last year)! I am thinking JESSE HELLOO ARE YOU IN THERE!? GET IT TOGETHER BECKOM! My next throw is 15.4! By this time in my mind say screw Jesse!! And SCREAM OUT IMMORTAL (Yeah I have an athletic alter ego and he is a Beast with it) Wake The Hell Up and Let’s GO!! And everything around me went quiet. At this point it’s just me and the shot in my hand staring down at the measuring tape. I drop down and explode out tossing the shot 17.3 meters!! I was line Finally. I was also a bit pissed that it took me until this moment to actually use the power and skill I poses inside of me. Regardless Jesse was put to sleep and the IMMORTAL was out of his cage with no intention of going back in until Sunday night after testing had ended.

The last two events of the day were to Clean 150 kilos for one and Squat 200 kilos for three. I walk into the weight room, heads phones on and up high enough to block out all the sounds of everyone around me. I step up on the Clean Plat form to begin my warm up. After a couple of technique exercises I load up 120 kilos, lift it once and set it down, loaded up 140 Kilos and doing the same. Then I load up 150 kilos, pulling it off the ground quicker than I had lifted the 120 kilos. With cleans done it was straight on to Squats. Similar to cleans I once again loaded up 120 kilos squatted it a few times, then loaded up 170 kilos squatted that weight a couple of times, then loaded up 200 kilos squatted it three time and was done! I was knocking it out like clock work. I did not realize how much of a mental zone I was in until one of my teammates informed me of the speed I had done everything in and that on my squats the bar was popping a good 6 inches off my neck every time I stood up!!

Later that night at the team meeting Coach Shimer handed out the testing sheet and I saw that I had tested 10^th overall out of 26 guys. Yeah I was not pleased because if I had just duplicated my numbers from practice I would have 2^nd or 3^rd. At that point I was so mad at myself it was not even funny, but I also knew that a good day of pushing on Wednesday would erase a bad sprint day. The next day or so I really shut down everything, ignoring messages from family and friends as to focus on what I was in Lake Placid to do! Now, the funny thing about bobsledding is that most people have a short memory span about a person’s performance. So for that 48hrs until Push Champs I had to deal with looks from some veterans and rookies looking at me like I had fallen off and gotten old and slow. Rookies were excited and joking about how they had run faster than me and some of the other veterans and some veterans thought they were riding high on the hog. However, they did not realize their actions was just stacking the powder kegs beneath the IMMORTAL who was already mad at his performance even higher, and they were going to get a good dose of Him come Wednesday. I do appreciate my teammates who realized I had a bad day that tried to keep my spirits high by reminding me that Wednesday is what matters the most. The next day and some change I spent my time reminding myself of who I am and what I am capable of, as well as watching push video from past training, World Cup Races, pushing at the push track, and working on the push cart in the gym.

Wednesday afternoon was the scheduled times for the Men’s Push Championships, making the morning seem to drag on forever. With my sprint testing fresh in my mind I was hell bent on doing things different; I even went so far as ridding with a different set of guys to the push track then the day I went to sprint Lol. Taking further notes from that first day of testing I turned my music up loud enough to block out everyone and everything around me as I started my warm-up. As my time to push approached I began watching some of the guys push and I knew I was better. My time to push finally came; I stepped on the block to the chants of people cheering me on. I take a deep breath and it all goes silent all I can hear is my heart pumping a million miles per hour as the blood and adrenaline flow throw my veins. I know it sounds like it would be nerve racking but it was actually calming in a since because I knew I was ready. I grabbed hold of the sled at the brake position, dropped down in my stance and explode off the block and it felt good. I was off the block low and hard the transition into my sprint felt smooth and natural. As I rode the sled back up to the start position I saw people giving me the thumbs up letting me know it was a good push. My second push would be from the side position, and once again I go through the same routine as before, resulting in the same feeling when I was pushing. With one more push to go from the position of each person choosing Coach Shimer gives us the option to see where we are currently ranked, so of course we want to view the results. Viewing the results allows each person to see where they stand and if they have a better chance to catch the person ahead of them from the side position or the brake position. After looking at the results, Corey a teammate I use to push with who now drives gave me some helpful criticism. He informed me that on the side push my first step was not as long as it should have been, I thanked him and made the adjustment on my last push gaining me another two hundredths on my push.

At the finally of the Push Championships I had finished 4^th overall with the second fastest time to the 15meter eye, beating some 2010 Olympians and beating one of the guys on USA 1. It was a good day and it made up for my bad day of sprinting. I was more pleased that people said my pushing form looked the best they have seen. It felt good that what I had been working on this summer was translating into better numbers. However, the analyst in me immediately began thinking that since I was the second fastest to the 15 meter eye I should have been second overall. After more contemplation I realized that I should have entered my sprint phase sooner which I believe I would have made my push faster. Once again there is always room for improvement and my thirst to be better is not even close to being quenched!

At the meeting after Push Championships Coach Shimer announced that the push team for USA 1 would remain the same (Curt Tomasevicz 2010 Olympian/Gold Medalist, Justin Olsen 2010 Olympian/Gold Medalist, and Steve Langton 2010 Olympian) and that the drivers were free to approach any other athletes to push for them. So as of now I will be pushing with John Napier (USA 2 Driver 2010 Olympian), Chris Fogt (2010 Olympian), and Laszlo Vandercseck (National Team Member) heading into Team Trials and God willing on World Cup.

On Saturday we held our 3-man Combo pushes where the crew I was on had the second fastest time after the guys on USA 1. I was a decent result especially since one of the guys who I will be racing with was not pushing with us due to some complications to his knee after the Individual pushes on Wednesday causing us to use another push athlete.

It was a good week of testing helping me to confirm the realization that for me to perform well I can’t be the happy go lucky, laughing playing with puppy’s type when it comes to performing! I am more the pissed of Warrior Angle straight out of Heaven come to right the wrongs of man type! Sword of Gold Blazing, Wings Flared, Veins A Pumping, and Eyes set a Blaze by a Pure Blue Flame! I know that may sound a bit crazy to some but I’m cool with that. I have to be a Beast with it and I’m Good….I’m good! lol Seriously though that’s my mentality.

As of right now I don’t have any pictures uploaded to my web page but the USBSF has some posted that you can view at the following link http://bobsled.teamusa.org/multimedia/photo_gallery/2549 I will add pictures once I get back to placid. I have attached the results of all our testing below (click on each picture for a larger view) and ironically the top 9 guys in push championships are returning veterans.

Next on my Agenda is

Oct 2-9: Additional Push Training For top 6 pushers in Calgary

Oct 9-28: National Team Trials in Lake Placid, NY

Nov 14: Head over to Europe to begin racing.

View my web-page www.jessebeckom3.com for more race details

God Bless and thank you everyone one for your support

Sincerely

Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com