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http://www.ahwatukee.com/sports/simpson ... state.html

DV sophomore Simpson working through mental kinks for run at vault record

March 27, 2008 - 6:51PM
By Ryan Casey | AFN
The hardest part about dominance is maintenance - that is, staying dominant.

It's something wonder-frosh turned super-soph Shaylah Simpson is learning as the Desert Vista girls track season rolls on.

Simpson, who set a state record in the pole vault by jumping 12 feet as a freshman a year ago, finished third at the Class 5A-Division I state meet last season. So it's no surprise that this season she's also jumped up on everyone's radars.

"I wouldn't say it was an expectation of mine, but I believed in myself that I could do good," Simpson said of her success last year. "I just kept having a positive outlook on things and it paid off in the end."

Simpson has been around track since she was 9, but it wasn't until she was 12 that she picked up an implement while watching her sister, Laryssa, pole vault. Laryssa now jumps at Utah.

"I was always around it watching my sister," Simpson said. "I mean I loved it. I loved watching it and I couldn't wait until it was my turn to try it. I just think it's so different. When you say you're a pole vaulter, people kind of get that look on their face.

"It's a funny feeling, but you feel good about that, because it's something different."

This season, Simpson is the first to admit that, by her standards, she's struggled - "only" clearing 11 feet, 6 inches thus far. Still, that mark is tops in the state heading into the Chandler Rotary meet this weekend.

And her jumps coach at DV, Jeff Guy - who also coached Laryssa - thinks he knows why.

Because Simpson is almost instantly recognized at meets for what she's done in the past, the sophomore has the weight of seemingly the entire Arizona pole-vaulting community on her shoulders during each leap.

"Especially at that young age, they have to learn to balance all of the distractions on and off the field," Guy said. "I'm going to be quite honest, she's young, so she's struggling with that a little bit."

In order to better deal with pole vaulting's mental aspect, the multi-talented Simpson, who also competes in the high jump, long jump and 100-meter dash, will become the tunnel-visioned Simpson - focusing only on the vault, at least for now.

"Since it's such a technical event, the vault, she's losing a little bit of the focus from preparing herself mentally for the other events or coming back from the other events," Guy said. "It may not be fair for an athlete at this age to put her in that situation."

With the added focus, Simpson will turn her sights to the next target height: 12-6 (the state sophomore record, by the way, is 12 feet).

"I'm hitting 11-6 really consistently and that's really good," Simpson said. "I've just been working on some technical things like my plant and getting back, and a lot of things that will help me get higher."

"She's stronger and she is faster than last year," Guy added. "Physically, she's got the components to be able to just get higher. Now we have to get the mental aspect of it."

Guy has his jumpers focus on "priority meets." Rotary is the first. The second is the national Arcadia Invite in California and the 5A-I state meet after that.

By that time, or maybe into summer, Guy hopes for Simpson to be hitting 13 feet. It should be noted that the 5A state record is 12-10-and-a-half.

"We're not looking at records, per se, but her goal this year is 13 feet," Guy said. "That's her goal and she's really going to strive to hit it. Can she do it? If everything falls into place, if she has a good day as far as the weather and mental aspect of it, she's definitely capable of doing it."

Simpson simply shrugs off any talk of records.

"I don't think a lot about that because I don't want that to distract me in a way," she said. "I'm not like, ‘Oh, it's this high, I better start working.' I'm kind of going at my own pace and working towards the next height and the next height and the next height until I eventually reach that and go higher.

"You kind of have to put it in perspective and be like, ‘Well, it's only 6 inches higher.' You just have to keep thinking about what to do and keep your focus not on the height, but what makes a good vault. That helps me get over."

http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwa ... k0313.html

For Desert Vista pole vaulter, it's mind over matter
by Andrew Pentis - Mar. 12, 2009 02:30 PM
The Arizona Republic
Desert Vista pole vaulter Shaylah Simpson began second-guessing herself. Just after her name was called at meets last season, she would halt midmotion, filled with doubt.

"Don't go," Simpson remembers thinking to herself. "Your steps don't feel right."

Now a junior and giving up her spring break this week, she was out on the track planting her feet, working on her takeoff and, yes, thinking good thoughts.

Egged on by Arizona State pole-vaulting coach Ron Barela and older sister Laryssa - who still jumps for the University of Utah - Simpson gravitated to her event early on.

She has worked with Jeff Guy, Barela's successor at Desert Vista, since the sixth grade. Simpson has also competed in the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships since the eighth grade.

She cleared 12 feet as a freshman, setting a state record. Even though she finished in the top four at the state meet for the second straight year, she and her coach considered her sophomore season a "disappointment."

"I put a lot of pressure on myself to do better," she said. "I let it get to me. I knew it was all in my head."

Simpson's mom, Cathy, who previously headed the boosters for Desert Vista track and field, noticed her daughter's battle with the crossbar.

"At the end of last year, she felt a little stuck," Cathy said. "There was something none of us could really see."

Guy had a solution in Alison Arnold, Ph.D., whom he met at a track and field clinic.

"I don't think, at the high school level, we do a very good job of training and practicing the mind," Guy said. "We kind of put our heads together and felt (Simpson) needed to be coached psychologically."

Arnold, a peak performance consultant who runs Headgames based in Phoenix, met with Simpson twice and enrolled her in a six-month-long online camp, where athletes at all levels commiserate and focus on letting go of fear and self-imposed limitations. Arnold, a former gymnast, says she pushes her clients to have an unshakeable mind - the ability to separate the external from the internal.

"I've learned a lot about being aware of your thoughts and what your mind is feeding you," Simpson said. "If I think of something negative, I'll flip it into a positive."

Though Simpson also performs well in the high jump, pole vaulting is her focus, and the early returns are encouraging. Last Friday, she jumped 12 feet, 3 inches to win at the Desert Classic Invitational.

"I'm kind of just working on short-term goals like fixing my plant," she said. "I know that the height will come. I don't want to put a number on it. I did that last year."

Simpson still totes around her camp workbook from meet to meet, retreating to her writings for comfort.

"A refresher in case I get nervous," she said. "I carry it around a lot."

Simpson will have it nearby this weekend as she competes unattached at the Nike Indoor Nationals in Boston. She finished second in her age group at the Junior Olympics last July in Omaha.

"As long as she has the passion and desire, she has the potential to be very competitive at the college level and, in my eyes . . . take it to the elite level," Guy said.

With about 30 letters of interest from universities around the country already sent her way, Simpson is cautious when thinking a step ahead.

"I'll get there when I get there," she said.

good morning,

Ron Barela???

was coach Barela a triple jumper, decathlon, vaulter in the 80's???

dj