Longhorn Track and Field – the internal battle to excel. 

Track participants’ main goal is to convert innate talents, firm discipline, and hard work into maximum performance. Track and Field require mental toughness and the ability to overcome personal character flaws, demons, weaknesses, and insecurities.   Jesse Owens says about mental toughness, “The Battles That Count Aren’t the Ones For Gold Medals.” The battles are internal at practice. 

The competition is not a fellow competitor; it is the track participants’ mental struggle process. Patti Sue Plumer says, “Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of.”

The quote “Sports do not build character- It reveals it” defines track and field participants. Track athletes deal with “invisible, inevitable battles” and a gut check every day.  

Track and Field are the only sports where athletes reveal their character to the fans as the event unfolds. In competition, track athletes mirror the internal struggle that occurs thousands of times for U.T. athletes as they write their stories in the History of U.T. Track.  Photos of character are below…

Dick Fosbury – Olympic gold medalist in the high jump

Fosbury developed a curved, J-shaped approach run. This allowed him to increase his speed while the final “curved” steps served to rotate his hips. As his speed increased, so did his elevation. Fosbury made little to no use of his arms at takeoff, failing to “pump” them upwards, keeping them down, close to his body: the next generation of floppers would add an arm pump. Fosbury’s key discovery was the need to adjust his point of takeoff as the bar was raised. His flight through the air described a parabola: as the bar went up in height, he needed more “flight time” so that the top of his arc was achieved as his hips passed over the bar. To increase “flight time,” Fosbury moved his takeoff farther and farther away from the bar (and the pit). Jumpers have a natural tendency to be drawn closer to the bar, requiring mental discipline to move out, rather than in. By way of comparison, classic straddle jumpers plant their take-off foot in the same place every time, less than one foot away from a line parallel with the bar. Photographs of Fosbury attempting heights above 7 feet (2.1 m) show him taking off nearly 4 feet (1.2 m) out from the bar.

Bill Elliott’s Fosbury

In late 2019 Glen Sefcik sent the following comments from Owen Yarborough about Bill Elliott.

Bill Elliott is currently going through some medical issues—several months ago, bill had a bleeding episode, and the cause was a diverticula problem—a pocket lead to a severe bleed just before he was scheduled to get his other hip replaced—his hemoglobin count got way done and postponed the surgery —about November 4 he woke with a severe stomach pain and the doctors determined he had a bad infection in a pocket this time—-he was at seton hospital for a little over three weeks and was sent to Centex rehab about a week ago…his strength is slowly coming back, but it is and has been a struggle…Bill is a great friend to all of us, and I’m sure he would appreciate your prayers for his recovery…..thanks, owen y (Owen Yarborough) from glen Sefcik

The prayers for Bill’s recovery worked. In 2022, he has returned to good health with a smiling spirit.

One of the first disciples of Dick Fosbury was Longhorn Bill Elliott.

Bill Elliott understood that a record high jump required a discipline technique of building a jump one step at a time. Bill ignored old-school practices and beliefs of high jumping techniques to set high standards for the Longhorns. Elliott won the “head” game and transformed the sense of what’s possible in the high jump.  

  https://fb.watch/dENxh9h2Sn/ (outlook.com) The History of High jumping

https://youtu.be/9SlVLyNixqU      Fosbury flop changing a mental process is necessary to develop a winning culture. 

 https://youtu.be/CZsH46Ek2ao     Fosbury flop