Recent Michigan State grad and 2023 Big Ten Champion, Trevor Stephenson joins the podcast at his new place of employment, RISE Pole Vault. This was a great conversation for both Trevor and I because we have really just met, and I was able to learn so much about his story, and what makes him tick. He is very insightful and just an all around good dude. I am so grateful to coach him as a RISE Elite Vaulter and we love having him as a member of the RISE Fam. Thanks T-Bird!!!
Thank you so much to our sponsors!!!
PVR App - The future of pole rentals: If you are in the business of renting pole vaulting poles, you need to see what PVR can do for you! Check out the links below for more info and to see PVR in action.
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Want to help support the One More Jump Podcast? Click the link below to become an episode sponsor!
https://www.risepolevault.com/omj-episode-sponsorship/
Visit RISEPolevault.com for all things pole vault!!! Whether you are looking to take a vaulting class or compete in a competition at our the state of the art RISE Pole Vault Training Center located in Joliet, IL, or wanting to use one of our many services ranging from pole vault business consulting to virtual coaching in the vault, risepolevault.com has got your covered!
RISE Pole Vault is now selling all three major pole brands including UCS Spirit, Essx, and Pacer. Email in to support@risepolevault.com and let us get you set up with some new poles!
Recent Michigan State grad and 2023 Big Ten Champion, Trevor Stephenson joins the podcast at his new place of employment, RISE Pole Vault. This was a great conversation for both Trevor and I because we have really just met, and I was able to learn so much about his story, and what makes him tick. He is very insightful and just an all around good dude. I am so grateful to coach him as a RISE Elite Vaulter and we love having him as a member of the RISE Fam. Thanks T-Bird!!!
Thank you so much to our sponsors!!!
PVR App - The future of pole rentals: If you are in the business of renting pole vaulting poles, you need to see what PVR can do for you! Check out the links below for more info and to see PVR in action.
PVR Website
PVR Instagram
PVR Youtube
Want to help support the One More Jump Podcast? Click the link below to become an episode sponsor!
https://www.risepolevault.com/omj-episode-sponsorship/
Visit RISEPolevault.com for all things pole vault!!! Whether you are looking to take a vaulting class or compete in a competition at our the state of the art RISE Pole Vault Training Center located in Joliet, IL, or wanting to use one of our many services ranging from pole vault business consulting to virtual coaching in the vault, risepolevault.com has got your covered!
RISE Pole Vault is now selling all three major pole brands including UCS Spirit, Essx, and Pacer. Email in to support@risepolevault.com and let us get you set up with some new poles!
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the one more jump podcast by Rise Povault. Today's episode of the podcast is brought to you by Rise Povault. We've been getting question after question about training in the off season, so we have put together a comprehensive online training program that will take you from fall training to indoor season to outdoor season and through the summer. The training covers weightlifting, sprinting, plyometrics, vault workouts and more, all with explanations and videos for each drill and exercise. Be sure to check out our training plan and all the other things that our Patreon will be offering starting October 1st. Today we have Trevor Stevenson on the podcast. Trevor is actually a new hire at Rise. He is a new employee but also an elite poll volter that is pursuing his post-collegiate poll vaulting career and I'm going to help guide him, along with my brother, luke, to try and become the best they can be.
Jake Winder:Um, before we start today's episode, I just wanted to apologize for the delay in a new podcast being released. The reason for that delay is that we're working on a bunch of cool stuff, so in the end, it's going to be a benefit for all the podcast listeners. We think that everything has to grow and has to evolve, and we're really looking into kind of the next steps that we could take to make this podcast and what we're doing at Rise poll vault uh, even better than ever, and that takes time. So, anyway, also, I really like to have podcasts done in person and being able to sit across the table from Trevor and talk with him and kind of just feel the energy off of him. It just really spurs the conversation.
Jake Winder:The video that we get to produce afterwards is so much better, the audio is so much better, everything is so much better, and I'm a little bit of a control freak and, um, I just like things to look nice and sound nice. So, anyway, trevor is a big 10 champion. Uh, he won the big 10 championship last year outdoors. He jumped 5 72 this last year and, man, he's got a really really bright future ahead of him. Really nice person, and we've been loving having him around at Rise. So, without further ado, enjoy this episode with Trevor Stevenson. All right, and we're off.
Trevor Stephenson:Trevor.
Jake Winder:Stevenson, how are we doing? I'm doing great. How are you? This has the potential to be really good and also just like kind of strange because we already know each other.
Jake Winder:So you, uh, for people who don't know you've been, we hired you at Rise to come and be a coach, but then also to pursue your post-collegiate poleball career and, if I adjust this in the middle, it's not that big of a deal. Um, I just am kind of anal about how my my mic stands working, um. But yeah, so you, you're coming and you're training here and I'm going to be working with you as a coach and you're working with the active team, the athletes at Rise, and you're also our events director, so you're like in charge of all of the events that we're going to eventually do. Um, at Rise, we've got a big one coming up, um, the Essex dealer summit that you've been working on, which is pretty cool. Um. But yeah, I think probably the best place to start is just a little introduction on kind of who you are, where you're from, um, you know your poleball background, kind of stuff like that.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, so I grew up in Grand Rapids, michigan. I went to East Gantwood high school um started poleball thing my freshman year of high school. Um, I started track in middle school because my mom was my mom is the head coach of my high school track team and so I was always kind of like in the track world but I never got in. Really they couldn't, you couldn't do track until seventh grade in middle school. That's when I started and I started with like I was just bouncing around trying to figure out what I liked and so I was doing like I did the 400, I did high jump, I did the mile and the hundred, like I was just doing everything Right and I wasn't good at any of it and I so I did that for seventh and eighth grade, where I was just bouncing around and I really liked high jump in middle school because we don't have poleball.
Jake Winder:Would you jump?
Trevor Stephenson:I think my four foot.
Jake Winder:Yeah, you're not far off. It's good, come on, give me over five feet. No, I think I over five.
Trevor Stephenson:I might have gotten like four, eight yeah.
Jake Winder:We need to start poleball, and a hundred percent at that point.
Trevor Stephenson:So everybody gets worse.
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Trevor Stephenson:Because seventh grade I didn't clear a bar the whole season In the high jump. Yeah, I know how to do it. Every single time I just kept doing it because it was so much fun.
Jake Winder:That does not sound like fun at all, holy cow I was getting frustrated.
Trevor Stephenson:And then eighth grade. I don't remember how many meets we had in eighth grade, but it wasn't that many, but every meet up until the last two. I still know how did. And then second to last meet of eighth grade year I cleared like four, eight, and I was just so excited.
Jake Winder:Dude, we need to get to the bottom of this. Like, how, like, don't they start it like?
Trevor Stephenson:like two inches over the pit or something. Yeah, it was pretty bad. There's some old videos in me. I jump in. We need to get some of those videos. It's not good.
Jake Winder:So what? I'm just confused, Like how did you not figure it out? Like, did you just not? Did you just go straight up and come straight down, or I think I was just kind of jumping at the bar over, and over again.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, Um, but yeah it was, it was rough and I wasn't really very athletic, like I was pretty gumpy, yeah, and so how tall were you. I'm just curious like that time. I have no idea. I was probably pretty average for an eighth grader. Okay, I don't think I was super tall, I got tall. My freshman in sophomore year of high school is when I like kind of grew more.
Jake Winder:Okay, um, cause sometimes people like I'm sure you've worked with kids or whatever that are like they hit like a crazy girl's spurt around that age and then they're like really tall and lanky and then have zero control of their body. So I was just curious that that might have been playing into the uh, the no height situation.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, I don't think it was. I didn't. Yeah, I was pretty average height for most of my life until high school, yeah. And then um freshman year, like I said, I started pole vaulting. Um, I started freshman year just doing like kind of the same thing, just like 100, 400. I didn't run the mile anymore, but I was doing discus. How were those? How were those events like?
Jake Winder:well, they were bad.
Trevor Stephenson:They were pretty bad also. I don't remember what my time was in the mile, but the 400, and in middle school it was a good like 75 seconds.
Jake Winder:Dude. This is turning into a story of achievement. Like dude, you know basically your entire career in high jump and then, you become a 572 pole vaulting. That's crazy. Okay, I keep going.
Trevor Stephenson:So yeah. So then, uh, freshman year, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do and I run like super slow in the 400. Uh, my 100 was like a 12, four, 12, six, it's like not awful for 14, 15 years old.
Jake Winder:Oh yeah, that's fine, hold on. You said your 100 was 12, four, 12, six.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah.
Jake Winder:Yeah, no, that's pretty good.
Trevor Stephenson:That might have been sophomore year, whatever, either way, yeah, yeah In the 12s, it's pretty good, and then I started pole vaulting, just because I saw them vaulting over like on the grass off the track and I was like, oh, that looks pretty. Not on the grass, but in the grass area.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, and I was like, oh, that looks pretty fun, can I try it? Yeah, like to my mom, and she was like, sure, I thought you didn't want to. I was like, yeah, I think it'd be a lot of fun, right. And so I tried it and I like had a great time with it. Um, jumped nine feet my freshman year. That's what's up.
Jake Winder:How did that first day go, do you remember?
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, A little bit Um my high school pole vault coach, who's also the men's head coach uh, Dave M Yacht he shout out Dave M.
Jake Winder:Yeah, he runs the like Granhav and beach vault and just a huge, uh you know person in the pole vault world. That's really pushed the sport.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, One of the one of the best people I know, one of the most influential people in my life, for sure he's an awesome, awesome dude. So yeah, so he starts everybody when, when they take their first jump on the pit, um everybody all the other pole vaulters started clapped for him, and so Hold on, your first ever jump on a pit.
Jake Winder:Yeah, that's that's actually a really cool idea.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, and it's like super nerve-wracking.
Trevor Stephenson:Like your hands are shaking on the runway, but it's a lot of fun and it's like just a good introduction to it, and so I remember that Um. I don't remember a whole lot else from freshman year, except for one meet. Um, I was on JV and so it was a dual meet and we had um. The order was men's varsity, women's varsity, women's JV, men's JV or boys JV. However, the order was I was jumping last in the meet and pole vault took forever, and so we were the last event going and so the whole track team came over to watch the boys JV pole vault go and that was like super fun because we were going at like seven, six or eight feet and we had like this crowd of like 50 people that were all like doing the slow cut for us the whole time.
Jake Winder:Oh, my gosh, that's so cool. Man Like that, those that like there's memories, like I have my memory. My one of my best memories ever in pole vaulting was my first high school track meet, when it's because I had learned, I started vaulting my eighth grade year and my dad was my coach and he was a very accomplished coach. But uh, so I already knew kind of like what I was doing. I had already jumped like 13 something going into my freshman year, dang Um, but like all my friends, like they kept on saying like you know, like why do you keep?
Jake Winder:Like you don't hang out with us after school? Like you keep on going over to North Central College and and and pole vaulting? Like so they didn't understand and didn't know what was going on. And so that first meet was my first time that I got to show them my thing, you know, and I remember that the night before I, you know like, I wake up in the morning, I like get all my track uniform on, get my warmups on, I go downstairs, pull a board, pour a bowl of cereal, start eating the cereal. My dad comes downstairs and he's like hey, jake, it's a two o'clock in the morning and I was like it's like, really, I look at the clock, oh man, it is two o'clock, so I take all my stuff off. Actually, I think I showered too. I think I showered too and I take all my stuff off, and I'm like I was that jazzed up about it Like I was so pumped up.
Jake Winder:So then I go back to sleep, wake up the next morning and it was my, you know, first time that I got to show people like what I'd been working so hard on behind the scenes. And then you know it's a similar situation where at my high school they had never seen anybody really pole vault, you know, like it was just like you know, not very high, like somebody who really knew what they were doing. And I, you know, make my first bar and everyone's like Holy cow, he knows how to do it, like that's crazy. And then make another bar, make another bar, and then I made 13 feet and I was like really pumped up about that. And then everyone starts to clap Like the field house is just booming, oh man, I mean it was just and I mean it was so cool.
Jake Winder:Make 13, six and then make 14. And I'm like dude, like, and everyone's just completely freaking out. And I'll never forget that, like that, the first time that you get a group of people behind you when you're on the runway, I mean you just never forget it. Yeah, it's just, it's what we all do it for. That's why it bothers me whenever people turn off the clap, like whenever they're like oh, they're like. No, I don't want the clap.
Jake Winder:I'm like oh, come on man yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:I've never been a huge fan of it. Yeah, I'll never. I'll never stop people if they're clapping for me.
Jake Winder:Yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:But I think I might have started the clap like once in my life, yeah.
Jake Winder:Well, and I mean, that's everybody's personality, like, like starting, it is one thing. Right Like if you're like the dude who's like, let's get this, let's get it going, get the clap going, and you're calling for it. Like that was me, like I was like, hey, let's get the energy up and let's go. Some people are maybe more like you where it's like you know, if it happens, it happens whatever.
Jake Winder:But I'm just kind of focused on this and I was a big emotional jumper, like energy jumper, and so that doesn't bother me, Like, if you're not somebody who calls for it, Okay. But what does bother me is when people will stand on the runway and tell everybody in the fieldhouse no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're not doing it. Because I think to myself like I was at the world championships last year with Luke and it like made a connection in my head when Mando was going at the world record, they shut the entire meet down. Oh, wow, they stopped the races. They I mean the races were ready to go off. They stopped the whole thing. They shut the whole meet down.
Jake Winder:That entire stadium started clapping for Mando and I was like, imagine if he was like oh, no, no, I don't like, I don't like the clap, he's on the jumbo Tron, I don't like the clap. No, no, no, no. And so it's just like once you, if you want to get to a certain level in the pole vault, you have to embrace the clap. You can't tell them like you can't tell that whole stadium like, no, stop. Like I don't want, I don't like it. It messes me up. It messes me up and this is another point too you better, if you want to be really good, you better get used to it.
Jake Winder:Yeah, Because guess what's going to be in your face? A camera. Camera's going to be in your face, right at the end of the runway. You think Mando has a choice of like hey, no, no, I don't want the camera. No, like you're going to have a camera in your face. You're going to have microphones lying in the box. You're going to have people with cameras at the back of a pit, Just lights going crazy while you're jumping. So you're going to have people with cameras at the back of a pit. In my opinion, like you have to learn how to embrace that and embrace the pressure and that's. But yeah, everybody's different on that, because you know some people, it's almost like they have to have it. Like it's like if you guys aren't clapping, I'm not going to be able to get the energy out, or whatever.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, I feel like it's always a. I've never really started it because I feel like it's a variable that I just don't want to introduce, because, like, anytime there's a clap, I'll always squish my step back six inches, yeah, and cause it's just like how it's going to be. Even if I try to like run smooth and slow, or run smooth but fast, it's going to be like just amped up. I'm going to have more adrenaline going.
Jake Winder:Yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:And I just don't. But if it's happening to me like if somebody's just starting the clap and it's just what it is, then that's just kind of like the rolling with the punches where you just got to adjust on the fly and go for what you're going to get. Yep.
Jake Winder:That's the same thing.
Trevor Stephenson:Like we were talking about yesterday with. What was it? It was the trying to like eliminate variables while you're competing and trying to like rely on the least amount of things possible. Right, and if you can not rely on silence while you're jumping, then that's just going to make you a stronger jumper.
Jake Winder:That's exactly right. And for, obviously, the people weren't there while Trevor and I were having a meeting yesterday we were having a meeting on his goals and we were having a meeting on just basically me ranting to him. I apologize because I just start going and start getting pumped up about stuff, but I basically, well, the original thing was the aura ring. Yeah, that was. The original thing was I use the aura ring with Luke and we were talking about because I had originally told Trevor hey, let's use the aura ring and it gives me data and then I can see trends in your jumping and whatever. I don't think the technology is there yet, just based off of the experiment with Luke, and Luke and I are still going to work on it this year and see if there's some conclusions we can draw from it.
Jake Winder:But what we were talking about is how a person's strength is in their lack of need, and that's like a thing that I came up with a few years ago where I was like the more that somebody needs, the weaker they are. So if you need that clap, that's a weakness. If you need that silence, that's a weakness, because both those two things can be taken away from you. You need the data from your aura ring in order to mentally feel okay, that's a crutch. Another big one, too, that we talked about was pre-workout, or caffeine, or I do this specific routine before I jump and if that routine's messed up then I'm not going to jump. Well, because if you're trying to do what you're trying to do, I mean, there might be 1% of the time that the routine's not messed up. So you said tell me about, because you were talking yesterday about how you kind of went through that process, maybe a year or so ago, about reducing your need.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, so it's mostly started with like eliminating superstitions that I had.
Jake Winder:Like what.
Trevor Stephenson:Like wearing the same socks, right, and it was just something that I never, never thought about before and never really relied on.
Trevor Stephenson:And then I started wearing the same socks to every meet because I just liked how they looked. And then I was like, oh, I got to bring these socks because I jumped well in them. And then that kind of snowballed into like okay, well, I got to wake up at this time and I got to eat this for breakfast, and so then it just goes into all these things that I got like have my routine before I jump. And then I started to realize that I was doing that. And then I just started with just changing my socks, because it was like the thing in my mind that had absolutely nothing to do with my jumping, other than like or besides the other stuff that I was doing, that was superstitious and I just it was. I remember the feeling and I was like, oh man, I really hope I jump well today. And it was just going from like bright green socks because I went to Michigan State to like dark green socks.
Trevor Stephenson:Not that big of a difference, makes no difference at all, and so I think I jumped like all right, like it was a decent meet, but I was like okay, curse is broken. Now I can, I can wear different socks, and so then, the past two years I've been jumping I in purposely wear different socks to every meet. And so then that kind of started this thing where I'm getting like fancy socks with like different patterns and stuff on them. Right and I'm like wearing some right now that are the Rolling Stones.
Jake Winder:I like that Well, but those things can creep up on you, you know, without you even really realizing it and, you know, povolting such a mental game that you really have to guard yourself from those sorts of weird things kind of creeping into your life and into your routine. I remember, like a similar thing, like there was one meet where I I think it was my socks it might have been my socks or my singlet that I had not packed like a clean one for the meet, and I was like, oh, dude, I gotta wear like a singlet that I worked out in one time. And I was just like, oh, this is, you know, this is not good. And I was. And then, like in the end, I was like that is absolutely ridiculous, that that has any effect on my brain or the outcome of the meet at all.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah.
Jake Winder:Like it's crazy, you know, and you could just really drive yourself crazy with that type of stuff. But I think it's probably like personality too. Like are you like that in your personal life? Like are you pretty? We haven't really talked much about your kind of personal life. Like, so do you? Are you like anal about certain things, or are you like things have to be in order, like type A personally?
Trevor Stephenson:Not really, not really. I like having a routine in the morning, but other than that it's not really. Like I'm pretty flowy, I don't. I'm not super type A, like I'm pretty relaxed and just kind of do whatever we're gonna do, right, right. Getting back to oh man, what was I gonna say?
Jake Winder:Sorry, no, you're good.
Trevor Stephenson:I had something really good. I was gonna say, oh yeah, so the superstition stuff. So it's gotten to the point now where I try to mix up my routine a lot. So I'm just ready for anything where these in certain meets last year like we had like a rainy meet and stuff and they were shutting it down and I was like why does it just keep jumping? Like I want to see if I could jump in the rain or if, like the wind's swirling, I'm like all right, let's go. Like I want to see if I could jump in a crosswind or a headwind right now.
Jake Winder:And it's gotten to the point where I get excited about those mix ups instead of like dreading them, and shutting down and that's when you really switch over, and that that is that's really good, man, because that's a concept that I talked to, which you know it's hard to explain this to like a 15 year old, but the concept of like working on those things, like I'm going to practice being like bad at jumping in crosswinds, like today, like when you show up to the meet, like being able to release the outcome and being able to say I'm going to be perfectly content with practicing jumping into crosswinds, like practicing like what? Like manipulating my, my thought patterns and things like that, that is a really high level skill and high level maturity and that's yeah, that's going to come in handy, because that's that's what it all is, you know. Like is just trying to figure out like all right, you know, maybe a kid has a run through issue.
Jake Winder:Okay, well, we're going to find that place on the runway that that you stick. Where's that sticky spot, you know? And then now, today, you're going to release. You have to. A requirement is you have to release your expectation of the rest of the day. Like you can't be. Like okay, well, I'll work on this as long as you know.
Jake Winder:Like I jump this high or something like that. But if you can completely surrender to it and just be like, all right, I'm going to work on that sticky spot in the runway today, you know like where I usually the anxiety builds and I'm about to run through, I'm going to practice getting through that spot. You know that's, that's really really awesome and that's that's. You know, you're basically almost embracing, you're just embracing the chaos, you know. Yeah, and it's hard to do.
Trevor Stephenson:Like it's. I'm still like. Every once in a while, if I'm like, if I'm like walking down the street and I get like a gust of wind in my face, I like get a little like, oh man, like as a headwind Dude. I know everybody does.
Jake Winder:I told you about the experiment I did with the headphones.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, earplugs, yeah yeah.
Jake Winder:That was a crazy one. Where I I was, I was jumping one day and it was a pretty nasty headwind and I was like I wonder if part of the reason that I'm freaking out about this headwind is just because of the you know, the auditory inputs that I'm getting from the wind just blowing past my ears and like hearing it. And I put those earplugs in and it was almost like the wind like almost went away, so I wasn't hearing like that. Yeah, you know, going past my ears and it really just shows how much of of pole vaulting is. Just, it's like all mental man, it's so crazy and like being able to. It's just it's that initial reaction, like when you like you're talking about you walking down the street and you feel that puff of wind, like how can you, over time, change that initial reaction to it? You know, and that's really hard because that's like deeply ingrained in you. You know it's freaking crazy. All right, so we got to high school before we got off track.
Trevor Stephenson:Oh, yeah, yeah. So freshman year, jump nine feet, had that meet where everybody's clapping and it was a lot of fun. And then that. So right after that season, I was getting frustrated because, like there was kids on my team that were jumping like 12 or 13 feet and I wanted to be jumping that high. And I remember I don't remember, but my mom told me that I was talking to her and I wanted to quit pole vault because I wasn't good at it.
Trevor Stephenson:And how old were you? You're a sophomore, I was a freshman. A freshman this was just after my first season, gotcha and she was like Trevor, just stick with it, trust it. Like you'll be fine, you'll be here and you'll start doing better. And I was like, okay, fine. And then we went to the Berry County Fair Vault in the summer, hosted by Landon Athletics, and I jumped 11-6 there and peered by two and a half feet in one meet and I was like, man, this is pretty fun, I'm gonna stick with pole vaulting out. Yeah for sure. And so then after that it was fun and I would train in the winters with Dave Emiott.
Jake Winder:Where do you guys train at? Is there like a gym In the winter, In the summer space?
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, we would train at Aquinas College. Okay, gotcha, they have a pretty nice indoor facility, there's runway and stuff, sweet yeah, we would jump there in the winters. And then my sophomore year I jumped 13-6. So at another two feet on. And then junior year I jumped 14-3 at the indoor state meet. So I peered by a foot at the indoor, or nine inches at the indoor state meet and that was the emerging elite qualifying mark for indoor nationals. And so that was super exciting because I peered at state, like the last meet I could jump at to qualify for nationals and I made it.
Jake Winder:Nationals, as in like New Balance Nationals or something. Yeah, new Balance Nationals.
Trevor Stephenson:And we went to New York and jumped at the Armory and that was super fun and that was in 2017 when Mondo was there and he jumped 581 or whatever it was, whenever he got over 580 for the first time. That's crazy man, and it was so cool to watch and it was me. Gabby Leon was there because she went to my high school.
Jake Winder:So you guys were teammates, were you the same age? She was one year ahead of me.
Trevor Stephenson:And we were there and watching and getting super excited Afterwards. We were standing on the rail outside of the outside lane on the 200 track and watching the pole vault and then, after Mondo cleared his 580 and finished jumping, he got off the pit and started taking his stuff off and like five minutes after he finished jumping we were like we're going to go out there and get a picture with him. And so he snuck past the rail and just went on the pole vault runway and got a picture with him after he jumped.
Jake Winder:That was wild.
Trevor Stephenson:It was so weird. It wasn't weird at the time, but it's weird to think about now because it's like if you were to try to like Eugene or at like the world championships or something, jump over the rail and try to get a picture with Mondo, like on the pole vault runway, get tackled yeah there's no chance it would happen.
Jake Winder:Right, yeah, that's. What's even crazier, though, is like are you guys the same age? Yeah, well, but isn't that weird? Yeah, that's been the thing with Mondo. In my opinion, one of the things is that he just has an aura about him that he has more experience than his age, you know what.
Jake Winder:I'm saying it's like when you look at like I'm not saying he looks old, but I'm saying is like when you look at him and you kind of look at him just kind of move through the world, it's just like he looks wise, yeah, like he's got the wisdom of like a 30-some-year-old person, and that's yeah. So that it's just kind of interesting that you look at that person as like wow, you didn't even think about that, he was your age and it's just really, really crazy.
Jake Winder:I mean, and to jump that high at that age is insane. Yeah, it was pretty sweet.
Trevor Stephenson:So we watched him jump and then I think I jumped before him but I jumped in the emerging elite and I double PR at that meet and jumped 15-3.5. Let's go Coming in with a PR of 14-3. And so that was super exciting and the current school record before I jumped that was 15-3. And so the progression just went perfectly to half-inch higher. Wow, that's awesome. So that was fun to get the school record. And I got off the pit and I went up to coach Emiat and I was like excited and stuff and he was like school record. I was like but it's indoors and we're like we're jumping with the Kentwood track club, it's not like this.
Trevor Stephenson:Kentwood and he's like Trevor, I decide that stuff and you're going on the board. That's awesome and I was like that's just kind of the guy he is, where he just gets the stuff done for the people he cares about.
Jake Winder:That's awesome. So that was pretty cool. That's what's up. So you had a consistent real progression every single year. Yeah, it was surprising Okay what do you think enabled you to do that?
Trevor Stephenson:I think it was just year round practice and I took time off also, which is kind of kind of intuitive, right, right. So I jumped in the winters, which I think is really what helped me out. I didn't just jump during track season from like March to June, and I played hockey also most of my life, and so I think just getting away from pole vault and like trying to be good at hockey also kind of just let me do a reset every once or every, like fall, when we would be doing hockey stuff, right. But yeah, I think that just training for most of the year, and especially in the off season, helped a lot, because if I were to have just trained in during the springs, during track season, I would have gotten like four seasons worth. But because I trained during the indoor season also, I got like double that, and so my progression was probably twice as fast as it would have been if I just trained in the regular seasons.
Jake Winder:Well, think about it like this Just like In Illinois, the high school track season is, I mean it's basically February through. I mean I guess they start jumping like in January. So like if you just did like the high school season and you didn't do anything else outside of this, it'd be a January, february, march, april, may, so that's five months, okay. And then you could say that your body could handle, you know, like, let's say, two, you know two vault workouts a week, you know. So we would do two times four weeks. So that's eight times five. What's that 40? Yeah, some around there. 45?.
Trevor Stephenson:Some 40. 40.
Jake Winder:Yeah, so that's 40 workouts. Like when you put it like that, it's like that's not that many workouts. Yeah, it doesn't sound like a lot. You know what I'm saying. It's like okay, I wanna improve by three feet. This year we got 40 opportunities, you know, to work on that. But if you, you know, double that, you know, to 80 or 100 opportunities a year, then you're really really helping yourself. You know, get a lot better.
Jake Winder:And I've always talked about things in reps. My dad always used to tell me that like, ah, dad, I can't do this drill. Ah, you know 400 more reps and you'll get it. And it was like almost it was exactly like he was so good at that. He'd just be like, ah, you just need all right, you're gonna need 300 reps over the summer, and then you know another four or 500 reps during the fall and winter. And then you know, I think you'll be at where you wanna be at. And so that's how I've always thought about stuff is, think about it in reps. How many reps are you getting?
Jake Winder:But there's a caveat to that, because you can't just do all 500 in the next month, you know, or else you'll get injured and then that'll push that away. And then that brings up another good point. If you just jump during the high school season, what happens if you get injured? Then all of a sudden you know like, let's say, like one or two months of that is taken away, you know, and then now you're down to, let's say, 35 practices or probably less than that, like 28 practices. It's like holy cow, how can you expect to get? And then, all right, I'm just doing this. So you jump all four years of high school, right, and let's say you do 40 workouts a year. 40 times four, there's 160 workouts for your entire high school career. If you just jump during the high school season, that's just in my head it just doesn't seem like you could, like make all the progress that's possible.
Jake Winder:Like can you get much, much, much, much better, absolutely. But you know it all just boils down to the person and like do you want to reach your ultimate potential? Because if you want to reach your ultimate potential, you're probably gonna have to go outside of that you know.
Trevor Stephenson:So, okay, I also think that having a good coach is important, and that helped me a lot. And then also I had we have a lot of polls at my old high school, and so making sure that I was on the right poll at the right time was also a big part of why, I had that steady progression like I did.
Jake Winder:Absolutely. Can you like remember things specifically I know it was a long time ago Like specific things, like maybe that caused a breakthrough, like that breakthrough at that street meet, that you jumped two and a half feet higher? Do you remember, like was there something different that you did?
Trevor Stephenson:I think I just kind of timed up to bend at the poll a little bit better. Okay, I don't really remember a whole lot, because it was like eight years ago.
Trevor Stephenson:It's a long time ago, yeah, for sure, I remember the meet and I remember that I was during the season I was bending the poll a little bit, but it was just kind of like throwing me all over the place, and so I think at that time I was able to get my feet up in time where it gave me a little pop off the top instead of just like throwing me at the bar.
Jake Winder:Right, right. What about like any other times, like that meet at the armory, or like, yeah, that one.
Trevor Stephenson:actually, that breakthrough came indoors and I remember I have the video on my phone of the jump where I like clicked because I landed on the pit and I like dropped my jaw drop.
Jake Winder:And I was like that was it.
Trevor Stephenson:It was another thing with my swing where I timed it up where I was getting. I wasn't getting caught in that L position. I like moved through it all the way, and so I was extended before the poll recoiled and so it gave me even more pop off the top of the poll, and so that was another one where I was like whoa, that felt way better. And so then fast forward a month or two, and then I PR by a foot. That's wild.
Trevor Stephenson:Or I guess a couple more feet, because that was before the state meet indoors.
Jake Winder:So what would you say, like were some of the cues that you used back then? Like what are some things that Dave kind of taught you, like some of the core things that you guys really worked on a lot?
Trevor Stephenson:The biggest things that he would always hammer in were run and plant, and he said that he would always say that at like 90% of the time, the fastest guy at the meet is gonna be the one who wins the poll vault. And so we always worked on speed and being fast on the runway and then having a really big plant, and then the rest just kind of like happened, like it was like fine tuning, but the most important things were the run and plant. Yeah, and I think that's like mostly. Honestly, I don't remember a whole lot of what the cues were that he was telling me, but I do remember it was a lot of emphasis on run and plant.
Jake Winder:It's so that I mean it's 100% true and if you talk to anybody who knows what they're doing, that's what they're gonna tell you. It was like you're running, your takeoff are the most important parts of the poll vault. I was talking, I called Katarina the other day to kind of figure out what we were gonna do at this camp, this camp, the elite experience camp that we're offering, and she was like, well, you know, I know that it might not be like the most fun thing, but I mean the most important parts of the run and the takeoff, you know.
Jake Winder:So we probably are gonna do a lot of that and I was like I'm totally fine with that. It's really hard when you're coaching younger kids, because you fight this battle every day of giving them what they want versus giving them what they need, because it's so hard man, because I want to make them happy.
Jake Winder:I'm a people pleaser. I like, whenever I get, to give people good news, you know like I like to say, hey, you're good to go full approach today and you get to. You know, do all the fun stuff. But the problem is they don't know what they need. And I know what they need and we know what they need and a lot of times it is they need to work on their run and their takeoff and even make it even worse.
Jake Winder:It has to be off the runway and you don't even get to do the full jump, but it's so hard because that is the foundation that sets everything else up. And I mean, am I wrong here? 90% of the people that we work with are they think that their issues are because they can't do something after they leave the ground. That's always the situation, and it's just so so hard. How have you been dealing with that here?
Trevor Stephenson:It's been fine. I think I've noticed that every once in a while I'll keep, I'll like be focusing on the plant with somebody and then when they go back and get in line, I can see they're like frustrated and they just want to like work on something else. And I have noticed that when I work with somebody on their top end, they are having a lot more fun.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, yeah right, because it's the. When you work on the top end, I feel like you see the rewards, like immediately, where you like line up the invert a little bit better, and then all of a sudden you're clearing the bungee. But with the plant, if you hit the plant better, you're gonna be hitting the bungee more because you're gonna be blown through the pole and so it doesn't feel as good. But it's been going well. It's tough, it's a. I've learned a lot in the like the last just two months that I've been here.
Jake Winder:Yeah, that's awesome and yeah, you'll continue to learn. You just are coaching so many reps. You know, like there's so many times that it you know you're just constantly giving feedback to kids and that's it's really hard to you know, breach that barrier of all. Right, I know you're not gonna like this, but we got to do this thing and the kids who end up being receptive of that end up in the end having a much, much better time.
Jake Winder:Yeah, you know, this episode of the one more jump podcast is brought to you by UCS spirit. From the beginning, ucs spirits goal has been to produce the highest performing vaulting pole in the world. Being vaulters themselves, they know the unforgettable feeling of jumping a new PR or hitting the perfect movement in a jump and want to bring that feeling to as many vaulters as possible. Trust, the brand that has been chosen to set every women's and men's pole vault world record since the company's inception in 1987. That's pretty insane.
Jake Winder:I also will mention that we got a brand new set of poles for Luke. He jumped 580 on them and the transition from pole to pole is seamless and that is super, super important. Whenever you're building a pole series, and especially as you start to advance as a pole, walter, that transition from pole to pole just becomes more important the better you get, and UCS does an incredible job of that. All right back to the episode. So I think we're at your junior year now and you and that junior year was at Miller Rose game or not Miller Rose games, the Armory, yeah. And then your senior year was also another big increase.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, yeah. So my outdoors my junior year was a little bit underwhelming because I was dealing with back injury. Okay, I was just like tightness in my back and like sharp pain and so Did you take time off for that A?
Trevor Stephenson:little bit. I missed a couple of meets and I was going to PT and stuff but I ended up jumping 14-6 or 14-3 at the State Meet and I placed like fourth or fifth. So it was like a good performance, but it wasn't what I was hoping for, right and then? So it's kind of a progression. So my the summer going into my senior year, I went to a gymnastics place with some of my friends just like for fun, yeah, to jump around, and I had been working at Skyzone previously. Oh, like the trampoline.
Jake Winder:Yeah, alright.
Trevor Stephenson:And so I would like jump there a lot and I would. I was good at like doing backflips and stuff on the trampolines, and so we went to the gymnastics gym and I was like confident and stuff. I was like, oh, I can do all this stuff. And so we get there and I'm super excited and I jump right on a trampoline and just one hop into a backflip and I start rolling forward or I start moving forward in the air and mess it up and land on my knees on the pad that covers up the springs and stuff.
Jake Winder:Yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:And the pad rips and my knee just goes right through it and hits one of the beams that is under the trampoline and it just takes a huge dash out of my knee, probably like two inches long, like pretty much my whole kneecap and gosh, and so that was pretty bad and I like didn't even realize it happened at the time.
Trevor Stephenson:It felt like I just kind of got like my skin scraped right and so I was like, oh man, I stood up and like touched it and I was like, oh, I looked out, or I looked at my friends and they were like, like eyes were huge, like they're like. I looked down and I was like, oh my gosh. And so I went and like sat down and like waited and the people at the place drove me to the hospital and I ended up getting stitches and it was bad and I was in a knee mobilizer for like two weeks because of it, wow. And so that sent me back a little bit with training and it took me about a month to like get back to like where I was before that happened, just because my leg wasn't moving for those two weeks.
Jake Winder:Was it just a flesh wound or like? Was like cartilage damage? Yeah, so that was.
Trevor Stephenson:I was really lucky with that. It was super close to like nicking one of my tendons, but it just took the skin off and that was it. So that was lucky at least that was nice.
Trevor Stephenson:Took the skin off. So I, yeah. So it took me a little while to get back to like into shape and then I was doing well and jumping well. And then in December, two weeks before Reno, maybe one week before Reno I was playing hockey and one of my teammates came and like ran into me and hit me in the shoulder and broke my collar bone, oh jeez. And so that knocked me out for six weeks and most of the indoor season. I was out because of that.
Trevor Stephenson:What Dave say, what they say, what Dave say, oh Dave, I don't remember, I don't think he was happy, but it happened early enough in the season where I was still able to jump an indoor state and I jumped, I think, what. I don't remember what the mark was, but it was one bar below what I needed to go to indoor nationals, okay. And so I ended up not going that year, which was just like I was devastated, yeah. And they like kind of lit a fire under me for outdoor season, right. And so then, outdoor season, first meet, open up, jump 15 feet, and that was like super exciting because I hadn't been over 15 and over a year or about a year. And then next meet, same thing jump 15 feet, and kind of through the season I was I kind of like, took a step up and I was running a little bit faster, jump a little bit better, and I was pretty consistent over 15 feet, taking shots of 15, 7, 16 feet. And I like, halfway through the season I jump 15, 7, qualified for championship, new Balance Nationals, and then at our conference meet I jumped 16 for the first time and that was super exciting because I'd been jumping on 16 foot poles at that point and, like it was, I was just a little, I was just barely not good enough to get on them easily, right, and so I had to be jumping really well to get on them. And so that jump finally was like the click where I like it was starting to roll the 16s pretty well, yeah, and so jump 16 there for the first time, which was super exciting, and then jumped 16 again at team state the week before individual state and then at individual state. It was pretty exciting because I was coming in with a PR of 16 feet. The next guy, the next best guy in the state, was 15, 9 Eric Harris, right from Celine, and so I was thinking like, okay, I just got to do what I've been doing and I'll be able to win the meet right and then see what happens after that. And so the meet goes well and I'm jumping well.
Trevor Stephenson:And first is first is, I can attempt on most bars and I clear 16 feet first attempt. And then Eric clears 15 feet, or 16 feet first attempt. I was like, oh man, so you go to 16 3 and then I miss my first with a blow through and he clears it. So I passed to 16 6, miss my first again and then he misses his first. So I'm on my third attempt now, at 16 feaks. I passed right 16, 6 and a half was the bar, and I cleared it on my third attempt and I was just like like a six inch PR and I was just so pumped for it and like that was like the most excited I've been up until that point right for a bar, and so it was super exciting. And then Eric goes and clears it on his second attempt. And so now, now, he's back in the lead.
Trevor Stephenson:And so then we go up to 16 9 and a half and I think I think I cleared it. First attempt at 16, 9 and a half, and it was either first or second, and it was a nice jump. I had a little bit of room on the top and no touches on the bar. And then he goes and misses his first at 16 9. So then we passed a 17 feet and a half inch and we both go out at that bar. Oh my gosh. So both of us had 9 inch PR.
Trevor Stephenson:She came in with 15, 9, I came in with 16 and then he ended with 16 6, I ended with 16 9 and a half. That's crazy, dude. And so then that was yeah, it was just a super fun meet, high, high intensity, and the I was lucky also because of progression again went to a nice mark where it was three quarters of an inch above the state record. Oh wow. And so I ended the meet with state title and state record and state meet record too. So that was a pretty fun day. And then also, to add on to that, my coach in college, who I hadn't really met yet a lot, but I was going to Michigan State, and so coach Creekmer, who's the jumps coach in Michigan State, and then coach Drenth, who is the old head coach, were also there at the meet and watching and they were like cheering me on and stuff, and it was just a great day that's a lot of fun.
Jake Winder:That sounds like a great day. I two questions. What is individual and team state? You don't have that in Illinois we just got state.
Trevor Stephenson:Okay, team state is it's? Like the little bit. Okay, sorry, there's a better. Okay, perfect team state is like the the state meet that nobody really cares about team state is the one that nobody cares about.
Jake Winder:Yeah, which?
Trevor Stephenson:seems a little weird, but it's because all the teams are allowed to go and so it scored the same as individual state where like 10 a, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the top 8 right points.
Jake Winder:But since all the teams can go hold on? How do they host a meet where every team?
Trevor Stephenson:I don't really know. I think I mean it's, it's just only like a hundred teams in. I don't know what like the requirements are to go, but there's a lot of teams there and right, so it's not the like the best of the best in the state that are going, because just teams can bring whoever they want wow, that's very interesting.
Jake Winder:I want to look this up later, yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:I take everything I say about that because I don't know for sure what it was but so that's team state and team state it's if you win, team state is great, if it, if you don't like, it's not that big of a deal because it's not like the real thing. We have to qualify for it and so you actually have. We have, like, our regional meet, which is like sectionals, where you have to hit a certain bar right to go to individual state right, and then individual state is the one that like counts where. When is team state? It's like a week or two weeks before individual state.
Jake Winder:So you go to team state and then you go to like a regional or a sectional and then you go yeah, I think so that's interesting. Yeah, it's a little weird, but I wonder, yeah, I wonder, what the reasoning for that is. Maybe part give people more participation, or something, yeah, so in Illinois it's just so. But then I'm just confused, because then you score individual state yeah, as a team, yeah yeah, so like I look at their own scores.
Jake Winder:So like whatever East Kent would would have 65 points, see like whenever you said it I was like all right, that kind of makes sense. Like they're gonna have one meet that is just about the team title and then they're going to have one that is just about individual titles and they're not gonna score that one as a team event, but you had. So you have team state and then you have individual state. But like, individual state is the real state. Yeah, okay, you didn't win team state, did you? I did when you did, when you're a team state and individual but I didn't get a plaque or anything for team state.
Jake Winder:I just feel like team state probably just needs to. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I just yeah. So in, I mean, every state has like an interesting thing. Actually I was curious about Michigan. So when do you guys? When does your outdoor seasons? Do you guys have a full indoor season? No, after the school you don't have any school indoor season.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, it's just through a club, so like I guess I said it like just for a second earlier, it was jumping for a Kent Wood track club right indoor season and then outdoor season is east Kent Wood high school and then when does that start?
Jake Winder:I think it like March or April. March or April, yeah, because I was curious about that, because you guys are even further, obviously further north than us. You're like three hours or so away from where we're at and it's dicey outdoors, like really dicey outdoors our first two meets.
Trevor Stephenson:Our first two meets outdoors are inside like straight up. Yeah, like we had our first one at Grand Valley State's indoor facility and the second one was at Aquinas College okay, so it's not considered like an indoor and outdoor season, it's just track season, yeah.
Jake Winder:So yeah, that makes sense. I always wondered about that with like Wisconsin and and Michigan, just because you know, for a while there the Wisconsin you know what would win Wisconsin State was like you know I'm not trying to hate on anybody or anything but it would be like third, whenever I was I was in high school, be like 13-6 would win Wisconsin State, and I would always be like man, that's crazy, like I feel like you know people could jump higher than that and win state in Wisconsin.
Jake Winder:But then I was like they aren't thought out yet, like nobody's thought out you know, until May, you know. So there's literally a bunch of frozen Wisconsiners out there that are just, you know, trying to get over something. Yeah, but yeah, it's pretty crazy. So what was? The second question was when did you start being like recruited? What was like the height that you noticed that more people were paying attention to you, more colleges, 15-3 was when I started to get.
Trevor Stephenson:Actually I didn't get it too many, I didn't get noticed too much, but so I jumped 15-3 my junior year and that like after that point was kind of when. I think the fall of my senior year was when I was like going on visits and stuff. Do you remember where?
Jake Winder:you visited.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, I just visited Michigan State and Central Michigan, okay, and yeah, there was a Central's. I was looking for a bigger school and I went to Central first.
Jake Winder:Was Bryant Wilson the coach there, yeah, yeah, he was I went to Europe with Bryant Wilson, oh nice, yeah, yeah, he went to Finland with me, yeah, anyway, yeah, he's a nice guy.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, cool dude. Yeah, I just visited Central and I visited State and I was looking for a bigger school and Central just wasn't a very big school and so going from Central to State it was just kind of like I mean this is, I mean it's a Mac and Big Ten, so it's different.
Jake Winder:Michigan State's kind of had a history in the vault too. Like they've had good pole vaulters that have come through. There Was Paul Tarrick at Michigan State.
Trevor Stephenson:He was before. Coach Kreekmer was there, I think Maybe or maybe just at the start of Coach Kreekmer's career.
Jake Winder:But then Tim Earhart, was he with the red hair.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, he was a de-athlete. Yeah, he was a heck of an athlete. He's a monster.
Jake Winder:Gosh dang. Yeah, so they've had a good history of good vaulters there and I actually looked there. I didn't go on a visit there, but I looked there whenever I was coming out of high school too. So that recruiting process, just because I find it interesting. And we were actually having this conversation the other night with a kid. He's from Indiana and he looks like he could potentially jump 16 plus, Like just from my bird's eye view, like all right, yeah, that looks like he's got the materials that he could potentially do that, but he's a senior. And so he was asking us, what should I be doing to get recruited and stuff like that? And I was like, well, set up a pole vault Instagram and take videos here and then start pushing them out. But it's just really hard if you're a senior and you don't get that big breakthrough until the state meet. But you had already committed to Michigan State.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, I committed, I think sometime during the outdoor season, I'm pretty sure. So I was still. My PR was still 15-3 when I committed to Michigan State. Ok.
Jake Winder:And then when did they start saying, OK, yes, we're going to offer you this much, or we're going to let you walk on, or whatever? Do you remember what time that was? I think. Are you a?
Trevor Stephenson:junior or senior. That was my senior year. Like the fall of my senior year, they might have offered me books, so like a 5% scholarship when my PR was 15-3. So basically just a couple hundred bucks a semester as just starting, and then I jumped 16-9. And then they offered me more because of that. So that was nice.
Jake Winder:That's awesome. Yeah, no, that's legit. So whenever you jump 16-9 and then you go into your freshman year at Michigan State, how was that transition?
Trevor Stephenson:It wasn't bad. It was definitely different. I had a pretty decent freshman year, I think that. So usually around 5 meters, 5-10-ish, it's like 16-4, 16-8, we'll place at big 10s like top 8, which is what the coaches are usually looking for for their athletes. And so I was kind of coming in with a decent floor where I was like, ok, as long as I just do what I've been doing, I'll probably be able to jump a mark that the coaches will be happy with.
Jake Winder:Yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:And I ended up jumping indoors my freshman year I think I got over 5 meters or 490 maybe once, and I jumped 499 at indoor. Big 10s placed 10th. And so I was pretty happy with it. And then outdoors I had a good meet in PR jumped 522. And so that was a 10 centimeter PR from high school Right and that's awesome.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, that was super fun meet and then placed 8th at outdoor Big 10s. But yeah, it was a pretty rocky year. It was just up and down Like I would have a good meet and a bad meet and a good meet and a bad meet, and I think that was just kind of me and Coach Kreetmer trying to figure each other out and he was trying to see how I'm going to read For my third attempts. I'm usually a little more amped up and I'll move the pole better than on my first attempt and so it was kind of making those little adjustments to just my personality when vaulting that. I think we kind of had to figure out along the way. But yeah, that was.
Jake Winder:So were there big training differences? Yeah, definitely, that was from high school to college.
Trevor Stephenson:That was one of the things I was really surprised about is that in high school we would jump every single day, just Monday to Friday we would just jump and then if it was like we just jumped in a meet yesterday, we'd go from a short today instead. But in college it was just jumping twice a week and the other days of the week we'd do short sprints Monday jump Tuesday. Relax day Wednesdays We'd do abs Thursday. Another jump day Friday was longer speed endurance, like 150s or 200s, and that was pretty much the formula for the whole year. It was adjusting, obviously based on schedule and stuff like that. But yeah, it was good.
Trevor Stephenson:I liked it a lot because at that point I'd gotten a good number of reps in to where I kind of had the fundamentals down a vault and it was just the fine tuning stuff that I needed to really hammer in and so I was really getting. I got a lot stronger and faster each year of college and that, I think, was where I got the biggest return, because my technique is better now. It looks better, but it's not completely overhauled and everything's changed. You can see that I'm the same valter. It's just like oh, that left leg is just a little bit straighter during the swing and stuff like that. Yeah, just little things. But I'm significantly stronger and significantly faster than I was my freshman year.
Jake Winder:What were the core things like if you were to put your finger on? These are the things that I believe made me stronger and faster.
Trevor Stephenson:I think lifting twice a week, two or three times a week, was a big one. We would do hang cleans a lot, we do heavy squats and I think that getting those explosive muscles going and getting stronger legs was a big part of it. I think that doing the 30s, we'd usually do an eight by 30 meter sprint and that was big too, because that was also pretty explosive, like I was just pretty much going 100% on all of those sprints every Monday for the whole year. Yeah for sure. And I would notice that I would get faster as year went on. I'd feel better running, like I just feel more in control of pushing down the runway Right, and I think that lifting hard and getting stronger and then doing those short sprints were two of the bigger parts that helped me a lot, absolutely.
Jake Winder:Did you lift or do very much like what you would consider training, training in high school?
Trevor Stephenson:No, I lifted in high school. We had a class called Advanced PE and it was weightlifting class, but it was advanced. I could hear that and that was just. It was a pretty typical way of lifting those. It was mostly geared for the football players and because there was a lot of football players in the class, so it makes sense. But we would just do a typical squat on Monday, bench on Tuesday, plows on Wednesday, incline on Thursday and then front squat on Friday or something like that, with little exercise in between. But that was pretty much what all I did in high school. I was lifting, but I wasn't pole vault lifting.
Jake Winder:Right, right, right. So what poles and stuff were you jumping on in college? Because a pole that like were you jumping on it Did you jump on in high school. Like what brand? Ucs, spirits, spirits.
Trevor Stephenson:OK.
Jake Winder:And then you jumped on spirits at Michigan State.
Trevor Stephenson:My freshman year I was going between carbons and spirits. Oh really, yeah, just because I don't know why I was doing that, but I was, and it was just the transition between the poles was different. Like a 15, 780 and a 15, 785 going from a carbon to a spirit, it was like a bigger jump than going from the same pole to the same or the same pole brand to the same pole brand, right, and so that was kind of messing with my consistency a little bit, and so then we just switched over to just jumping on spirits the whole time, and that helped a lot with my in-meet transitions between poles, because then I wouldn't blow through a pole and then go to the next bar or blow through a pole and then go to the next pole and get stood up, like that wouldn't happen. I would blow through and then it was the right pole and then, once I blew through that one, go up again and then it was the right pole again. Yeah, yeah.
Jake Winder:That's yeah. That was one thing that happened to me at Alabama was I jumped on a pacer carbons all through high school and we've still got some of them over on the rack over there, the ones that I jumped on in high school. The 15.6 series, the Carbon FX, is like they're just the best poles. They're incredible poles.
Jake Winder:And then they switched Everybody's kind of familiar with that they switched up the formula and kind of did a little bit of experimenting and then there's different ones now. But when I went down to Alabama it was like really tough because they just didn't have the ones that I was like used to jumping on, and it was really hard and I eventually just had them ship my poles down to Alabama because it was just like this is just not working out. Did you ever feel? One of the things that I sometimes go back and forth with whenever I'm talking with people about college is advising them on making the decision between Division I and Division II, division III. And people always have this idea of what Division I athletics is and sometimes I'm a little bit hesitant because I get worried about the pressure of being a Division I athlete at a big 10 school like Michigan State?
Jake Winder:Was there ever a time in your career that you felt like anxiety about, oh my gosh, like I'm not performing, like am I going to get kicked off the team, or like am I going to take my scholarship away, or anything like that? Yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:I never thought that I was going to get kicked off the team, but I definitely felt that I wasn't deserving of my scholarship and it was mostly because I always had the potential to jump well and place high at big 10s, but just for some reason, especially indoors, I just never really did. And there's like I mean there's different reasons for each of those years, like it was a different thing every year. But I, yeah, and especially with like the higher level of competition and like the big 10 pole vaults usually pretty strong, and so you got to be jumping really high to be competitive. And it was tough when I wasn't doing well because I was like, why am I even like this? Is this right for me? Like, am I supposed to be in this league?
Jake Winder:Yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:And I remember so my sophomore year, indoors I jumped 517 at big 10s and I placed fifth and I was like super pumped about it, right. And then COVID hit, so I didn't have an outdoor season and then through the summer and stuff I was like jumping a little bit. And then junior year indoors I was having like a little bit of Rocky indoor and I jumped 520. I remember at Spire and I got off the pit and like almost cried Really Because I was just like so relieved to like be over 17 again, right, because I hadn't in so long, and I was just like I felt like I was belonging again.
Jake Winder:Right, yeah, no, that, I know that is. That's the part when I went to Alabama like hey, we're just point blank, like brought me into the office and like hey, if you don't jump this high. That's all she wrote.
Trevor Stephenson:And I was just like all right.
Jake Winder:Well, you know, I was 18 year old kid at the time. It's just like man, that's crazy. Ok, you know, it was really, really. It was difficult to hear and I guess I understand you know where they're coming from.
Jake Winder:But that relief when you do well at a meet is, it's like, different when you're at a big school, like that because, there's a certain pressure that is relieved whenever you're like, ok, I got another week and I don't have to have this pressure because I did well and my coaches are happy and like everyone's happy. That's it's so. It's tough, it's really really tough and I think you have to have a certain personality to be able to deal with that and handle that pressure.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, it's definitely tough. And the coaching staff? I want to be clear. The coaching staff was never like, hey, you got to jump this bar, otherwise you suck.
Jake Winder:It's yeah, and I would not think that it's just. Everybody feels the pressure, yeah, because if you're not doing well, then guess who's got the pressure on them? The coach, yeah. And then the coach is like oh man, did we recruit the right guy? Like all these things. It's just it's kind of a vicious cycle. I talked with Brooke Razznik about a lot of this stuff on the podcast and it was pretty eye opening.
Jake Winder:It's kind of a savage environment. At times, especially at certain schools, it's just like whoa, very, very cut throat, and just well, you didn't perform, all right, well, that's it. Yeah, it's like really, really crazy. And even the coaches too. Coaches will just get the axe. All right, see you later. You're on a year to year contract or something. That's so crazy. You move your family out there, move your family out there, and you're like all right, we're going to get this thing going. You have one tough year that anybody who knows anything about pole vaulting knows it doesn't take one year. Well, it didn't work out. And then you got to go move your family somewhere else and hope that this one works out.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, it's brutal.
Jake Winder:So crazy, man. I mean, that's just. I just don't think that that's a recipe for like I don't know. I think the longevity of that is going to be not very good. I think that eventually coaches will probably just be like no, this is BS, man, you got to give me a little bit more time than this, or whatever. But those big schools, man, they're paying the bills, so it's like they can kind of do what they want to do. So you did kind of feel it. It was just kind of like an underlying pressure.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, it was just more of like, maybe on yourself that you put on yourself For sure, because I always wanted to be the best that I can be and so if I wasn't being as good as I thought I could be, then it was really tough and that kind of came in waves, like when I was doing well, it was felt great, and then when I wasn't doing well, it was like oh man, I'm not doing so hot.
Trevor Stephenson:And it seems like that happens every year, where the first couple of meets of the year just because it's kind of getting back into it and it's just what it is where you got to have a couple of rough meets to figure yourself out again and I would just get so down on myself about it and I would still be fired up to go to the next meet and I was like, all right, I got to turn it around. But each one of those tough meets just got a little bit tougher to fight through. Yeah, and I had three of them this past year indoors. I had three meets in a row where I jumped like 520.
Trevor Stephenson:I was like 520, 520, 518, or something like that Right, and those are good marks, but my PR at the time was 546. And so I wanted to be jumping much higher than that and my goal for the season was like 550. And so, jumping 520 consistently and not having a lot of height over it, I was like am I going to even be able to jump 540 this year again? Right, and then low and pull. The next meet I jumped 550.
Jake Winder:That's crazy. Why did you choose Michigan State?
Trevor Stephenson:I'm just curious, mostly because it was close enough to home and I have always been a fan of Michigan State. Both my parents went to Michigan State and I think my grandma and my grandpa on my mom's side went to Michigan State also. Oh, wow, so big Spartans.
Jake Winder:Right yeah, family history, that's crazy.
Trevor Stephenson:And I also didn't want to be super far away from home and it's about an hour away from Grand Rapids, so that was a good distance. And then I also it kind of met like checked all the boxes for me pretty much, because I really liked Coach Kreetmer. I thought he was really knowledgeable and had a lot to offer. I liked the program because it was a bigger school, there was more money in it, more that they could do for me, and then the school was pretty good. Also, I think they're ranked top in the business college, in the university or something, or in the university in the country.
Jake Winder:And your major was Marketing, marketing. Ok gotcha, and so you go through college and then you end up having a really good collegiate career, thank you, and we're almost caught up to current time. So I guess, take us through those last few months of your senior year, getting up to that Big 10 championship and all that.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, it was a fun year. Like I said, the first three meets were rough and I was really down on myself. After that third underwhelming meet and then the next meet after that I jumped 550 at Notre Dame and 555. And that was just like a huge weight off my shoulders, like I've been chasing 550 for a long time and I got that super pumped about it. And then meet after that, jumped 548 at Windy City against Luke. Yeah, he beat me. And then I think that was my last meet before Big 10s and I had the top mark in the Big 10 going into the meet and so I was like, all right, kind of the same thing as state, just go in and do what you've been doing.
Trevor Stephenson:And it'll probably go well Right, and I jumped 535 that day, placed second, which was very disappointing.
Jake Winder:But I was still happy with it because it was my first Big 10 medal and so like oh wow. Yeah, well, that's good.
Trevor Stephenson:And so I was. That felt really good just because the past couple of years I would have one of the higher marks in the Big 10. But I just wouldn't be able to put it together on the day and so even to play second, I was just super happy about it, just to have something to show that I was like good.
Jake Winder:Right, right, and you performed at that meet.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah.
Jake Winder:Because maybe that was something that was kind of haunting you for the last few years or whatever.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, yeah, and so I jumped 535 there, took attempts. I missed my first at 545 and then passed to 555, I think, and took a really good shot at 555. My last attempt got on the biggest pull I've ever been on took off just a little bit under so I hit it just a little shallow, but I was like I had some room on that bar and just brushed on the way down and so it was disappointing but it was a fun meet.
Jake Winder:Yeah, for sure.
Trevor Stephenson:And then go to indoor nationals and had day of my life at indoor nationals, yeah for sure, jumping to the University of New Mexico. Starting height was the highest I'd come in, I think it was 5. Or actually it wasn't the highest I'd come in, but it was like 530 or something. It was up there, right. And first couple bars go well, and then it gets to 556. Clear that for a 1 centimeter PR Goes to 561, which would be an indoor school record, which I was really actually sorry to go backwards.
Trevor Stephenson:But before that meet I was really hoping to get the indoor school record, which is 560. And it was very disappointing Because before the meet started I was like kind of at peace with it. I was like, ah, I won't get it, like school record's gone, like I'll just get the outdoor one, yeah. And then bar goes 561. And I clear it First attempt at 561. I was like, yeah, I was super pumped about it. And then bar goes 566. Clear that one also. And so then I ended up getting fourth at that meet and that was like this super exciting, super fun. Fourth indoor NCAAs was awesome that's incredible.
Jake Winder:Yeah, especially against the people that you were jumping against, holy cow, I mean, it's like the greatest field in history.
Trevor Stephenson:Let's Andro jump six meters. It was fun to watch that. That was the first time I'd seen a six meter clearance in person. Yeah yeah, that's insane man. And then outdoor was more consistent. It was a little up and down but I got over 550 a few times, 18 feet a few times outdoors and then at big tens.
Trevor Stephenson:That was a exciting meet because I was going well, I jumped at like 517 and then 534 or something like that, and both first attempts and then 544, the bar went to miss the first attempt and then on a blow through or no, I'm sorry, on a bail, and then second attempt was a blow through Moved up to again the biggest pull I jumped on in my life Too bigger than the one I jumped on at indoor big tens. And I was just like I remember being on the back of the runway and I was like I heard him going. I was like I was like two steps in and I was like I'm running, I'm going, all right, we're doing it. And then I hit it and like bombed the bar. It was a huge jump at 549. And that took the lead and then the guy who was jumping against, who was like me and him, would go back and forth a lot. Nathan Stone from Indiana he missed at 554 when we went to that, and so one big tens for the first time. Last chance I could do it.
Jake Winder:And it was like amazing, it was super fun. That was cool to follow along with too At that moment. At that time, you and I, I think, had we agreed that you were going to come over.
Jake Winder:I think so yeah, I think we did, because I remember, because you had reached out a few times, and then I was like yeah, you know what. You know? One thing that I will say I don't know if I've ever shared this with you. So originally you had reached out to us and reached out to me and just been like hey, I'm looking for a place to train, or whatever. It wasn't like January yeah yeah, in January or something, and I was like oh, man.
Jake Winder:I was in the process of getting this whole situation set up over at the new place and I was just like, yeah, let's see how the rest of your year goes, or whatever. And then I asked Luke. I was like, hey, did you ever talk to this guy Trevor? Like at all. Is he cool dude? Is he, you know, meet? Like I don't know? We didn't want to have somebody who's kind of like a douchebag.
Trevor Stephenson:You know what?
Jake Winder:I'm saying Like we did not want that. And he was like, yeah, he's really cool, dude. And then Luke went and jumped at the Windy City of Me I think it was that one and he was like, yeah, man, he was calling me after to tell me how he did and he had a decent day that day. And he was like, yeah, it was just so hard because literally it was me and mom and Amber, his wife, in the field.
Trevor Stephenson:The place was empty.
Jake Winder:Like literally just them. And he was like, oh, and Trevor stayed. And I was like really, he was like, yeah, the whole team, like Trevor's whole team, had like left and like Trevor stuck around and like just kind of cheered me on like through the end of the competition. And that was the moment where I was like all right, that's pretty cool. And that was like, and you didn't even try to do that like to you know, to do anything.
Jake Winder:I think it's just kind of who you are and I just remember thinking about that, I reflect on that all the time, and I remember being here and you like reach out again and saying like, yeah, you know what, let's just do it. Like let's just go, you know and see how and see you know what's going on. And then, whenever you started jumping at Big 10s and you won that like, I just remember being like more invested in following you and following what you were doing and just being more excited and and yeah, it was a really, really kind of a cool few months there following along with you and seeing how you were doing.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, thank you.
Jake Winder:Yeah, it was, it was fun, so you, so you did that. And then this is when things kind of got pretty exciting, though, cause like that was not the the end of your season.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, usually it's pretty close to the end Went and qualified for NCAAs outdoors at Texas with a third. I had a scary jump at 520 at regionals. Third attempt yeah, third attempt. And the video of me. I like land on the pit and I like cover my eyes. I'm like, oh my gosh, but I made it through, jumped it, then jumped at NCA's and didn't jump super well I think I really think what it was is. I was just so like the biggest thing that I wanted to do in my college career was win Big 10s and so after I did that, it was kind of like it's not the Olympics, but it was like the Olympic hangover that people talk about when, after you do that, you're like, well, what now?
Trevor Stephenson:And so I wanted to do well at NCA's, but I didn't do super well. I jumped 530, placed like 15th I think. So it was underwhelming, but it was what it was. And then I was really close to making it to outdoor USA's the USATF Nationals and I think I was like one or two spots out of qualifying for it and so I stuck around Michigan State for the next month or two, kept training, jumped at two more meets. The first one was a small meet at Jerry Sessions vault bar in Land and Athletics and it was just like a Star Wars themed vault day and so it wasn't really like the what I was looking for, but it worked and I didn't jump super well there. I jumped 530 again, but it was one of those things where I was.
Trevor Stephenson:I learned a lot from that meet, cause that was the first time that I jumped without Coach Kriegmer, like at all. I jumped with him without him at a meet before, but he was like on the phone, like helping me out still, but that was the first time that I was excuse me completely on my own and I learned a lot about myself that day and then wanted to take all of that into the next meet, which I did. I just jumped at my old high school, east Countwood, and it was at the state games in Michigan, and Coach Emiott told me like the Tuesday before the meet. He was like yeah, I can get this USATF certified for you If you want to like, jump at this meet and try to get one more shot at qualifying for USA. So I was like, oh, all right, we'll do it.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, and so I show up there and I just pretty much want to just change what I did wrong from the last meet. I was like, if I could do the right things that I did wrong, do you remember what they were? Yeah, I didn't. I was pushing polls too soon and that was something that we were doing during the college season. That was working well, because I was like I'll juiced up on adrenaline, especially a big 10s where we were just trying to get ahead of the blow through to get some first attempt makes. Yeah, and so try to do that at Jerry's, which was the Star Wars vault. I wasn't really amped up for it.
Jake Winder:Did you dress up like Luke Skywalker? No, I should have. Come on, man, yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:And so I was Hold on time out.
Jake Winder:Were people dressed up like Star Wars people? I don't think so.
Trevor Stephenson:I don't think there were any capes or anything. So what was the Well? There was, like Jerry decorated the whole facility for it. He had like lighting, like dark lighting, and like I got to see the pictures of this. It was pretty sweet, it was fun meet, but I didn't jump well, and it was because I was pushing polls too big or too soon and so I was trying to get on like the poll that I jumped.
Jake Winder:Hold on. You were pushing polls too early in the competition.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, so I was just trying to get on a bigger poll than I should have been on.
Jake Winder:So I'm assuming that at the Jerry set at the Star Wars meet you went, probably just like came down on the bar a bunch yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:Which I like rarely ever do. Okay, and so I was. I hit it on the way down a bunch and took shots of 530, was on too big a poll and it was hard for me to trust it, because I it'll happen a lot where I'll take a little bit off of a jump on a smaller poll to make it work and then the next jump since I move up a poll, I'm like all right, this one's. I got to go for this one and then blow through it, right, and so it was hard for me to trust that. But then when I jumped at East Kentwood, I like really wanted to move up a poll Cause I was like I'm gonna blow through this. I know I'm gonna blow through it. I was like let's just bury the standards and just hit it hard and try to just make it work.
Jake Winder:Yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:And so I did. I started on one of my smaller polls and just opened at 520. Clear to first attempt on a blow through make. And I was like, okay, good, now we can move up a poll, bring the standards in just a little bit and then just roll from there. And so I jumped at 535 on one poll up. It was a five meter 14, oh is what I was on at 535. And then I didn't really blow through it but I was like again. I was like I want to go poll for 550, cause I know I'm gonna need more for it, right. And I was like no, just trust it. We gotta try to fix the mistakes. I did the wrong last week or two weeks ago and so I stayed on the 14.0 at 550 and cleared it and it was a little bit of a blow through, which is pretty sweet to have blow through make 550.
Jake Winder:Yeah, for sure.
Trevor Stephenson:So I made it and I was like, all right, sweet. So now I can move up, because it was a little blow through and I didn't get a lot of height. Now I move up, put the bar at 572, which was what I was hoping for to qualify me for USA's Right, and I was like, man, it'd be sweet. At that point I had already fixed everything that I wanted to fix and I cleared 550. So I was like I'm pretty happy with the day, like if I get over this, it's awesome, right. And so I move up a pole and then come down the runway and hit it well and clear at first attempt. What?
Jake Winder:572. That's crazy.
Trevor Stephenson:And then I was like super pumped about it, jumped off the pit and was like yelling and stuff. Well, I mean that's.
Jake Winder:The thing, though, is like it's what we were talking about earlier is you were willing to forego the outcome to focus on the process. That day, you made the choice like I'm going to just solely focus on the process, I'm going to surrender to it, and I'm going to surrender to the outcome and I'm going to just be willing. This sounds crazy, but I like, I'm willing to fail, just to work on this. Like I'm willing, I'm going to be okay, I'm willing to release that outcome of a good meet or making this bar or making that bar, just to focus on the process. And then you focused on the process and you were able to push away those pressures of like, oh man, I want to go up to the pole, but I know that this is what I did last week and I'm trying to work on that, you know. And that pressure was like I really want to, I really want to. No, I'm not doing it this week.
Trevor Stephenson:It's hard, it's hard.
Jake Winder:And then in being completely consumed by the process, the outcome happened.
Jake Winder:You know it's so crazy how that works and everybody, a majority of everyone, has it backwards. They're like, okay, outcome focused first, and then if the process happens, it happens. But that's where mature athletes come from. Really, really mature and, more importantly, young athletes are able to make that connection with the process where they're okay with foregoing a good result and I tell Luke this all the time whenever I work with him, and I'll probably end up, especially after hearing this story, I'll probably end up telling you this all the time too is commit to the miss.
Trevor Stephenson:Okay, yeah.
Jake Winder:If we got to miss the bar, then miss the bar. But you better not get off that pit and tell me that you didn't do what we were trying to do. If you make it and you come over to me and I know that you didn't do what we were trying to do, I will not be happy with the make. I would rather see the miss, and there are times in championship meets that that becomes really hard to do, and especially as a coach in a championship meet at a NCAAs or at a state championship or at the US championships, it's like okay, today's the day where we're not willing to commit to the miss.
Jake Winder:Get over the fricking bar.
Trevor Stephenson:Don't touch the bar.
Jake Winder:But on those other, however many competitions you have throughout the year, the more that you can commit to the miss and commit to the process more, the better off you're going to get. And sometimes there's been times with Luke's vaulting where this may sound crazy but where I've said, you have to commit to this and if we have to know height, we have to know height.
Trevor Stephenson:Dang.
Jake Winder:And it's like athlete doesn't want to hear that. They'd not want to hear that at all. But are you really committed to it? Because if you're really committed to it, you're willing to do that. You know what I'm saying.
Trevor Stephenson:It's really tough to do that without the guarantee of success on the end.
Jake Winder:Exactly, but that is where it's found at. That's where that ability is found at is you can't gain all the advantages of being immersed in the process unless you fully surrender and let go of the outcome, and that's what's really really hard to do that's really hard to do and, as a coach, it's hard for me to do.
Jake Winder:It's hard for me to know that there might be a chance that what we're working on in this meet today could result in a no height. It's really hard for me to do that Because there's pride and there's ego in coaching too. All athletes, they struggle with their pride and their ego. Like I don't want to know height, well, why do you not want to know height? If you know that you're working on the right things and you know you executed all the things you wanted to do, then what's wrong with the no height?
Trevor Stephenson:It all boils down to well. I don't want to look like an idiot.
Jake Winder:That's why that's you know, and it's pride and ego. And there's also that same thing with coaching too, where, in coaching, it's like you know your athlete, you know no heights, and it's like you know. You're just kind of sitting around there thinking to yourself like these people think I suck as a coach, but you have to. The only way to get to that spot where you truly make real lasting change is if you're willing to sacrifice all of it, and in sacrificing all of it, you gain all of it, which is really crazy. It's really crazy to think about, but that's what it is. That goes, that's everything in life, though. That's, you know, it's similar to like.
Jake Winder:The risk to open up rise is I was halfway in. I was halfway in whenever I was operating at, out of the high school, a playing field, south high school. You know, I was halfway in and it could have been really good. It could have been really good, you know, we could have had some really good vaulters, could have kept our costs really low. We could have had a really big impact, you know.
Jake Winder:But we would not be able to have the full impact unless I was willing to take it that step further and risk it all risk my family savings, risk all of those things, but in risking it and in surrendering to it and just being like I'm going to do it, you gain it. You know you gain what we have now and who knows where this is all going to go in the end. So Jerry's still out, knock on wood, but it's. You can take that lesson that I'm telling you about with pole vaulting and you can apply that to any area of your life. You can apply it to anything and it's super, super important for people to understand that. So you jumped 72, which was really crazy because, like, whenever we had talked, you know you had jumped 65 and I was like man, 65 is a hell of a bar in college.
Jake Winder:Like you know, usually for rise we do have people reach out every once in a while. This is actually probably beneficial to people who are listening to. This is if you're getting out of college and you want to continue to pursue like a post-collegiate career, like Trevor's pursuing right now. You know and you go and you approach. I'm going to say some, let's just say rise or like, or like a club or something, and you want to be able to train there or like I don't know, mac vault or Texas Express or something, azpva yeah, that's a great example. So you go there and you're like, hey, I want to continue to pursue this, like there's. There just is like a certain level that you kind of you have to set standards, you know we can't, we can't have everybody come in here and train, and usually those standards have been.
Jake Winder:You know you should be able to kind of qualify for the US championships and that usually is around like 560. But in the era that you're growing up in it's freaking crazy dude, dude.
Jake Winder:I remember I got into indoor USA's with a 540 one time, dang yeah, that's crazy, I mean it's gotten so much better, yeah. But and I remember just being like, okay, well, he's, he's through that threshold and like I really I really like him as a person. I think it's going to be a good fit. And then you just popped that 572 and I was like holy cow, that's crazy. And then you went to USA's and tell us about that.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, usa's was a lot of fun, probably the most fun meet I've ever jumped in. It was just just because, honestly, I could have no height and I still would have had a great time, just because it was probably the biggest meet that I jumped in at that point, right, I guess my whole life, so I haven't jumped since then.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, but um, biggest meet I've jumped in and I'm jumping with all these guys that I've been watching pole vault since I started um, like Sam Kendricks, chris Nielsen were there, um, and it was just so fun to like talk to them and like be a part of that group that it just was a great time. And starting height was 551, which is just highest of by far the highest I've ever come in.
Jake Winder:You were wanting to just cleared 50 and no meets like earlier in the year, and so then, to start there was just insane.
Trevor Stephenson:I ended up clearing it on a third attempt, which was super fun. I was really happy to get over that and that's all I wanted from the day. I was like absolutely perfect day would be jumping 551. Just getting numbers on the scorecard and set of letters, that's what I wanted.
Jake Winder:I liked that.
Trevor Stephenson:And so, um, I jumped 551 third attempt, and then got a 61 on a first attempt too, which is pretty sweet, and I think I got eight at the at the meet, which was also pretty sweet. I was really happy about that.
Jake Winder:Yeah, that's insane man. I mean, what do you think about Eugene and the setup and all?
Trevor Stephenson:that it's awesome. It's always awesome. It was a little different because I'd only been there for NCAA championships and so like there wasn't like the team 10 area and stuff for USA's. Where is that? Usually it's. Uh, where is it West, like down, where, like the student athlete, not student athlete, the athlete, hospitality and stuff, oh yeah, yeah, like on the fields.
Jake Winder:Yeah, down there Okay.
Trevor Stephenson:And so it was a little bit more open than it had been, with, uh, ncaa championships, which was kind of cool. But I mean, it's an amazing place to jump and I was a little disappointed to not be able to jump there because NCAAs were at Texas this past year, right and so to make it to the USA's and be able to jump at Hayward again was pretty sweet.
Jake Winder:Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's a really really cool venue, and now you brought us all the way back, basically to here, man. So, what are your biggest fears Jumping post collegiate? I wasn't ready for that one.
Trevor Stephenson:It's a hard one, I think. I think having a bad year is probably pretty scary. Multiple no heights is scary. I want to jump at the caliber where I feel like I belong and where I feel like I should be jumping and I don't know what that is, what mark or whatever that would be. But that is probably the scariest part is going to this next level where what I'm currently jumping is fine, but I want to be in that top tier and so not being in that is going to be tough. Yeah, I feel like every year or every time, like from high school to college, it was fought my way to the top of high school rankings and so now I'm like, oh, I'm number one my senior year, let's go to college. Shot back down to the bottom, they're not the bottom but not the top.
Trevor Stephenson:And so, and then in college, trying to fight my way back up and feel like I'm in the group of the good guys, the best guys in the country, and eventually, like this past year, I kind of feel like I got there where I'm jumping well enough to kind of be in that group, and now I'm out of college and it's shot right back down to the bottom.
Jake Winder:Yeah, it's just fighting my way. Well, you're not the bottom there, though I mean 72 is it's not the bottom. You're at a really. I think, personally, you're at a very good spot coming out of college.
Jake Winder:Not that many people Like it's not, like there's 50 people coming out of college jumping 570. That's true, you know. Like there's not a ton of people. I mean the era that you guys that you're growing up in right now, though, is it is very difficult Like there are. You have to jump so high you know to be, I guess, a part of that group.
Jake Winder:See my problem is is like that's how I was too, like I just wanted to just be accepted, like accepted by that group. This is the problem with that, is your? The hard part about jumping after college is that I don't know if you're ever like really accepted, like you're only the way. That I felt is I was only as good as my last meet, cause it's like oh yeah, I jumped, I jumped. You know this high Say, I jumped, you know 580. I jumped 580. I made it, didn't make it.
Trevor Stephenson:You know, like you gotta keep doing it.
Jake Winder:Yeah, because then the next week if you jump a 560, which is still a pretty good bar you don't feel like you're in the club. Then the next week you do all right, I'm back in the club. I'm back in the club next week. So what? One of the things that I've been trying to work with Luke on and that we'll, you know, work together on, is like just focusing on what you can control. Like you can't control the acceptance of other people. You know what I'm saying Can't control. If it's like I want these people to like, like me, and for me to be like I want to be a part of, of, of the group, you know, and things like that, you have to just focus on that process, you know, and you have to focus on like what is it that I have to do? And it can't be and I'm not saying I'm not trying to like bag on your, your, your fear your fear, you know like.
Jake Winder:I'm not trying to like put you down or anything, but what I'm trying to say is that you, you have to focus on, you know, more like process oriented stuff. You know like and that's what's really really difficult is I've been working with Luke on letting go of that like letting go of like the you're going to have. You'll have agents and meet directors and all kinds of people tell you all kinds of different things every step of the way. You know, and there will be times where they will say no and they'll be like no, you can't get into this meat or you can't do this, you can't do that, and your ability to have that not affect you is what is going to be tied to your ability to succeed. Okay, you know, because, like every time that you come in, that that you get, you know, you know an unaccepted phone call, you know, okay, you know you're you're.
Jake Winder:That initial reaction is like what we talked about earlier that initial reaction when you feel that headwind, that's your initial reaction. You know being able to change that around to oh okay, I didn't get accepted. Onto the next, and how long are you, how long is that going to linger around in you? You know that feeling, because one of my favorite quotes of all time is champions are not the people who never fail, but they're the ones who get buck on track the quickest. You know you're, and that's that's going to be really, really important. I think over the next few years is just just to be like tunnel vision on. I'm Trevor Stevenson, this is what I do, this is my lane and I'm going to do whatever I got to do to get you know to where I want to get to. And there's just like I feel like when you jump after college. There's like kind of like traps that can like trap you. You know, like there's a social media trap that can grab you. Like social media trap can grab you.
Trevor Stephenson:You mean like seeing everybody jump really high, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jake Winder:That can grab you, you know, and then you can start to, you know, be like all right. Well, I, you know, need to jump in Europe. I need to, I have to jump in Europe. If I don't jump in Europe, then I'm not a part of the club. What the heck man I want to be a part of the club.
Jake Winder:It's like no, you can, you can do things. You can do things different. You really can. You can do things different and you can be successful doing things different. And we were talking about it the other day about how, you know, people just jump their brains out sometimes and I've talked with Brad Walker about this over the phone and text messages and things like that about how if you continue to just push, push, push, push, push this meat, that meat, this meat, that meat, this meat, that meat and you don't remember what got you to that successful spot in the first place, which is your training, then you can just veer off, you know.
Jake Winder:And the another trap is the opportunity trap.
Jake Winder:You know, well, I got this opportunity, and then you're at a fork in the road where it's like, okay, well, if I take this opportunity, it's going to maybe be a little detrimental to my training, and people get sucked into the opportunity trap.
Jake Winder:Well, I got a chance to jump here, and then they grab that opportunity and they push the training off a little bit. And then they get to the next opportunity and it's like I'm going to grab that one too. Then they push their training off a little bit more. And then if you keep going down that road, then you end up like, oh dude, I'm slow, I'm weak and I haven't had a consistent amount of training in six months, you know. And so that's another one of those traps that I think it's important to you know not fall into. But I'm not saying that I know everything about this because I'm still very young as a coach and I, you know, but I just I have the ability to reflect on kind of the traps that sucked me in too, and that was that is what I hope that I can help you and Luke navigate through.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, it's definitely a big advantage having your knowledge and Luke's knowledge coming in here, because if I was just training at like, if I was living at home and training at home, I would have. I wouldn't know anything right now.
Jake Winder:Right.
Trevor Stephenson:Like just being here for two months and talking to you guys for just like intermittently, I like already know so much more than I would have been, like I would have been pushing to get to Europe and jumping as much as I can and doing all this stuff that I probably shouldn't be doing, and it probably would have taken me it probably would have taken me like five years of mistakes to like finally figure out what I actually need to be doing.
Jake Winder:Right, and and I'm not saying that, going to Europe and jumping in Europe and and you know the end, I think probably every pole vaulters end goal is to be like the Chris, nilsons and Casey. Has it been like that the last couple of few years, sam, you know like where it's like? Oh man, they get to go and they get invited to all the best meets every every year and that's kind of like those three are at like the pinnacle of what it's like to pull vaul in the United States. And then you know you, obviously you know Katie and Sandy and and they're you know that's kind of where everybody's scratching in client to get to you know, but you have to have a clearly defined goal.
Jake Winder:And one thing that's really helped me a lot with talking to Brad is that he he prioritizes Katie's training. Like he's like you know, I'll talk to him and he'll he'll say, you know, like ah, she's, you know, going through kind of a rough time, like nobody knows about it. Everyone just thinks Katie's just like riding the waves just all the way to the top every single time. But you get into the back end and you you have her and Brad like coming up constructing these well orchestrated plans with well orchestrated goals and it's like okay, here's my goal. If my goal is to win a world title, we're going to look at these opportunities a lot differently than if my goal is just kind of whimsical. Like my goal like like we're coming back to is to be a part of the club.
Jake Winder:You could make a lot different decisions trying to be a part of the club than you would if it's like my goal is to make a world team or to make an Olympic team.
Jake Winder:You know you structure the way that you jump and your season and your training a lot differently around a specific goal like that than a really random goal like being a part of the club. Cause if you're just wanting to be like a part of the club, then that's fine, like if that's what you want to pursue, then that's good. But you would do it a lot differently. You'd be on the phone with a lot more meat directors. You'd really want to get in contact with an agent, like really quickly, because they're going to be able to, you know, help you, facilitate getting into those meats, so then you can be a part of that. But if you're really dialed into your goal of making a world team, you're going to maybe prioritize your training more. You're going to prioritize, you know, things like that. So I don't know if I'm explaining it correctly, like if it's coming out, but it makes sense in my head.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, I know you mean it. Yeah, and another goal or another, I guess fear that I have that kind of is at odds with that. One is money and, like the lack of money that I'm going to be making, doing this is going to be tough because that like, if you want to make more money vaulting, you have to jump high at a lot of meats, and so, like, if my goal is to make the world team at the end of the year or the like the Olympics or guess this year, then I probably wouldn't be making a lot of money this year. I'd be going to high quality meats and jumping the best I can a few times, whereas if I want to try to make some money, I'll be jumping at as many meats as possible that have the best prize money, even if they're in terrible weather, in a terrible place with awful competition.
Jake Winder:That's a really, really good point.
Jake Winder:And so that was like whenever I first started Rise, like that was one of my big things that I wanted to check off is I had to work full time job.
Jake Winder:I was a teacher, and it was a miserable experience trying to vault and pursue my pole vaulting dreams as an athlete. Because I had to work. You know, I had to wake up and train at five in the morning, go to work all day teaching PE and then get in my car and drive to do the rest of my workout after school and then come home and hang out with my wife for like two minutes and then go to bed. And so what I really wanted to do was I wanted to structure the way that we did Rise where it was like okay. So what we're going to do is we're going to take these people who are good people, not douchebags that want to be a part of what we're doing, and we could fund them and give them a salary so that that could take care of some of the living expenses, because and then we're still working on the other part, which is how does he, how do we get Trevor to meet?
Trevor Stephenson:you know, so, hopefully.
Jake Winder:So like now, you have like a platform where it's like okay, well, I can buy food, you know, I can help with my part of the rent. I can, you know, put gas in my car. I can do those things. Like those basic necessities have to be taken care of in a post collegiate and Valtor's career.
Trevor Stephenson:And you've given me that security blanket with have like hired me on here and I can't thank you enough for that. Like it's given me the ability to focus on pole vaulting outside of money, where I can just do what I like try to make a world team or jump the highest I can and not have to go to all those smaller meets just to make some money.
Jake Winder:Yeah, well, I appreciate that, and we. It's a mutually beneficial package too, and that's why it works out well, because it's a big win for rise, it's a big win for you. But could you imagine, you know. So then we're trying to work on okay, so you have your basic necessities and now how are we going to get you to the meets? Okay, like, the salary will take care of the, like the majority of the basic necessities, right, and you're not going to be driving a Lamborghini, but, like, you'll be able to get to him from your workout and you'll be able to focus on your workout. Because of the lax schedule, work schedule and things like that, you'll be able to work out at a proper time during the day, like all of those things.
Jake Winder:But then there's the part of the financial piece where, okay, we got that taken care of, but how are we going to get Trevor to meets? Like, how are we going to get him to be able to go and vault in good weather? Like, how are we going to get him to USA's? Like the thing is like you got to pay your own way to USA's, which I think is insane. But how do we cross that bridge? Because could you imagine if you. Not only would you be worried about that, but then it's like, okay, well, how am I going to make ends meet just in my personal life? And then that's when you could get sucked into the trap that you were talking about earlier and I don't think it's a trap, because some people just enjoy doing this but where it's like, okay, what I wanted to do was, I wanted to make it to where you had a choice, where you had a choice in the matter. I want to go to Europe and jump. Not, I have to go to Europe and jump.
Trevor Stephenson:You know what?
Jake Winder:I'm saying Because some people are just kicking and scratching, trying to make ends meet.
Jake Winder:It's like I have to go to Europe and jump because I have to make enough money to be able to pay for my personal life and then I also have to make enough money to, like, get to the different meets that I want to do to pursue my goal. So there still is some definite work that we have to do in the United States to be able to get the funding to get the athletes to the meets. But I wanted there to be a choice in the matter where, if you want to go to Europe and you want to jump and it makes sense in your training and we collaborate on it and think like, okay, yeah, your training will be able to be held together and you can go on this really cool, fun trip to Europe and make a little bit of money, then that's great. But I want it to not have to happen yeah, you know what I'm saying, cause that's whenever it gets real, real dicey, where it's like man, I don't really have a choice in the matter, like I need to pay rent this weekend.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, I feel like that's when you start cutting corners and like taking it away from your training, where you're going to work around making it to Europe instead of like, and that'll be probably the less ideal route, like, for example, if we go to Europe, it's going to be the less ideal route because of all the travel and like how much time I'm going to be there for and how I'm not going to have the same training facilities that I'll have if I just stay here and go to a meet somewhere in the United States.
Jake Winder:Right, right, and I think we ran into Luke and I ran into that issue. We ran into that issue for the last couple of years where I don't know I think every elite athlete just goes through a decision where it's like am I going here because it's going to help push me to accomplish my goal or am I going here for the life experience? And that's where the decision is difficult because me personally, like thinking about you as a human, I would be like you should go and experience that man Like and personally like for you. You might be like, yeah, like I want to go and experience this meet, but it's hard because it's like, all right, well, we have this goal here that we're working towards. So you're going to probably take a little bit of energy away from that goal in order to do this life experience.
Jake Winder:And I think the the Vaulters in my generation that I grew up vaulting with I'm not saying everybody, but there were a lot of pole vaulters in my generation that just were going to these meets because they wanted the experience of traveling around the world and you know, going, jumping in meets and partying afterwards and doing all that. And I remember I think it was it might have been Jeff Hartwig that told me I was talking with him one night and he was like, I think, a lot of the people right now. The reason we're in the hole that we're in is because people are after the party. They're not after jumping better Like they don't have clearly defined. I'm here solely because I have a goal that I want to accomplish. A lot of the people were there solely because they wanted the life experience and they wanted the party afterwards. You know.
Trevor Stephenson:So that was blows my mind. When I hear about stuff like that, yeah, cause I always thought that. I thought that coming into college and then coming out of college, now I thought the same thing where I like get to the next level, and it's like, oh, everybody's going to be serious now, like everybody's going to be focused, trying to get like wherever they need to go and getting better is like the main, like the priority, and I thought that coming into college and it's like that's not how college is.
Jake Winder:Almost nobody cares about college Right.
Trevor Stephenson:And then coming out of it. I'm sure that I haven't experienced it yet, but I'm sure that there's a lot less of that, but there's. I was surprised to even know that that's even still a thing now.
Jake Winder:Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's still a thing, I mean, and that was what was really eye opening to me too. That same thing was whenever I, you know, got to go to that meet, like that big meet like you just experienced this last summer. The USA is where you got to be around the people that you grew up watching and you feel like you kind of made it. It's like, oh my gosh, I'm one of those guys right now. I'm on the field with them and I'm pole vaulting and competing with them, and then the meets over and you're like sitting, I'm not, you know, calling anybody out, but like this is years 10, some years ago.
Jake Winder:But I remember being like with another person who had just no-hited and they're like, hey, let's get it going, baby, we're going out tonight, like what, okay, like it was just very eye opening, like you just no-hited and I mean I just no-hited too. But I was like, and what I did was I was like all right, let's go. You know we're no, we both no-hited, let's go celebrate that. And I think it's. I don't know, there's nothing wrong with the party, nothing wrong with the party, because you have to let go and you have to enjoy yourself and live your life, but I think that your motivation needs to be you know, your goals.
Jake Winder:What are your goals and what are the decisions you're making? How are those pushing you towards that goal? You know Well, we've been going for like two hours. I do have a couple or one last hard question what are your biggest weaknesses right now in the vault, Just in my like In the vault? Mentally, physically, just whatever. Okay, Just two of them.
Trevor Stephenson:I think that with technique my biggest weakness is probably my plant. I think I'm taking off too far inside and I'm not comfortable with taking off out, and that's something that I really wanna fix because in it doesn't. I actually don't take off very far out in meets or I don't have like an out step usually in meets which would be an on step for anybody else. Out is on.
Jake Winder:Yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:But I think that that would help me with my consistency a lot and it'd probably help me, like, move my grip up and we've talked about that's one of the things we wanna work on. But I think that that's been my problem for a long time and it slowly, slowly, slowly, it reached out to where, like I, was taken off, I jumped when I jumped 533. I jumped a PR at 533, like my junior year I think I took off on a 16 football, took off at 11,. No, took off at 10-6.
Jake Winder:Goodness gracious, lucky, you still have your arms.
Trevor Stephenson:I was gripping like 15-10 on a 16 football. Oh my gosh. It was real bad. Like the pole hit the box way before my left foot touched the ground to take off and it was. It was a nice jump, though. I lined it up really well.
Jake Winder:You made that jump.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, I peered on that jump.
Jake Winder:Holy cow, kids don't listen to that. Don't try to do that so that was real bad, wow.
Trevor Stephenson:And it's come out to 12 now. So I'm usually taking off around 12, but yeah, so that's my. I think one of my technical weaknesses is that Mental weakness. I think that's tougher because it's not as concrete. I think that I probably take my losses harder than I should Because I've worked a lot on like my mentality over the years.
Trevor Stephenson:Like in high school my mom gave me a mind gym to book to read and I like it's like my Bible.
Trevor Stephenson:I keep it with me, Like I bring it to a lot of the meets I go to and read a couple of chapters before I jump and stuff. So I'm making sure that I'm mentally there. But I think that being as in to pole vault as I am, it makes it tougher to deal with bad meets and so, like I said, when I jumped, just like I had a little bit of a rough start to indoor season this past year, I was like really down on myself about it and it's tough for me to not do that because then I feel like I don't care as much about pole vault. Like if I have a bad meet and I'm like if I just shrug it off, then it feels like I should be upset about it, because I want to be good and I think finding working on finding some middle ground there where I am upset about it and I learned from it but I don't let it weigh me down, is where I need to try to end up.
Jake Winder:Ironically, I don't think that you're ever going to run into the problem where you don't care enough. Okay, that's good to know. There's two types of people in this world really people who are very driven and who are just. They pursue goals relentlessly, and those people will have the opposite problem, as the other group, which are lazy. People who are driven, need to learn how to not care. Yeah, they need to learn how to not work out so hard. They need to learn how to not think about pole vaulting, and if they learn how to do that, they enable themselves, they like take the governor off their progress because and then they can be successful.
Jake Winder:But the problem is, is that what you're doing whenever you do that is, you're essentially doubling your workload, maybe more, maybe three X in your workload, because you just went through a bad meet? Right, you just went through a bad meet, you had a bad day and you felt it, and you felt that bad day, and then, after that meet, you have the choice of not caring. Or when I say not caring, you'll always care, but you don't have to try to not care. Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying. Like now, you just took that bad meet and you woke up with it the next day. And now you went through another day of that bad meet and then you woke up the next day with that bad meet and you went through that bad meet again.
Jake Winder:You know what I'm saying? And so then you mentally become extremely exhausted. You just it gets so exhausting because you're constantly reliving it in your head. And I don't think that you're going to ever run into the problem of under training. I don't think you're ever going to run into the problem of not caring. So that means that you don't have to worry about that. You're always gonna care. It's just your default state.
Jake Winder:Your default state is caring. You know what I'm saying. You care about it, you wanna work hard, you're driven, so you can let go of that and just be like and I tell Luke this this is like kind of some of the same psychology that I use with Luke you need to learn how to not care. You gotta learn how to not care, because if you care as much as you do and you carry that with you for the rest of your career, you're gonna fizzle out. You're just gonna fizzle out and you're gonna quit. And that is something that we definitely are gonna work on and that I've worked on with Luke. A lot is just you have to learn how to not care as much and then, just like we talked about earlier, as soon as you relinquish that, then that's your road to getting better.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, I'm gonna give another answer to that because I think that my answer was fine, but I think it was a little bit of a cop out, Because it's like a job interview, like what are your weaknesses? Oh well, I work too hard and I care.
Jake Winder:I care too much. Those are my weaknesses. That's hilarious.
Trevor Stephenson:I think one of my actual like I think I need to get better jumping into a headwind, and that's something that I've been working on, cause I can deal with a lot of like weird things happening and curve balls and stuff, but a headwind, for some reason, just always gives me anxiety when I think about it, and so that's one thing that for sure I wanna get like more practice with and like try to get mentally better at is jumping into a headwind. But yeah, that's it.
Jake Winder:Yeah, I think that that's a very yeah, that's a specific thing and that's really that's not an easy thing to overcome and it's that initial reaction and having a coach and that understands the proper adjustments to make and not like wrapping your head around like I have to grip this high to jump this high, I have to be on this pole to jump this high.
Jake Winder:If you let go of that and you just jump the way that you're jumping on whatever pole the weather gives you allows you to get to, then you kind of you don't have that barrier of like, well, I'm on this pole so I'm not gonna be able to PR today.
Trevor Stephenson:You know what I'm saying.
Jake Winder:And being able to let go of that's really, really important as well.
Trevor Stephenson:Yeah, that was one thing that I was working on this year also was trying to jump higher on smaller poles, because the biggest pole that I jumped on, the one of Big 10s that I jumped 549 on, was a five meter 13, oh yeah, five meter 13,. Oh. And then over the summer I jumped at the Grand Haven Beach Fault and I jumped 550, so one centimeter higher on a five meter 14, four.
Jake Winder:Oh, my God.
Trevor Stephenson:I jumped at 1.4 flex softer and I jumped a centimeter higher on it. Yeah see, and so it's just trusting it and like really trying to line up the invert and just like learning that you don't need to be on your biggest pole to jump your highest.
Jake Winder:Yeah, it's just get to the pole that that facility and that weather and that day is going to give you, and then just competing your heart out on that one. I'm believing in it. You gotta really believe in it, and if you have any doubt in it, that's whenever things can start to go sideways. Last question is what do you think your biggest strength is? I'm a savage, that's it.
Trevor Stephenson:Biggest strength. I'm gonna do the same thing. I'm gonna do a technical. I think my biggest strength in my vault is my I don't know my invert. Maybe, I don't know, my invert is not that great. I wanna say my run, cause I feel like I'm a good runner, but my run's not that great either. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna. Final answer I think that my invert, not my turn, like my feet split a little bit when I invert and so I think timing up the pole, that's what I'm trying to say, that's what.
Jake Winder:I've told you that before too. Yeah, yeah, and I thought about it and I was like yeah, that's right.
Trevor Stephenson:Like I feel, like I kind of always get that, like I invert at the right time where I get a good pop off the pole. I think that's probably my strong, the strongest part of my vault.
Jake Winder:That's really good thing to have, because that's really hard to teach. That's like a superpower, like people who can just time poles up, just figure out a way to time it up.
Trevor Stephenson:That's really really a good skill to have. That's really good to hear, cause I don't know if it was on your podcast or like from an older episode or something, but I heard somewhere that like there's like, you see, like all the best pole walleters and they just kind of have like a like they just get the pole vault, like if they all everything they do in the vault it works where they time it up right and they can get the most out of the top of the pole. And I was thinking I was like shoot it.
Jake Winder:Can I do that? And they all get to different, get there in different ways. All of them just get to that different spot and catch that pole different, and some, you know, double leg swing. Some talk up and shoot you know, some stays nice and long, you know, but they all have figured out a way to time up that pole. You know that's the biggest thing.
Trevor Stephenson:And I think a mental strength would be. I maybe like I just I feel like I'm like pretty determined, like I just kind of I'm good at staying focused and like having the goal that I'm working towards and just work towards it every day. Yeah, and that was one quick thing I wanted to say earlier was when I had that string of bad meets indoors, it was easy after that first bad meet to get back to practice on Monday and be like fired up and ready to go and like have a little bit more adrenaline, like all right, I'm going hard today, like I got to get better, and then have bad meet week the week after that and it was still not hard to get fired up for that Monday practice, but it was harder than the week before, right Cause I was like all right, I'm fired up, I'm ready to go, I'm going to get better but I'm not getting better yet, yeah.
Trevor Stephenson:And then I had another bad meet and it was like, okay, I still got to work hard. I got to push myself today, but I don't know if what I'm doing is working.
Jake Winder:You're like everything's fine Trevor.
Trevor Stephenson:Everything's okay, you're doing great yeah. And so being able to push through those times, I feel like, is where I think I am a little bit stronger, yeah. That's probably one of my strengths.
Jake Winder:For sure, man, All right dude. Two hours over two hours, that's a long time Nice yeah, one quick. Yeah Well, thank you very much, appreciate the time and thank you everybody for listening. It's the one more jump podcast. See you guys later. I'll see you guys next time.