[HAMMOND] – Olympian Erica Bartolina has high hopes for her pole vault performances this upcoming season, and her mental strength will determine if she proves successful.
Bartolina battled an injury this year, but the thing that holds her back most aside from that is belief in herself.
“One of the things that I really need to work on is just expecting more of myself,” she said, giving her psychological and physical goals equal importance.
“It’s hard to say that,” Bartolina revealed. “People look at me and say, ‘How can you expect more? You’re an Olympian,’ and it’s like yeah I almost did that on accident because I didn’t really believe it.”
It wasn’t until she was in the middle of finals at the 2008 Olympic Trials that Bartolina thought she could make the team. She saw that girls were already out, and she was still competing, focused and jumping well. Even then, the thought of going to the Olympics only became real when it was likely that she would actually go.
“I’ve always been just a little behind and not really expecting as much out of myself as I really should,” Bartolina said.
The first time the athlete ever thought going to the Olympics might be possible for her was in 2004 when she qualified for the Olympic trials. That was two years after she graduated from Texas A&M and made school history in pole vault. She had already decided to make an effort at being a professional pole vaulter.
Bartolina tries to balance high goals with realism in her goal-setting. She gives herself a bigger frame of time than Michael Bartolina, her coach and husband, would. She has the goal of improving another six inches but doesn’t think doing it in December is practical.
“Now my coach might say, ‘She can do it today if she just went out and did it,’” Bartolina joked.
She and her coach have to be on the same page. They’re a team, and he helps her a lot. They also collaborate on aspirations. Bartolina usually sees the target in the distance, while her coach’s vision is more immediate.
She has learned that if she expects more, she’ll accomplish more. She doesn’t want to limit herself and underachieve.
Bartolina executes several exercises to adjust her thinking and focus, which is necessary in pole vaulting.
She doesn’t plan things before training in the morning so she’s not rushed and can prepare mentally. She does relaxation exercises, meditations, visualizations and journaling. It requires a lot of effort and self control since it’s not what she’s best at, and she could be doing other things instead.
Bartolina knows this works though. She recalled a time when exhibiting mental toughness paid off. One of the Golden League meets in Brussels following the Olympics was a big test.
She was by herself and had pulled a muscle in her back a few days earlier. The conditions were less than favorable: it was 55 degrees and raining. Opening height would’ve been a personal record for her earlier that year, and she was competing against the top eight pole vaulters in the world.
Failure was a clear option, but Bartolina had other plans.
“I just didn’t give myself the choice,” she said. Instead, she engaged in positive self talk. “It’s cold and rainy, and you hurt. And it doesn’t matter. Go clear a bar.” And she did.
Now her most immediate goal is to place in the top two in the U.S. National Indoor Championships in February to qualify for the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar in March. She said that would give her a lot of confidence going into outdoors.
Link to story on NOLA.com
