Olympian in Progress: June 2011

Elephant Fountain outside the main pool at Mandalay Bay, trunks up mean good luck~

First off I want to apologize for being absent the past few weeks. I left my computer battery charger in Arizona and I finally bought a new one. (I do have to tell ya, it felt pretty good not being totally connected to the outside world for a minute)

Since there is never a dull moment! I will give you guys the cliff notes version:

Tucson Elite, two day meet in Tucson, AZ. Threw a seasons best of 69.64 (228.4 ft). Thanks again to Craig Carter for hosting an amazing meet.
Las Vegas promotional events with SHOOTmedia. It was my first time actually part taking in the “Vegas Experience”. I had an amazing time and met some amazing people.
Decompress. To finish off my tour of the Southwest, I drove over to Parker, AZ for my families annual trip to The River. The River is my favorite place in the whole wide world! This is the only place where I can go and “decompress” - something that needs to do before USA Nationals.
Olympic Training Center hammer meet: I finally figured out what is going on with my throw this season. Let me explain...

Britney Henry Competing at The Olympic Training Center: June 9th, 2011

For the past month or so, practice has been going great. Warm-ups in meets is going great too. But once my name gets called, and I step into the ring, my mind has been going into overdrive. My mind thinks that I need to add something to my throw, that the warm-ups were not good enough. Now, I know that you have all heard that sports is more mental than physical, and I couldn't agree more! My mind is my biggest competitor. Once my mind gets in the way for my throw, all hell breaks loose.

After a text message conversation with coach and a quick talk today, I learned that I just have to throw as I've practiced. Nothing changes in the meet. I don’t have a “meet throw” or have “meet speed”. What I do in practice, and in warm-ups, is what I plan to keep doing in the meet.

Now, this may sound like all kinds of common sense, but let me tell ya, your mind is very powerful. It takes a ton of confidence and mind control to take your mind out of the game and feel what your body has been doing all year in training.

I have been having an amazing year with practice. My throw has never felt better. Now, I just have to let it happen on the field. Hayward Field to be exact. :)

Nationals is right around the corner and I cannot wait. I just started a new cycle of 3 days of training. It is an amazing cycle, the one that I look most forward to during the year. I train for 2 days, have a day of compete rest, train one day and then one more day of compete rest; repeat until the season is over.

I am not sure what my meet schedule will be after Nationals. I think that I am going to take a trip up North to Canada and then maybe a quick trip to Europe.

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far! Congratulations to all the new graduates!

★

Brit

Some Random shots from my trip to Vegas~