
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I see we have two fairly successful vaulters that played basketball pretty seriously... KB and VTV. I used to pretend that I was a good player, and tried out last year and the year before (and swore I would try out this year!), but now all I do is vault. I tried out for soccer this year (I tried out Freshman year, and I played Sophomore year), but I was too busy doing sand jagodins over the Summer to have been working on my dribbling, so...
I'd like to continue Fred's story (I do have a purpose with this, it'll be clear in a week or two!):
Fred is looking at a long Summer. He has so much stuff to do! He's got to hang out with some of his new high school friends, try to hook up with that one really cute chick on the field hockey team, take that cruise with his family, and catch up on all that slacking that he missed while he was in school. Needless to say, Fred is way too busy to be very concerned with pole vaulting... He runs once in a while, and yeah, he does some push ups here and there, plenty of bicep curls (for that cute chick), and some squats when he's not too tired from running. He doesn't have any kind of structure to these workouts, he just does whatever he feels like on any given day. He is having a very comfortable, relaxing, stress-free Summer. He sleeps in every day, and typically talks with his friends on AIM for a good portion of the day, while eating those Baked Lays, Cheetos, and drinking that Mountain Dew. One day, about a month before school starts, he gets a call from his pole vault coach, Coach Smith. Fred is pleasantly suprised! He immediately remembers how much he loves vaulting, how awesome it feels to clear a PR with his friends cheering him on, and how hard he worked last Spring... and how little he improved. Fred's got the eye of the tiger! He is eager to hear what Coach Smith has got to say. "Fred, I've got an idea. Now, I know you might not like it, but I've figured out how we can take you to the next level." "YEAH!? How's that Coach!? Tell me what I can do, and I'll do it!" "Well, I think it's a good idea if you ran cross country this Fall, it'll get you ready for this Spring. What else are you gonna do!?" (Keep in mind, Fred does NOT have an indoor season.) "Uh... Coach... You know I can't run distance worth crap, why should I torture myself running cross country when I can just lift and run on my own?" "Fred, it'll get the competetive attitude into your head, and you'll be really fast from all that running! I mean, how wouldn't that make sense?" "Haha, you're right Coach. Alright, I'll give it a shot, and I'm really hyped up already for this outdoor season! I can't wait to vault again!" "Ok, let me know how you're doing, Fred!" "K, bye Coach!" Fred grabs a Gatorade right away, and tells his mom that he's going out running... And thus, Fred enters a new chapter of his vaulting career.