Jumping is easy, it's the landings that test Hooker

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/beijing2008/ ... 65686.html

Jumping is easy, it's the landings that test Hooker

Jessica Halloran
September 1, 2007

STEVE Hooker was spiralling out of control from the sky. He couldn't unlock a toggle on his parachute and was hurtling groundwards. As the Earth approached at a deadly pace, Hooker stayed calm as everything went wrong.

"It was sort of a life-and-death situation," understated Hooker, who is also the world's No.1 pole vaulter. "If you freak out, you are not going to do yourself any favours."

After finishing a group sky-diving formation in the sky, Hooker had turned away to deploy his parachute. That manoeuvre went fine but then disaster struck.

"You have to unlock your toggles, which are your brakes and your steering, and one unlocked and the other one got stuck," he said. "So I started to spiral.

"I was able to fly straight by pulling down on the risers, which are what attach you to the parachute, but I had to make a decision on whether I was going to unhook my toggles or cut and deploy my reserve chute. Every now and then I would just spiral out of control. At about 1500 feet [457m] I decided I wasn't going to cut away because I was a bit low to do that.

"I decided I was going to deal with it or have a bit of a crash landing. Ultimately, [at] about 1000 feet off the ground, I managed to undo it and regain control."

As he hit the ground Hooker was not fully in control and nearly slammed into a barbed-wire fence. It was only then that he started to panic. "I had a lie down on the ground and composed myself," he said.

He decided not to go home and run away from what had happened. Instead, two hours later he was back up in the air and jumping again.

Hooker uses the same approach when things go wrong when he is pole vaulting. But the world No.1 is planning to be in control when he contests the world championship final on Saturday night, and will start as one of the gold medal favourites. American Brad Walker will be his toughest competition.

"It's just the way I am," Hooker said of his calm demeanour. "It's just like pole vault. If you get out there and break a pole, you just have to get out there and jump again, otherwise, if you leave it for a few days it will be just ticking over in your head. The last experience that you had was a negative one and that's just not the right way of doing it."

Hooker's coach, Alex Parnov, has instilled this philosophy in him.

"That's one of the good things about Alex as a coach - he gets you to draw parallels with life experiences and pole vaulting," Hooker said.

"If you are hesitant or reluctant to be there, you are more likely to stuff it up. If you totally attack it, you are more likely to have a successful jump."