Catchin' up with Jordyn Brown
Jan. 22, 2010
The No. 15 University of Texas Women's Track and Field squad heads to Texas A&M this Saturday, Jan. 23, for a dual meet with the No. 1 Texas A&M Aggies in College Station. The meet will be held at Gilliam Indoor Stadium, the site of last year's Big 12 and NCAA Indoor Championships and for senior All-American Jordyn Brown, the memories of her past experiences there are providing added motivation. In the same arena one year ago, Brown earned her highest finish at the Big 12 Indoor Championships with a then- personal best shot put of 53-10.25 (16.41m) for second place. Just a few weeks later Brown upped the ante as she entered the NCAA Indoor Championship ranked 10th on the national shot put descending list. She then went on to record a career-best toss of 55-3.5 (16.44m) for fourth place and her first All-American honor. The senior sat down with TexasSports.com prior to heading to College Station to chat about this week's meet and what she's done in the offseason to prep for the 2010 season. How did it feel to get a provisional mark in your first meet of the season? It felt great to get the season started because the offseason is so long. It feels too long because when you are an athlete, you're always ready to compete. It felt good to get out there. I started a new technique and started spinning for the shot-put. It felt good to get a provisional mark right out of the gate, especially with a new technique. What is the difference between your old technique and new technique? The spin technique is more like a discus approach. It is a lot more dynamic and involves a lot more speed, rather than power. To me, it is a lot more fun and I think I have more potential to grow and have some really big marks. I am excited about that. What are your expectations for your senior year? I want to keep growing and take it to a whole new level. I have made a lot of great changes in my preparation for the off season. I'm ready to see how those translate in a competition and towards my marks. After the first meet, you set the foundation and kind of just build from there. I think that the sky is the limit because for the first time I have put everything together from nutrition to weight lifting and practicing technique. I feel like the potential for greatness is really there and I am excited about it.
What are some of the changes, other than your technique, that you made during the offseason? I have upped it on my weight lifting, so I feel a lot stronger than last year. Nutritionally, I have been trying to only put good food in my system and cut out fast food. I'm a fast food junkie, but I haven't been to a fast food restaurant in about four weeks. It's a change, but overall, I've just been streamlining my life and trying to make everything easier for me to put all my time and effort into throwing so that I am able to rock it. How does it feel being a senior leader on the team this year? It feels great. It's an awesome opportunity. It is definitely a certain amount of pressure, but I like to say that pressure is a privilege. I just hope that I can be an example to the younger girls and inspire them to work hard and see the results that come from that. We have a lot of talent on our team. I want to be a role model and mentor to them and an example of what you need to do to be successful in our sport. What do you think about this year's throwing group? We're doing really well as a group. We are really helping each other out and feeding off of each other's energy. There is a lot of learning going on, especially because a lot of girls are very young and aren't the most experienced throwers and I'm starting a new technique. So we're all learning together and growing together and it's a really exciting time. Everybody is feeling really confident and we are working really hard, trying to take care of all the little parts so that we can make the whole great. What are you looking forward in this weekend's meet at Texas A&M? It's always fun to go to Texas A&M, especially because that's where indoor nationals was the last time I was there. That was a great experience for me, so I am really excited to get back there and fight for Texas. Hopefully I can really represent and we can be successful down there both as a team and individually. |
|
