Jackie Edwards a five time Olympian represented the Bahamas in the long jump in the 1992 (Barcelona), 1996 (Atlanta), 2000 (Sydney), 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing) Olympic Games. In 2003, Edwards was ranked 5th in the world in the long jump. Other athletic accolades include her induction into Stanford University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Twenty years after her graduation she still ranks as the school’s indoor and outdoor record holder. Edwards retired from professional competition in 2009 due to an achilles tendon tear. In her post competitive career she is enjoying being a partner in Urban Safari Design.
Edwards shares insights that enabled her career longevity which includes an inner motivation to push herself to improve as an athlete, good health, and a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. This is part three of the three part interview.
SZ: Once you arrived in Sydney did you continue utilizing the visualization exercises?
JE: Absolutely. One of the things that used to affect my performances was nerves. I would feel like my legs couldn’t move. Through visualization I learned how to block out all the distractions. During a field event doing the long jump it takes a long time, especially in the qualifying rounds to get your jumps in. At the Olympics there can be fifty jumpers. There are two runways, twenty-five athletes assigned to each runway. In a normal long jump competition there are typically twelve jumpers qualifying. When there are twenty-five jumpers to a runway it can take up to an hour between jumps.
There is a lot going on in your brain in that hour. While you are waiting other Olympic field events are going on around you. A jumper only has three tries in the qualifying round to make the finals. It’s really easy to start watching other events going on around you. I remember watching the 100 meters, and I wanted to watch it, but then I knew I still needed to take jumps.
SZ: The challenge of staying focused when there is a break in momentum.
JE: The stadium in Sydney seated 110,000 people. The bottom row of seats was at track level, right in the line of sight. The runways were on the outside of the track circle not on the inside. We were very close, like 10 feet away from the spectators. The spectators were saying things, yelling and when I got up to take my jump I could see myself on the giant stadium video screen. My instinct was to look up and watch myself but I couldn’t do that and run at the same time.
SZ: In your peripheral vision you saw your body moving on the screen.
JE: Yes, so I needed to avoid looking up. I also remember the announcer saying, “Now on the runway competing,” and he said, “Jackie Edwards from Jamaica.” Which I was like, “Oh my gosh he said the wrong country,” and I was jumping at the same time. (Jackie was born in Jamaica but is a citizen of the Bahamas). So all this stuff is going on. Other distractions were I would be running down the runway and a starter gun goes off to begin a race. You can’t turn to look at what is happening around you.
SZ: Those are huge. Did you have a routine?
JE: Yes, absolutely. I had a very set routine. I would visualize the movements, I would practice the breaths, I would visualize what position I would start my run up in, exhale a few times, it was quite precise. I would duplicate this over and over again no matter what else was going on.
SZ:Was the climate a factor?
JE: Luckily it wasn’t that much of a factor. People were worried about it because the Olympics were late in September that year. The weather was kind of cool it wasn’t a factor. I’ve had to deal with that at some World Championships in Helsinki (Finland) where it was pouring rain. Track meets are not stopped unless there is lightening. But weather wasn’t an issue in Sydney. When I finished sixth that year having begun with an injured knee in April and thinking I was not going to qualify - to making the mark on my last jump in the last meet to qualify - then being in the Olympics and getting sick after the qualifying event - and ending by finishing in the top eight, which in the sport of track if you make the top eight you’ve done an outstanding job. I wouldn’t have guessed in all the years I competed to accomplish this was because there were definitely years when I was more physically fit.
SZ: Do you think having a routine put you in a more focused state or confident state?
JE: Yes, because during the time I was injured it forced me to use these skills. When I was healthy I just relied on my brawn and I thought, “I’m fit, I can jump out of the pit.” So I didn’t do the mental work that I should have done to accompany my fit body. That year I was forced to rely much more heavily on mental skills and it proved to me that I probably did myself a disservice over the years to not focus as much as I needed on the mental aspect. I would kind of go in and out of using these skills. But that year I didn’t have a choice.
SZ: That’s a strong statement in terms of what mental practice brought to your performance.
JE: I would tell any athlete coming up - I think any performance based skill, musician or surgeon etc., I think it’s critical to implement that part of the performance.
SZ: How much time did you practice visualization each day?
JE: I had to develop it. In the beginning I couldn’t keep my mind on it for five minutes. I also needed to learn how to visualize seeing through my own eyes because my instinct was to see myself outside like watching a movie. It was far more effective to experience the visualization through my own eyes like I was performing it. I struggled with learning how to visualize properly. I built up from five to fifteen minutes. I think the longest I achieved was thirty minutes.
SZ: Did it become an enjoyable exercise?
JE: Yes, I didn’t like it at first. I was like, “Do I really want to do this again?”
SZ: Did you learn to visualize through the classes you were taking?
JE: I didn’t go into the graduate program expecting this. I was taking classes at JFK and working on my Master’s in Sport Psychology because I had an interest. I wasn’t expecting some great impact on my own career.
SZ: You are a partner in Urban Safari Design, an interior design company. How did you become involved in this work?
JE: My business partner and I had always had a passion for interior design and we always kind of did it for family and friends. My business partner was a design major at Stanford, not interior design but product design. She later went on to design school and we began the company seven years ago.
SZ: In the next few years do you envision staying involved in track and field as a coach or spokesperson?
JE: It’s something I’ve thought about but I’m not sure. I still love track and field. I am not as immersed as when I was competing. I’ve been invited to participate in a track camp in the British Virgin Islands next month, for sure I will participate in this. Whenever I give a motivational speech it relates to my involvement in track and how it correlates to the real world. I am looking into being involved in Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program.
SZ: Would you go for being a trainer on The Biggest Loser?
JE: I like The Biggest Loser. I watch it every week.
SZ: Is it because of the coaching or the human interest side?
JE: Mostly the human interest. I couldn’t yell at those people like they do. I think it’s great the trainers can do that I can’t.
SZ: Do you have any favorite quotes that have guided you on your professional path as an athlete?
JE: My long time coach Brooks Johnson had a saying that was very simple. He would say, “What got you here will keep you here.” Basically it meant in order to maintain the level of results and intensity you accomplish you can’t relax and be like, “Now that I’m here I don’t need to do all this training anymore.” The fact is you have to do just as much if not more to maintain that level. Brook’s philosophy was whether on or off the track you can’t rest on your laurels, because the competition gets tougher. Your competitors are equally hungry and you have to stay one step ahead. I keep the quote in my head all the time. You have to do all the little things. My tips for longevity is to take care of yourself. It seems a simple thing to do but you have to go to sleep at night. Your body has to be rested, you’ve got to stretch, hydrate, avoid living a hard life of up early in the morning and out all hours of the night.
SZ: Respecting the process.
JE: Yes, and it’s really been a process. If you don’t appreciate the fact that this is a process from a to z and you skip lots of steps it’s never going to happen. You also need the support of the people around you. This sport builds character. You have to be able to ride through so many ups and down. There are no world record holders that didn’t have some horrible results or phase of something. You have to be able to rise above it. It’s easy to fade away and say, “I can’t take this anymore.” But to come back and say, “Yes I had a poor result this week but I am coming back next week to compete.” That sets you up for your life.
SZ: Jackie thank you for taking the time to share a part of your amazing athletic journey.
*Featured guests are not former nor current clients of Susan Zaro
*This article can also be read @ www.examiner.com
Monday, January 23, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Jackie Edwards - 5X Olympian Part 2
Jackie Edwards a five time Olympian represented the Bahamas in the long jump in the 1992 (Barcelona), 1996 (Atlanta), 2000 (Sydney), 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing) Olympic Games. In 2003, Edwards was ranked 5th in the world in the long jump. Other athletic accolades include her induction into Stanford University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Twenty years after her graduation she still ranks as the school’s indoor and outdoor record holder. Edwards retired from professional competition in 2009 due to an achilles tendon tear. In her post competitive career she is enjoying being a partner in Urban Safari Design.
Edwards shares insights that enabled her career longevity which includes an inner motivation to push herself to improve as an athlete, good health, and a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. This is part two of a three part interview.
SZ: After turning pro in 1992 what new responsibilities entered your life? Were you surprised by any of the changes from amateur to professional?
JE: There were some surprises working with sponsors. Oakley sunglasses was a sponsor. My government (Bahamas) began paying me in 1998, so there was period of time when my government wasn’t paying me to represent them. I had a manager and I felt that I didn’t want to let him down. During my pro career I had sponsorship with Mizuno and the last nine years of my career Puma was a sponsor. Because I was receiving money or equipment I felt like I needed to earn the right to have all these things.
That act of turning pro wasn’t hard because in track it’s not like competing in the NBA or NFL where people are ooing and awing about the income an athlete is making, or the performances of the athlete. The most difficult part was time management. In college athletes have a structured schedule year to year. Coaches are telling the athlete what to do, when to do it. There are specific practice times. A professional track athlete is in control of their schedule. What meets to enter, arranging transportation to get there, paying for entry fees, all the details. In college you don’t need to think about these details you just show up.
SZ: In college you are told to meet at a certain spot at a certain time, transportation and the details are in place.
JE: Yeah. As a pro there were responsibilities and arrangements I never had to think about before.
SZ: Were there obligations to appear at special sponsor events and make yourself visible?
JE: To some degree yes. I didn’t realize that sponsors paid such close attention to the athletes. For example I like to wear the same spikes when I jump. I don’t care if I have new one’s when the one’s I am wearing are comfortable. At the time I was sponsored by Mizuno and I remember receiving a piece of mail from them telling me that I was to stop wearing the dirty spikes I had been competing in because it was the reason they gave me new ones. At the time I didn’t realize sponsors cared so much what I had on my foot.
SZ: How would they even notice it?
JE: That’s what I was thinking. Like who’s watching? When you jump your shoes get dirty. Unlike a sprinter whose shoes are going to look pretty clean for a long time. A long jumper shoes get dirty very quickly. Mizuno was clear that they didn’t like that I was walking around on these dirty spikes. When you are just concerned about performing you are not thinking about all that stuff.
SZ: You competed in the Olympics for the Bahamas in the long jump in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008. Each Olympic has its own energy. Was there one Olympic year that was more meaningful to you?
JE: Each Olympic is definitely different in it’s own way. One of the things that always stood out for me was the way the torch was lit. In 1992 (Barcelona) the archer stood in the infield and shot the arrow over the torch from the center of the field. I couldn’t believe he got it right because it was so far away. We had been hearing up to the moment of the torch lighting in practice he had kept missing. So I was thinking what if this dude misses? We were all standing there waiting and then he was successful. He got it right. In 1996 (Atlanta) Muhammad Ali lit the torch. He has Parkinson’s disease so his hand was really shaking. It almost looked like the flame was going to burn him because he couldn’t get the thing lit.
Aside from the torches being lit the 2000 (Sydney) Olympics was the most special for me. It was my best finish, 6th place. Leading up to the Olympics in April during my first outdoor meet which was held at Stanford University I was competing in the triple jump for training purposes. During one of my jumps my fibula head popped out of my left knee. It was like this loud cracking noise and I thought I had broken my shin. I’d seen that happen so I was afraid to look because the shin would protrude through the skin. When I did finally look down I was relieved to see my leg fully intact. I went to stand up and I realized the noise that I had heard was my knee popping out. It required a chiropractor to put it back into place. It’s not an injury that requires surgery. I didn’t get my knee put back into place for ten days. I was basically dragging my leg around because my chiropractor wasn’t trained to make this type of adjustment.
I had flown back to Texas and was at the track talking with my coach and this guy who created this chiropractic adjustment just happened to show up at the track. My coach spotted him and said this guy can fix my knee. He put my knee back in five minutes. It was very painful but he put it back in place. But through the injury I had done damage to the area around my knee. I decided to compete in a meet ten days later and had a really good jump probably 2-3 inches off the qualifying mark for the Olympics. But I still needed to qualify and I think I did more damage than good by competing in that meet because afterwards my knee just went. I competed poorly for the next 2-3 months and I hadn’t yet qualified for the Olympics. It came down to the last meet that I was going to try and jump in to qualify. I needed to jump 21’ 10” to qualify. On my last jump of the last meet to quality I did it. To this day I don’t know how it happened.
SZ: This jump qualified you for the 2000 (Sydney) Olympics.
JE: Yes, and so my preparation for that Olympic Game was not what it should have been because my leg was not whole. It was the Olympics where I went in with the least amount of physical preparation because from when I qualified the Olympics were only a month away. But my country put me on the team and I went. The thing that helped me was I had just completed my Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. Through-out the period of time leading up to the Olympics I couldn’t train and my body was failing me. I prepared by visualizing. I pictured myself performing the jumps even though I couldn’t physically do them. I visualized myself mentally executing a certain technical performance and when I arrived in Sydney my coach specially told me, “Jackie you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to jump some super outstanding jump to make the finals.” There is a set mark and if a jumper reaches that mark no matter how many jumpers reach it, you qualify for the final. We knew what the mark was and my coach said, “You can jump that. All you have to do is do what you have been doing.” I knew I was really technically sound just from my mental training not off of anything physical. Sure enough I went in and did what I knew I could do on the very first jump. On that jump I qualified for the finals.
Unfortunately between the qualifying round and the finals there is a day in between and I got sick with the worst cold I’ve ever had. The day of the finals my coach said, “You’re pretty much going to have to get whatever jump you are going to get right away because you will have no more energy.” There were twelve jumpers in the final. Jumpers take three jumps and then the top eight out of those twelve get another three jumps. I just hung onto what my coach told me and I put everything into my first jump and that was enough to get me into the top eight.
Next week Jackie talks about visualization, new technologies that helped extend her career, and her plans for the future.
*Featured guests are not former nor current clients of Susan Zaro
*This article may also be read @ www.examiner.com
Edwards shares insights that enabled her career longevity which includes an inner motivation to push herself to improve as an athlete, good health, and a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. This is part two of a three part interview.
SZ: After turning pro in 1992 what new responsibilities entered your life? Were you surprised by any of the changes from amateur to professional?
JE: There were some surprises working with sponsors. Oakley sunglasses was a sponsor. My government (Bahamas) began paying me in 1998, so there was period of time when my government wasn’t paying me to represent them. I had a manager and I felt that I didn’t want to let him down. During my pro career I had sponsorship with Mizuno and the last nine years of my career Puma was a sponsor. Because I was receiving money or equipment I felt like I needed to earn the right to have all these things.
That act of turning pro wasn’t hard because in track it’s not like competing in the NBA or NFL where people are ooing and awing about the income an athlete is making, or the performances of the athlete. The most difficult part was time management. In college athletes have a structured schedule year to year. Coaches are telling the athlete what to do, when to do it. There are specific practice times. A professional track athlete is in control of their schedule. What meets to enter, arranging transportation to get there, paying for entry fees, all the details. In college you don’t need to think about these details you just show up.
SZ: In college you are told to meet at a certain spot at a certain time, transportation and the details are in place.
JE: Yeah. As a pro there were responsibilities and arrangements I never had to think about before.
SZ: Were there obligations to appear at special sponsor events and make yourself visible?
JE: To some degree yes. I didn’t realize that sponsors paid such close attention to the athletes. For example I like to wear the same spikes when I jump. I don’t care if I have new one’s when the one’s I am wearing are comfortable. At the time I was sponsored by Mizuno and I remember receiving a piece of mail from them telling me that I was to stop wearing the dirty spikes I had been competing in because it was the reason they gave me new ones. At the time I didn’t realize sponsors cared so much what I had on my foot.
SZ: How would they even notice it?
JE: That’s what I was thinking. Like who’s watching? When you jump your shoes get dirty. Unlike a sprinter whose shoes are going to look pretty clean for a long time. A long jumper shoes get dirty very quickly. Mizuno was clear that they didn’t like that I was walking around on these dirty spikes. When you are just concerned about performing you are not thinking about all that stuff.
SZ: You competed in the Olympics for the Bahamas in the long jump in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008. Each Olympic has its own energy. Was there one Olympic year that was more meaningful to you?
JE: Each Olympic is definitely different in it’s own way. One of the things that always stood out for me was the way the torch was lit. In 1992 (Barcelona) the archer stood in the infield and shot the arrow over the torch from the center of the field. I couldn’t believe he got it right because it was so far away. We had been hearing up to the moment of the torch lighting in practice he had kept missing. So I was thinking what if this dude misses? We were all standing there waiting and then he was successful. He got it right. In 1996 (Atlanta) Muhammad Ali lit the torch. He has Parkinson’s disease so his hand was really shaking. It almost looked like the flame was going to burn him because he couldn’t get the thing lit.
Aside from the torches being lit the 2000 (Sydney) Olympics was the most special for me. It was my best finish, 6th place. Leading up to the Olympics in April during my first outdoor meet which was held at Stanford University I was competing in the triple jump for training purposes. During one of my jumps my fibula head popped out of my left knee. It was like this loud cracking noise and I thought I had broken my shin. I’d seen that happen so I was afraid to look because the shin would protrude through the skin. When I did finally look down I was relieved to see my leg fully intact. I went to stand up and I realized the noise that I had heard was my knee popping out. It required a chiropractor to put it back into place. It’s not an injury that requires surgery. I didn’t get my knee put back into place for ten days. I was basically dragging my leg around because my chiropractor wasn’t trained to make this type of adjustment.
I had flown back to Texas and was at the track talking with my coach and this guy who created this chiropractic adjustment just happened to show up at the track. My coach spotted him and said this guy can fix my knee. He put my knee back in five minutes. It was very painful but he put it back in place. But through the injury I had done damage to the area around my knee. I decided to compete in a meet ten days later and had a really good jump probably 2-3 inches off the qualifying mark for the Olympics. But I still needed to qualify and I think I did more damage than good by competing in that meet because afterwards my knee just went. I competed poorly for the next 2-3 months and I hadn’t yet qualified for the Olympics. It came down to the last meet that I was going to try and jump in to qualify. I needed to jump 21’ 10” to qualify. On my last jump of the last meet to quality I did it. To this day I don’t know how it happened.
SZ: This jump qualified you for the 2000 (Sydney) Olympics.
JE: Yes, and so my preparation for that Olympic Game was not what it should have been because my leg was not whole. It was the Olympics where I went in with the least amount of physical preparation because from when I qualified the Olympics were only a month away. But my country put me on the team and I went. The thing that helped me was I had just completed my Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. Through-out the period of time leading up to the Olympics I couldn’t train and my body was failing me. I prepared by visualizing. I pictured myself performing the jumps even though I couldn’t physically do them. I visualized myself mentally executing a certain technical performance and when I arrived in Sydney my coach specially told me, “Jackie you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to jump some super outstanding jump to make the finals.” There is a set mark and if a jumper reaches that mark no matter how many jumpers reach it, you qualify for the final. We knew what the mark was and my coach said, “You can jump that. All you have to do is do what you have been doing.” I knew I was really technically sound just from my mental training not off of anything physical. Sure enough I went in and did what I knew I could do on the very first jump. On that jump I qualified for the finals.
Unfortunately between the qualifying round and the finals there is a day in between and I got sick with the worst cold I’ve ever had. The day of the finals my coach said, “You’re pretty much going to have to get whatever jump you are going to get right away because you will have no more energy.” There were twelve jumpers in the final. Jumpers take three jumps and then the top eight out of those twelve get another three jumps. I just hung onto what my coach told me and I put everything into my first jump and that was enough to get me into the top eight.
Next week Jackie talks about visualization, new technologies that helped extend her career, and her plans for the future.
*Featured guests are not former nor current clients of Susan Zaro
*This article may also be read @ www.examiner.com
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Jackie Edwards - 5X Olympian
Jackie Edwards a five time Olympian represented the Bahamas in the long jump in the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympic Games. In 2003, Edwards was ranked 5th in the world in the long jump. Other athletic accolades include her induction into Stanford University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Twenty years after her graduation she still ranks as the school’s indoor and outdoor record holder. Edwards retired from professional competition in 2009 due to an achilles tendon tear. In her post competitive career she is enjoying being a partner in Urban Safari Design.
In this three part interview Edwards shares insights that enabled her career longevity which includes an inner motivation to push herself to improve as an athlete, good health, and a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology.
SZ: You’ve enjoyed a stunning 20 year career competing, which includes five Olympics, first qualifying in 1992. How did you manage your schedule in between Olympics to remain motivated and maintain the mental/physical endurance to compete at this level?
JE: One thing most people aren’t aware of is that track and field is a professional sport. You compete year in and year out. The fact that the Olympics come around every four years is an addendum to being a professional athlete every year. I was on the circuit in Europe competing indoors from January to March, then outdoors from May to September every year. My motivation was that I was competing on the professional circuit with the same athletes that I would be competing against in the Olympics, or in the World Championships. The events I competed in each year were how I made my living. In the sport of track and field the athlete is paid either through a shoe company, bonus money based on how the athlete finishes at each competition and appearance fees. I earn a living I traveled to meets all over the world. I’ve competed in 56 countries.
World Championships are held every two years, every odd year there is a World Championship. I qualified nine consecutive times from 1991 through 2007. World Championships for track and field competitors are as important as the Olympics. There is prize money at the World Championships which there is not at the Olympics. There is significant motivation to do well and your shoe contracts and other sponsorships are based on how well an athlete performs at the both the Olympics and the World Championships.
The motivation to keep going isn’t like having to wait four years for the next Olympics. It’s an ongoing process. I trained 10 1/2 months out of every year for all those years and I would have six weeks off per year to rest and regroup.
SZ: When you compete in the Olympics for the Bahamas do they pay you to be on the team?
JE: No country pays their athletes specifically to be on the team. There is no prize money from the Olympics. The way an athlete receives any sort of money out of the Olympics is if they make the finals. Usually the shoe contract will have a stipulation that the athlete will receive “x” amount of money if they make the finals or receive a medal. I competed for the Bahamas and my government paid me to represent them and included incentives that included a year round monthly stipend. Additionally the athletes had bonuses stipulated for winning gold, silver, bronze or reaching the finals.
SZ: Twenty years of competing professionally is a long time.
JE: I really enjoyed it. I always felt like I had not yet quite jumped as far as I was capable of jumping. I was healthy for the majority of my career. Injury prevents a lot of people from reaching their peak. I was luckily blessed to be relatively healthy because you’re never 100%. I didn’t have major setbacks that prevented me from making progress in my sport year to year. Other than a couple of years in there, I just always felt I could do better. It was like proving something to myself certainly much more so than proving something to anyone else. There are always people who would say, “Why are you still competing? Shouldn’t you get another life?” If I listened to those people maybe I would have stopped ten years into my career.
SZ: At your level of expertise and accomplishment it seems like after 10 years any athlete in whatever sport starts to receive those questions. How did you address the retirement questions particularly after a subpar result? Frequently the media jumps on it.
JE: Right, and being from a small country it’s magnified. In the U.S.A. if a track and field athlete has a poor track result you, your coach and a few people in your immediate circle pay attention. But being from a small country where track and field is the sport, people care and make commentaries about your performance. What kept me going is when there are really good results in training you know what your body is physically capable of. Week in and week out I was achieving things in practice that sometimes audiences didn’t get to see in the meet. My challenge was to duplicate that training performance in a competition. I knew what I was physically capable of, my coaches had a belief in my athletic ability. There are certain components to a long jump, that is speed and power. At one point in my career I could squat 350 lbs, that shifted to 375 lbs. In practice I was running 60 meters in 7.35 seconds, and then I was able to run it in 7.28 seconds that means something in regard to how far I can jump.
SZ: You kept your sights on your goals and your capabilities, screening out the distractions.
JE: Absolutely. I knew what I was capable of and I knew that there were jumps where I fouled and they were never measured. Even though it wasn’t measured I knew that my body actually went that far so I knew my capabilities.
SZ: So it remained exciting.
JE: Absolutely. Everyday, well let’s not say everyday. Most days when I woke up in the morning I was ready to go and train. Fall training was a challenge. No-one is going to tell you Fall training is fun. It hurts. You’re tired, you’re exhausted. I knew that three or four times a week my body was going to be at its limit. In six weeks it’s amazing how much the body can return to a civilian body. In six weeks I was almost back to ground zero and then it took another 2-3 months to get back to where I was before I stopped training and competing. But I still needed to take that six week break.
SZ: For body and mind?
JE: Yes.
SZ: Were there phases of your competitive life where things were going on and you didn’t mentally or physically feel like competing? How did you pull yourself up through those segments of time?
JE: Personal situations, dealing with some sort of relationship sometimes made training harder. The last thing I wanted to do if I felt sad or upset about something was to run around a track.
SZ: (both laughing) Didn’t running around help you feel better?
JE: It might help in that hour or so, but leaving the house to get there, sometimes I didn’t want to do that. If I was having a series of poor results that made me question myself. I’ve had times when I over trained. I always wanted to do so much in practice sometimes to my detriment. When I was doing intensive training and the results weren’t showing it I knew people must be thinking, “What’s going on with her. Why doesn’t she retire.” There was a year I over trained and I was jumping at a high school level. It was embarrassing for me. This was leading up to my national championship in the Bahamas. I felt I couldn’t go home jumping this poorly. I made the decision not to train for seven days. I didn’t go to the track. I didn’t jog. I just laid around. I had been doing so much in practice and it wasn’t helping.
SZ: Did you shift mentally as well?
JE: Yes, I did everything that had nothing to do with track. I read books, went to the movies, went shopping, stayed up late, overslept. At the end of the seven days I flew home to the Bahamas. I jogged at the track one day and the following day was the national championship meet. I don’t know what happened but the prior to this meet the last jump I had jumped was 19’10” which is what a talented high school athlete can jump, to during the national meet, I jumped 22’3”, which is significantly different. I just think my body had become so exhausted. I hadn’t been listening to my bodies fatigue. I had kept training and jumping worse. My body reacted positively to the shift.
If I had not stopped to rest I don’t know what I would have done that season with my career because I was at wits end. Sometimes you have to step back and listen to your body. I always want to do more but sometimes you need to do less and it’s hard to pull back.
SZ: After that meet did you scale back and adjust your workout program?
JE: For an athlete like myself I can be hard headed. But it was so tangible to see I needed to scale back. Sometimes when I was struggling during competitions or not having good results I questioned what I was doing professionally. I attended Stanford with classmates who were using their brains and making 5x’s the money I was making competing in track and field.
SZ: What helped you make the decision to stick it out? Was it having free time, travel, the unique challenges?
JE: All of that. I enjoyed the lifestyle. I enjoyed to some degree having control over my own schedule and time. Even though I had a coach and when we scheduled a practice at 11a.m. I had to be there. But if I decided I wanted to go visit my friend for a week I could do that as long as there was a track nearby, or a weight room. It’s not like having a job where you can’t just go and do what you wish. I also enjoy being outside, interacting with people, traveling and the physical/mental challenge. Aside from the money disparities, the experiences that I gained were not comparable to any sort of money I could earn.
Next week 5X Olympian Jackie Edwards discusses, responsibilities as a professional athlete, unique Olympic moments and new technologies that enhanced her career.
*Featured guests are not former nor current clients of Susan Zaro
*This article can also be read @www.examiner.com
In this three part interview Edwards shares insights that enabled her career longevity which includes an inner motivation to push herself to improve as an athlete, good health, and a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology.
SZ: You’ve enjoyed a stunning 20 year career competing, which includes five Olympics, first qualifying in 1992. How did you manage your schedule in between Olympics to remain motivated and maintain the mental/physical endurance to compete at this level?
JE: One thing most people aren’t aware of is that track and field is a professional sport. You compete year in and year out. The fact that the Olympics come around every four years is an addendum to being a professional athlete every year. I was on the circuit in Europe competing indoors from January to March, then outdoors from May to September every year. My motivation was that I was competing on the professional circuit with the same athletes that I would be competing against in the Olympics, or in the World Championships. The events I competed in each year were how I made my living. In the sport of track and field the athlete is paid either through a shoe company, bonus money based on how the athlete finishes at each competition and appearance fees. I earn a living I traveled to meets all over the world. I’ve competed in 56 countries.
World Championships are held every two years, every odd year there is a World Championship. I qualified nine consecutive times from 1991 through 2007. World Championships for track and field competitors are as important as the Olympics. There is prize money at the World Championships which there is not at the Olympics. There is significant motivation to do well and your shoe contracts and other sponsorships are based on how well an athlete performs at the both the Olympics and the World Championships.
The motivation to keep going isn’t like having to wait four years for the next Olympics. It’s an ongoing process. I trained 10 1/2 months out of every year for all those years and I would have six weeks off per year to rest and regroup.
SZ: When you compete in the Olympics for the Bahamas do they pay you to be on the team?
JE: No country pays their athletes specifically to be on the team. There is no prize money from the Olympics. The way an athlete receives any sort of money out of the Olympics is if they make the finals. Usually the shoe contract will have a stipulation that the athlete will receive “x” amount of money if they make the finals or receive a medal. I competed for the Bahamas and my government paid me to represent them and included incentives that included a year round monthly stipend. Additionally the athletes had bonuses stipulated for winning gold, silver, bronze or reaching the finals.
SZ: Twenty years of competing professionally is a long time.
JE: I really enjoyed it. I always felt like I had not yet quite jumped as far as I was capable of jumping. I was healthy for the majority of my career. Injury prevents a lot of people from reaching their peak. I was luckily blessed to be relatively healthy because you’re never 100%. I didn’t have major setbacks that prevented me from making progress in my sport year to year. Other than a couple of years in there, I just always felt I could do better. It was like proving something to myself certainly much more so than proving something to anyone else. There are always people who would say, “Why are you still competing? Shouldn’t you get another life?” If I listened to those people maybe I would have stopped ten years into my career.
SZ: At your level of expertise and accomplishment it seems like after 10 years any athlete in whatever sport starts to receive those questions. How did you address the retirement questions particularly after a subpar result? Frequently the media jumps on it.
JE: Right, and being from a small country it’s magnified. In the U.S.A. if a track and field athlete has a poor track result you, your coach and a few people in your immediate circle pay attention. But being from a small country where track and field is the sport, people care and make commentaries about your performance. What kept me going is when there are really good results in training you know what your body is physically capable of. Week in and week out I was achieving things in practice that sometimes audiences didn’t get to see in the meet. My challenge was to duplicate that training performance in a competition. I knew what I was physically capable of, my coaches had a belief in my athletic ability. There are certain components to a long jump, that is speed and power. At one point in my career I could squat 350 lbs, that shifted to 375 lbs. In practice I was running 60 meters in 7.35 seconds, and then I was able to run it in 7.28 seconds that means something in regard to how far I can jump.
SZ: You kept your sights on your goals and your capabilities, screening out the distractions.
JE: Absolutely. I knew what I was capable of and I knew that there were jumps where I fouled and they were never measured. Even though it wasn’t measured I knew that my body actually went that far so I knew my capabilities.
SZ: So it remained exciting.
JE: Absolutely. Everyday, well let’s not say everyday. Most days when I woke up in the morning I was ready to go and train. Fall training was a challenge. No-one is going to tell you Fall training is fun. It hurts. You’re tired, you’re exhausted. I knew that three or four times a week my body was going to be at its limit. In six weeks it’s amazing how much the body can return to a civilian body. In six weeks I was almost back to ground zero and then it took another 2-3 months to get back to where I was before I stopped training and competing. But I still needed to take that six week break.
SZ: For body and mind?
JE: Yes.
SZ: Were there phases of your competitive life where things were going on and you didn’t mentally or physically feel like competing? How did you pull yourself up through those segments of time?
JE: Personal situations, dealing with some sort of relationship sometimes made training harder. The last thing I wanted to do if I felt sad or upset about something was to run around a track.
SZ: (both laughing) Didn’t running around help you feel better?
JE: It might help in that hour or so, but leaving the house to get there, sometimes I didn’t want to do that. If I was having a series of poor results that made me question myself. I’ve had times when I over trained. I always wanted to do so much in practice sometimes to my detriment. When I was doing intensive training and the results weren’t showing it I knew people must be thinking, “What’s going on with her. Why doesn’t she retire.” There was a year I over trained and I was jumping at a high school level. It was embarrassing for me. This was leading up to my national championship in the Bahamas. I felt I couldn’t go home jumping this poorly. I made the decision not to train for seven days. I didn’t go to the track. I didn’t jog. I just laid around. I had been doing so much in practice and it wasn’t helping.
SZ: Did you shift mentally as well?
JE: Yes, I did everything that had nothing to do with track. I read books, went to the movies, went shopping, stayed up late, overslept. At the end of the seven days I flew home to the Bahamas. I jogged at the track one day and the following day was the national championship meet. I don’t know what happened but the prior to this meet the last jump I had jumped was 19’10” which is what a talented high school athlete can jump, to during the national meet, I jumped 22’3”, which is significantly different. I just think my body had become so exhausted. I hadn’t been listening to my bodies fatigue. I had kept training and jumping worse. My body reacted positively to the shift.
If I had not stopped to rest I don’t know what I would have done that season with my career because I was at wits end. Sometimes you have to step back and listen to your body. I always want to do more but sometimes you need to do less and it’s hard to pull back.
SZ: After that meet did you scale back and adjust your workout program?
JE: For an athlete like myself I can be hard headed. But it was so tangible to see I needed to scale back. Sometimes when I was struggling during competitions or not having good results I questioned what I was doing professionally. I attended Stanford with classmates who were using their brains and making 5x’s the money I was making competing in track and field.
SZ: What helped you make the decision to stick it out? Was it having free time, travel, the unique challenges?
JE: All of that. I enjoyed the lifestyle. I enjoyed to some degree having control over my own schedule and time. Even though I had a coach and when we scheduled a practice at 11a.m. I had to be there. But if I decided I wanted to go visit my friend for a week I could do that as long as there was a track nearby, or a weight room. It’s not like having a job where you can’t just go and do what you wish. I also enjoy being outside, interacting with people, traveling and the physical/mental challenge. Aside from the money disparities, the experiences that I gained were not comparable to any sort of money I could earn.
Next week 5X Olympian Jackie Edwards discusses, responsibilities as a professional athlete, unique Olympic moments and new technologies that enhanced her career.
*Featured guests are not former nor current clients of Susan Zaro
*This article can also be read @www.examiner.com
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