Keeping practice on track

How do you train for track meets when your school's own track is buried under two feet of snow?

With track practice beginning in mid-March, snow is an issue Lincoln School Track Coach John Beckman II has often dealt with for a short time each year and Lincoln has seen some pretty mild springs in recent years, but even on normal years Beckman said they're usually able to get to the track by April.

Not this year.

"This year, it's been a whole new ball game," he said.

Track and field events require a fair bit of open space, but with deep snow still lingering in the valley, that's been in short supply and the Lincoln High School track team has largely been stuck practicing indoors. For Beckman, that's been a challenge given the relatively small size of the Lincoln School gym, so he's had to get a bit more creative than usual to help his athletes get in shape for meets.

"I utilize the hallways and the gym and whatever else we can come up with that works," he said.

One might think a lack of space would have the most impact on the runners, but Beckman said it's the students in the throwing events who face the most challenges.

Training indoors means using indoor training gear like rubberized indoor shot puts.

Padded donut-shaped rings

are used for a discus.

"It's not a disc of any kind, but it does give them something to hold in their hand. They go through the whole routine on the floor, and we throw those into the wall," Beckman said.

By next year he's hoping to have some sort of net or backdrop they can use to throw more realistic rubber training discs.

"The biggest thing it hinders is the javelin," Beckman said.

Short, rubber tipped "turbo Javs" stand in for javelins.

"It's a little odd because (turbo javs) are smaller and a little lighter, but it helps us with form a lot," said Jager Vossler, who competes in the throwing events.

Vossler said practicing indoors is "a little awful," because the training equipment differs so much from what they use at meets.

"Like discus; we have this small, rubber one. At the bigger track meets we get this big one that weighs a lot more and its awkward to throw," he said.

With the limitations, Beckman concentrates on making sure the competitors develop the correct technique.

"Basically, it's all technique. Teaching them the technique, whether it's coming out of blocks, or throwing the discs or whatnot, once they get that technique and we're able to get outside and hold a real discus and hold a real javelin, then they go through the whole routine and it comes to them fairly quick," he said.

Beckman said they don't have as much problem training for the high jump or long jump indoors, but they do have to make a few concessions.

He said they've built a box that high jumper Hunter Woodward can plant a pole in.

"I can't let him vault a bent pole, but I can let him straight stick," Beckman said. "We'll box jump into the mats with those. All the technical stuff. Then when he gets to the meet, he holds the position, the pole bends and he goes through the same routine."

The emphasis on form allowed Woodward to take first at the Jim Johnson meet in Frenchtown two weeks ago.

Beckman is looking at changing how they set up the mats for training, to take advantage of the hallway leading into the gym for his long-jumpers. So far, they've been using a "four step" approach while practicing their jumping form, but using the school's long main hallway to work on full approaches separately. By taking advantage of the shorter hallway into gym, they should be able to train more effectively.

With the track still covered in snow, sprinters face a mixed bag of training. They practice bursting out of the starting blocks inside, but Beckman said they also get outside to train behind the school on Second Street North, when the weather allows. Nevertheless, sprinter Maggie Jorgensen thinks the first time she ran a full 100 meters this year was at the Frenchtown meet.

For the school's distance runners, the slowly warming weather has helped to clear off the shoulders of Highway 200, so between storms, they've been able to get out and put in some mileage, keeping track of their lap counts on special watches.

"If we can't go outside and its really bad, bad day, then I put them in the weight room," Beckman said.

Training on roads does present one challenge when the runners get to track meets, however.

"As far as running on a track, around and around, that's actually more boring. They prefer doing it our way here, because it's more like cross country," Beckman said. In the end though, he said it's still a mental game.

"It's interesting. Most schools aren't having to do what we do," Beckman said. He said other coaches are amazed at how well the Lincoln kids do with training inside.

"Most the kids are doing really good this year. I'm hoping to take six kids to state. I think Hunter's going to pretty much be a guaranteed deal there. Maggie should go. Karissa (Ninahuanca) should go in the 300 hurdles," Beckman said. "We've got some pretty decent kids this year."