Scott Sellers KWIK-E

January 18, 2008

Kansasâ€™ Scott Sellers is one of the United Stateâ€™s most promising high jumpers. He blasted onto the national scene in high school, collecting a personal best and national record of 7 feet 5 Â¼ inches in the high jump. Since entering college he has jumped 7 feet 7 Â¼ inches and won the 2007 NCAA Championships.

Can you give me your goals for indoor track this season?
Well, Iâ€™d like to improve on what I accomplished last year. I finished third at the National Championships and PRed by a centimeter. Iâ€™d like to go back to Fayetteville and try to win a national championship and jump a little bit higher. Iâ€™m looking to jump 2.30m this yearâ€¦indoors. If I can do that, Iâ€™ll be in pretty good shape.

What are some of the differences of jumping indoors and jumping outdoors?
Indoors is still really early in the season. We tend to focus on the bigger meets outdoors, which are usually in mid-June and July. The meets that are taking place in February and March arenâ€™t quite as important. Theyâ€™re still very meaningful; theyâ€™re just not on the same level as say the Olympic Trials or the outdoor National Championships.

Can you give me your progression through high jumping? Did you start off not jumping that high?
Yeah, I started in the eighth grade and I wasnâ€™t really that good at all. I think I jumped 5â€™2 the whole season. Then I got to high school and started training, got a coach who was a little more educated in the event and jumped 6â€™10 my freshman year, 7â€™3.25 my sophomore year, 7â€™5.25 my junior year and 7â€™ 5 my senior year. But initially I wasnâ€™t all the great at high jumping, but I figured Iâ€™d try it another year and see if I could turn it around and it ended up going pretty well.

What about dunking a basketball, Iâ€™m assuming you were dunking in between your eighth and ninth grade years?
Yeah, I played a lot of basketball when I was younger. I could first dunk in the middle of my eighth grade year. And thatâ€™s pretty much all I worked on is everyday just trying to touch the rim, grabbing the rim, dunking a tennis ball, and then half way through my eighth grade year I could dunk a basketball.

Do you remember the first one?
Oh yeah! Of course! I think a few friends of mine and I just finished a game of 21. I had an older friend who was like 6â€™8 and could dunk when he was in seventh grade. He was kind of just dunking around and I was feeling pretty good, so I just took the ball and missed the first two or three and finally got it on the fourth one. It was pretty awesome.

Have you ever measured your vertical?
Yeah, we do some testing a couple times a yearâ€¦we measure it. Iâ€™ve gone 40 inches before but itâ€™s usually around 38.

Do you still play any basketball or have you had to put it aside because of your jumping?
In the fall I still play, but not nearly as much as I used to. Every spring I stay away from the basketball courts. Iâ€™m not so much concerned on hurting myself as I am about some of the other guys who I play with get a little too competitive and itâ€™s just not worth the risk.

Youâ€™re prioritizing your jumping ahead of your basketball?
Yeah, I have to. Iâ€™m not nearly as good of a basketball player as I am at high jump.

Whatâ€™s your team like at Kansas, is it a close-knit team?
Yeah, weâ€™re real close. We spend so much time lifting and training together, and traveling during the season. Everyone here is really close friends. Pretty much every weekend someone will host a little get together and we will go to everyone elseâ€™s house and itâ€™s a really cool atmosphere.

Howâ€™s your training going right now?
The way we set up our training here is we try to get decent marks in the beginning of the season, where we try to get our automatic and provisional marks early in the season which will allow us to train at full capacity for about two months. We can go into the National Championships on the top of our game. I got my automatic mark in December so right now Iâ€™m in the middle of just training really hard. The meets weâ€™re going to now are just more like practice. Iâ€™ve only done high jump practice two times this year. Itâ€™s still a little early, but things are going really well.

Are you looking to do any doubles/triples at these meets with long jump and triple jump?
Yeah. I only high jump about two meets a month and the other meets Iâ€™m either on a relay or Iâ€™m doing long jump or triple jump. Actually in a few weeks I think Iâ€™m going to be doing the long and triple. I get a variety of events.

Can you give me your goals for your long jumping and triple jumping?
I think right now Iâ€™m underperforming (definitely in the long jump). I can jump much, much farther than I am right now. Iâ€™d like to jump about 7.60m in the long jump. Triple jump is still a difficult event, but anything over 50 feet Iâ€™d be happy with.

Whatâ€™s your PR right now in the triple?
Itâ€™s like 49â€™6.

Would you say the high school to college transition went well for you since you succeeded so early in high school?
It wasnâ€™t easy, just because of the training and the lifestyle is so different. I was fairly successful my freshman year, but itâ€™s just night and day in terms of training and the amount of discipline it takes. With that said, I think if youâ€™re willing to come into college your freshman year and realize you might not PR, but be willing to put in the work, the transition really isnâ€™t too bad.

Hereâ€™s the good one: how high do you think you can go?
I donâ€™t know, but Iâ€™m pretty optimistic. I donâ€™t think thereâ€™s a limit (within reason). I think this year, if I can improve on some things, I could jump 2.35m-2.36m. I think a couple years down the road, through more solid years of training, I think I could jump 2.40m. At least thatâ€™s what Iâ€™m training toward. I think itâ€™s going to take a lot of work and a little bit of luck, but it can be done.

Do you think when you reach that point in your career youâ€™ll still going to be doing triple and long jump?
I think by then, Iâ€™ll be too specialized in the high jump to mess around with other events. But, on the other hand, they are really effective for cross training. I would still do it in the off-season and in the earlier meets because it helps you with things in the high jump, but I donâ€™t think Iâ€™d really be doing it that much.

Are you already looking toward the end of the outdoor season with the Trials and everything?
Well, I try not to think about it too much, but that really is the focus. Thatâ€™s a huge meet for me and a lot of other athletes. I donâ€™t think about it too much right now, but the way my season is set upâ€¦itâ€™s geared toward it as being the most important meet.

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#6	Camille January 19, 2008 at 11:17am Hard vs. soft shoes: Int J Sports Med. 1983 Nov;4(4):247-51. Effects of shoe cushioning upon ground reaction forces in running. Clarke TE, Frederick EC, Cooper LB. "...The peak VF propulsive force occurred statistically at the same time in both shoes (hard = 85.7 ms, soft = 84.0 ms), but was significantly greater in the soft shoe (hard = 2.73 BW, soft = 2.83 BW)." reply
#5	Camille January 19, 2008 at 11:17am Vertical force: Int J Sports Med. 2005 Sep;26(7):593-8. Mechanical comparison of barefoot and shod running. Divert C, Mornieux G, Baur H, Mayer F, Belli A. Laboratory of Physiology, GIP Exercice-Sport-Sante, University of Saint-Etienne, "...barefoot running leads to a reduction of impact peak in order to reduce the high mechanical stress occurring during repetitive steps. This neural-mechanical adaptation could also enhance the storage and restitution of elastic energy at ankle extensors level." Adaptive mechanics: J Biomech. 2000 Mar;33(3):269-78. Related Articles, Links Biomechanical analysis of the stance phase during barefoot and shod running. De Wit B, De Clercq D, Aerts P. Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, University of Ghent, Belgium. "...Barefoot running is characterized by a significantly larger external loading rate than the shod condition. The flatter foot placement at touchdown is prepared in free flight, implying an actively induced adaptation strategy. In the barefoot condition, plantar pressure measurements reveal a flatter foot placement to correlate with lower peak heel pressures. Therefore, it is assumed that runners adopt this different touchdown geometry in barefoot running in an attempt to limit the local pressure underneath the heel...." reply
#4	Camille January 19, 2008 at 11:16am Actually Ed, stress to the knee is less while unshod. Additionally, vertical force is less while unshod and less in a harder shoe vs. a softer shoe. It is a mistake to believe shoes can do a better, or attenuate force as naturally intended. As related to the knee: http://web.archive.org/web/20040728050600/http://www.indiana.edu/~hperk500/gcma00a/Abstract159.pdf "...The runners in this study reduced the demand on the knee by reducing the peak knee flexion, extensor moment and power absorption (and associated eccentric contraction of the quadriceps) during the absorption phase during barefoot versus shod running. These findings may have clinical implications with respect to anterior knee pain, which accounts for up to 30% of all running injuries (5). That is, adopting a foot flat or toe initial contact pattern may reduce the knee loads during stance and thus anterior knee pain." reply
#3	Camille January 19, 2008 at 11:03am If the muscles in the feet/lower legs aren't well developed, why not develop them? Who says you can't, no matter what your anatomical makeup/age/gender may be? reply
#2	Chase Wade January 18, 2008 at 11:34am His Coach is awsome. Go Sellers and Coach Kyle reply
#1	TexASS January 18, 2008 at 1:24am Good interview. I use to compete at the same track meets as Scott (though I was a distance runner) while he was at Cinco Ranch high school. Fun to watch! reply