Yep, Track Again!

For my live sporting event, I stayed in my comfort zone and attended a track and field meet. During the summer, Tiffin University puts on a summer camp for high school athletes in an effort to give back to the sport. This summer was no different and around fifty athletes from the ages thirteen to eighteen attended the camp. The camp takes place over the course of two and a half days and culminates with a track and field meet. The campers are asked to apply what they learned and try to see some tangible results before they leave.

The main events that I will be speaking about are the pole vault and throwing events. I worked with the pole vault for much of the week and so I was very close to the development of these athletes. Zach and Shannon were the two vaulters that we worked with over the few days. Zach’s biggest issue was keeping his elbow in and getting drive on his takeoff. Shannon is an absolute beginner so we focused on taking off with the right foot and keeping her hands in place when planting the pole. At the meet, both Zach and Shannon did a great job of working on the things that they needed to. Neither of them cleared any impressive heights but they had also been vaulting less than 20 hours previously. Zach was getting some great drive but his speed was lacking and he was noticeably fatigued. He had a couple good attempts but ultimately called his day short for safety purposes. Shannon got her steps on very well and was consistently driving her knee much better than I had seen all weekend. However, she still had a lot of trouble with keeping her hands firm on the pole. She lets them drop and as a result looses a lot of bend in her pole. The nice thing is that she is aware of what she needs to work on and is really receptive to coaching.

The throws were a bit of a circus this afternoon. As is often the case with Adriane Blewitt, the throws were high energy and everyone seemed to be having a great time. The highlight for me was a pair of throwers from Logan, Ohio and a young lady named Megan. Megan is a discus thrower and took 4th in the state this past year. Her coach brought her here to learn some new techniques and she did just that. She picked up on things really well and had a couple of throws over 100 feet this afternoon. The two gentlemen from Logan pretty much stole the show. Ralph Robinson had a great showing in the discus and the hammer (after only one day’s practice). Ralph’s teammate, Kyle, won the shot-put but did not come close to his season best of 58 feet. That being said, this was a summer camp and the athletes should just be starting their time off. The point was mostly to instruct and build for next year. However, it was still very exciting to see people apply what they had learned and have some fun in the process!