There is a lot to cover. I PB'd in LJ twice and my PB went from 6.75m (6.80w) to 7m in those last few weeks. My sprints volume increased by a lot. I can easily call this a good month both from training and competing perspective.
Training
There was definitely a mental switch this month. I started running way more, and everything became more aggresive. I had a few long sessions with 1000m+ of sprints. Primarily though, I was busy competing this month (1 competition per week), so a lot of sessions were just warmups and I had more rest days than a usual month.
It's a bit hard for me to track the numbers, because I don't write the training, or sometimes we do something but the amount is not written in the program and only said vocally.
But it goes something like:
| Week | Sprinting (only measurable) | LJ-related sessions | Gym | Competition result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 450m in & outs | 2 | 1 | |
| 2 | 750m (200-200-200-150) | 2 | 1 | May 11th - 6.43m |
| 3 | 1300m (30x3,40x2,60x1,120x3) (4x70,6x60,2x80) | 1 | 0 | May 19th - 6.36m |
| 4 | ~1000m (30-30-30x3) (120+120x3) | 1 | 2 | May 25th - 6.89m (+1.2) PB |
| 5 | 930m (40x10 cones run, 100x5 in&outs) | 3 | 2 | June 3rd - 7.00m (+2.0) PB |
More things I did (some are not counted above):
- Mobility with and without hurdles
- Started opening my hips a lot
- Gym: Cleans, snatches, half-cleans, kettlebell step jumps, Nordics,
- running drills like ABC, knees up, low skips, sprint bounds, scissors, etc.
- Running with sleds, getting out of blocks
- hurdle jumps, bounds, throwing medballs, drop jumps,
- long jumps from short approaches - sometimes from 5/9/11 steps, sometimes with sprint hurdles
Vids from training
Competing
This is where it gets crazy.
I never give up.
I don't stop doing things because they are hard or unrewarding. I stop doing things because they stop being beneficial.
And I was VERY ready to give up track and field a few times this year. I felt like I'm just wasting my time. And when I was at that low point, which I would say was -50 out of a 100 (and not 0 out of a hundred), it happened. I PB'd in the Long Jump and jumped 6.89m.
It is a priceless life lesson for me. I understood how low a low point can be, and how this is the very time things might turn to the better. I almost ended up being this guy:
What switched for me
was that I started slowing less and less on the board. I am now thinking to myself "why did I ever slow down?" but I guess its a combination of bad coaching and not having the experience. It's my 9th year in Track I think, or around that, so I'm way too many years late to that secret, but the lesson is learned. Now just make it a habit, and then I can focus on other things I need to master.
Results
In terms of results - I jumped:
6.43m-6.36m-6.89m-7.00m.
05/11--05/19--05/25--03/06
I PB'd for the first time in 3 years! I was extremely happy and was fortunate enough to PB again a week later, with a perfect wind of 2.0!
Let's start from the first competition:
I had no idea what I was going into. Last LJ comp was in December, and I jumped 6.19m. But you know, after running 12s 100s in April, I totally disconnected feeling from competitions or track in general. I became numb and I just kept working because really there wasn't any other thing to do. And that's how I came to this competition. And I was pretty happy. Starting the season with 6.43m, 32cm from my PB.. I thought that's quite nice. Also - I was not perfect on the board so I thought "I might even be better".
I remember that I liked how I ran in that competition and in general. Because the way I remember it, my technique was much worse. Here is my 2023 6.80m jump and you can see that I was probably faster or stronger back then, but less efficient:
Then came the 6.36m competition a week later. Disaster. Winds changing their direction every minute, just a lot of air swinging around, and the whole vibe was just not it. No one jumped well at that competition. It's not an excuse btw. Of course. But still, something was off for me.
Looking at this now, I think the only thing that changed as the month progressed - is that I started to REALLY sprint towards the board. Like, realllyyyy. And maybe started moving more freely. But Idk, it's still not consistent enough to comfortably say that I'm a 6.8-7m jumper.
Then, we competed in Jerusalem for the first time in the season (both of these were in Tel Aviv). Jerusalem is known for being a high-altitude, tailwind-friendly stadium. Normally people run 0.1/0.2 per 100m better there. The vibe is different also. I like that stadium ngl, and most of the people in the Israel Track & Field community do.
In that 6.89m competition, almost everyone PB'd in the last round. It was an insane 6th round. All the places reshuffled, I went from 6th to 2nd to 5th (or smth like that). Really, really insane competition.
And then, finally, was that 7m jump.
That day was far from perfect. I woke up with a sore left foot (my jumping leg), probably because I warm-uped on hard surface the day before. I got stuck at a bus station for an hour because a monster traffic jam in Jerusalem, I got into the stadium like 10 minutes before the warm-up. And it was pretty hot. But I did feel good overall. And I was very ready to have a good competition. This was an invitational competition, literally no title, no audience. So zero pressure, just bunch of people jumping into the pit with about zero audience.
The 7m caught me off guard. 3rd round. I knew the jump was pretty good because I felt how I kept running at the board. The feeling was like being in the middle of a 100m and someone just put a wooden board right there, but I really ran up through the board and probably had a super horizontal jump. It looked good but not like a 7m. And then the referee said 7.00 and I was like "what's the wind what's the wind" and saw a 2.0 m/s. And that is my first ever 7m jump.
I feel like I had a massive opportunity for a big jump at the 6th round. But I landed wayyy too early, and I think it's because I wasn't ready for such a long airtime. But that's fine, we'll save that for another day. Here it is:
When you're 25cm past your PB after 4 competitions, there's a slight fear of "how am I upping that, how am I PBing again now", but I'm trying not to get caught up in that. Not to look at my competitors, just trying to execute the jump well. So, start free and aggressive, and really lift off that board like it's placed in the middle of a 100m.
The cues that made me a much better jumper
- Don't be tight at the upper body in the beginning, start with a slow but powerful rythm
- When starting, isolate the legs and focus on bringing them up and forward
- Run in control and fast, feel like your pulling the track backwards (ofc, with normal technique, so, forward hips, knees attacking forward)
- DO NOT SLOW DOWN TOWARDS THE BOARD
- Keep running, build up the rythm, but not at the cost of speed. Keep running.
Then in the air I am far from perfecting it, but it should be:
- Stay on the board as long as possible and drive your hip and knee forward
- then first step on the hitch-kick down
- Second step - make sure its going down and not a bit forward to control rotation
- Then extend the final leg forward and let other join it.
That's what I'm trying to focus on in competitions, to just execute those well or mainly, be fast through the board.
June
June will have only two competitions. There's one on the 11th and the Grand Slam on the 25th. I really hope to get into the entry list for the Grand Slam because it's an international comp and should be very cool. It could be my second proper international comp and first senior one. I have a chance on the 11th to get myself a better position at the national rankings towards the Grand Slam, but we'll need to see how that turns out. Currently I'm around 6th-7th by results.
I don't wanna picture results too much. It's pressure and it's not what's been working for me so far.
Besides that, looking forward to more fast training sessions and just feeling like I'm getting better on the track.
July will have National Champs, Maccabiah (which is an international comp as well, but less prestigious I think than Grand Slam), another invitational and maybe I'll fly to compete abroad once or twice. So, hope to be in a better position on July 1st that I am today.
We'll see!
