Flying Solo!!

As I mentioned before, the last two years on the track for me have not been the best. It has been a hard blow to my confidence, to my self-belief, not to mention my wallet. As a result, with the Olympics right around the corner, I decided to take a huge chance and go back to the person that knows me the best....myself!!

At the end of the day, the buck starts and stops with me. When I do well, usually both myself and my coach get the credit but when I do poorly, regardless of the reason, I get the blame, as it should be. After jumping for so many years, let's just say I have a fair idea about what the long jump is all about. I coached myself in 2005 and I would have to say that I had a pretty solid year. I jumped over 6.70m (22ft.) a couple of times, I made the finals at the World Championships, I won a bronze medal in a pretty tough field at the Central American and Caribbean Championships, and I had a solid season over in Europe.

This year, I decided for my last go round at The Games to put everything on my own shoulders and let the chips fall where they may. When it comes down to it, if I can't trust myself, then who can I trust? Now, I should add that I am getting some help from an old teammate of mine, Troy Kemp. Troy was a high jumper from The Bahamas and he is still our National Record Holder at 2.38m!! Yeah, that's high!! He won World Championships back in 1995, beating Sotomayor when he was in his prime - no easy feat!!! Troy is writing my workouts for me and so far I have to say that I am 100% satisfied with where we are. He had a great work ethic and I am very excited about his program.

Today was an exercise in self-reliance. It was my first day of jumping in practice and for the first few jumps, everything was just off and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Thankfully, I had brought my video camera with me. When I am coaching myself, the camera is my eyes and my ears. I have to rely on it heavily for feedback 'cause there's no one standing there saying do this or fix that Jackie. I set the camera up after I began to get frustrated and after filming the very next jump, I immediately saw the problem, was able to fix it and the results were instant!!! It made me feel really good because it just confirmed for me that I know what I'm doing and what to look for. And now, I can't wait to get back out there on Thursday to jump again. I'll be flying solo again, but Coach Sony (my video camera) will be right there to back me up!!