Baileh Simms: Ready to Take the Stage

e have all experienced it. You are trying to learn something new or relearn something you already know for an improved outcome. A lot of people call it the “aha” moment. OU senior Baileh Simms is riding that “aha” all the way to College Station, Texas, and this week's NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship.

For Simms, the first moment came appropriately enough in New York City at the Armory Track Invitational. She was in a field of 43 jumpers and 10 would advance to the final. Three to get three more is the way head coach Jim VanHootegem and Simms' event coach describes it. As it turned out, her best jump in the prelims, 20-0.25, would have been long enough to win the meet. She added a 20-10.00 on her final jump and ultimately that jump is what got her a trip to the NCAA meet.

“We knew Baileh had the talent to go 20-plus,” VanHootegem says. “We had seen some jumps in practice that gave us that confidence. For Baileh, as a transfer student last year, she spent a good part of the year making the transition to a new school, a new program and a new event coach. As the season was ending last year, she finished third in the Big 12 with a 20-5.00. She qualified for NCAA Outdoor with a pair of 19-9.00-plus jumps but the click hadn't happened yet.

“We were working on specific things in practice, yet they weren't showing up in competition,” her coach continues. “We begin to see it at the Mark Colligan Memorial Invitational earlier this season, ironically in the 60-meter dash. She was seventh qualifier and figured out something she wanted to change technically between the heats and the final. She made that change and the result was a then-career best in the 60. She also had five legal attempts in the long jump and that was huge as well. She finally brought it all together, first in New York City, then again at the Big 12 meet.

“She really began to understand cause and effect. If you do this, then this will happen and you will get the results you want. The result was six legal jumps at the Big 12.”

For Simms, it was the transition she had to get through before she began putting the pieces together. “There was an adjustment time for me. It was a bigger school, a bigger track program and a new event coach. I spent a lot of last year trying to figure things out,” the Seattle native adds. “When the small click happened in Lincoln, it was quite an experience. Then, to have it happen on a bigger stage in the event I love, and I was just thrilled. That set me up perfectly for Big 12.”

There is a different qualifying system for NCAA Indoor than NCAA Outdoor and the difference kept Simms pushing for more.

“With the way qualifying is for indoor, I had no idea if my 20-10 from NYC would be good enough to advance. To qualify for NCAA Indoor, you must be in the top 16 in the event when the season ends. For outdoor, you advance to a prelim round and you post the mark. That mark will send you to NCAA or it won't,” she continues.

She had a meet between NYC and the Big 12. Once again, she had five legal jumps, competing in the invitational long jump at the Tyson Invitational. She finished ninth with a 20-1.00 effort. That put her in position to begin the final preparation for her final Big 12 Indoor meet.

“I really had to focus on the fact that this was my last Big 12 Indoor. It wasn't extreme things that I need to adjust. I had to take what I was doing in practice and do those same things in competition. The Big 12 is probably one of, if not, the best conference in the country for the long jump. It certainly is the best conference I have competed in. This was my stage.”

VanHootegem was thinking the same thing. “I knew she wanted to compete at an NCAA Indoor and this was her last chance to do that. We kept working the plan and hoping the click happened all the way. She had the initial click with a sprint event. I'll take the light bulb coming on anywhere. For it to happen in a sprint event initially gave me the belief that it would happen in competition. And it really did.”

Simms hit six legal jumps at the Big 12 and five of her six broke what had been her PR when the season started. Her very first jump took her PR to 20-10.50 and she had a second qualifying mark for the NCAA.

“That's a huge accomplishment for Baileh – to hit two separate jumps in two separate competitions that turned out to be NCAA-qualifying marks,” VanHootegem continues. “Now that she has done it in two separate competitions and that she has experienced a long jump competition where everything clicked, she has put herself in a great spot heading into the NCAA competition.

“Through the meets she has competed in this season, she has seen all the great jumpers. Two are from the Big 12 and she saw a high number of the SEC jumpers at the Tyson. She just has to bring the right spirit to the meet on the day of competition and let what we have worked on come to her naturally. The lights won't be too bright for Baileh and this is truly her stage to succeed on.”

Simms agrees with her coach. “I no longer think about the jump in a linear way. I am relaxed when I jump because I understand what Coach V is talking about now. I want to give the best that I have and we will see where it goes. I must use the right speed, take the right run on the approach or as Coach says 'the right amount of backside.'”

Translated for the lay person that simply means making sure she is pushing vertical and not just horizontal when she hits the board. Simms loves the feeling of flying through the air and she loves the approach.

“Coach V really emphasizes everything you do before you hit the board. If you do that part right, you will land correctly and that gives you your best jump. He breaks it all down and, as we fix one piece, we add that to what we are already doing well, then keep building. And after the takeoff, the jump is why I love long jump. I am defying gravity, waiting for the ground to come to me.”

Then that stage thing comes up again.

“The long jump runway is my stage. The spotlight is on you and you are the only one competing at that moment in time. Coach V talks about the runway being my stage, that I needed to build a pattern of success as I am jumping. Performing is something that comes naturally to me.”

Simms does indeed have a history of successful performances, attending classes at the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences before transferring to Garfield High School.

“Like dance, I am training my body to repeat what we know works for me. Dance isn't a competition as much as it is a performance,” Simms explains. “I get a different adrenaline rush when I am competing than I do when I dance. There are still similarities, the most important of which is that I am the only one on the run, the only one landing in the pit. The focus is on me just like it was when I danced on stage.

“The repetitive training also is very similar. I don't want to think too much – I just want to go out and do it. I need to just let it go and see where it takes me. I'll talk to Coach between jumps but I won't spend too much time thinking about it. He won't be suggesting an extreme change but one that will take me where I want to go. I take some time to relax and then it is back up on the runway. I have found that I have a better understanding of what Coach V is saying and how to get to where I have the whole story.”

Simms will take the stage on Friday at 7:15 p.m. (CT) as one of 16 pursuing a dream. The stage is calling and she is ready to take her place. When everything clicks, she will celebrate as her trip is complete, one step at a time.

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Baileh Simms

Baileh Simms

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