Folders |
Hitting the Board: Long Jump Practice - April 9, 2013
Published by
By Tom Kaberna
Last week I went into the main parts of the model I use for long jump. This week I would like to talk about how I get there.
Repeat Takeoffs We start almost every long jump practice with this drill. It can serve many purposes. I have the athlete jump then take a step then jump again for 3 or 4 times. During this drill I am coaching pushing up on the 3rd to last step, landing the penultimate underneath them with high hips, allowing the shin to rotate forward then pushing, allowing the jump foot to come in like a slipper, proper blocking segments and takeoff posture. I use a different cue to work on different foci with each rep of 3 or 4. My athletes usually go through this 4-8 times off of each foot. I make my athletes jump off of both legs for coordination and balance.
The first part of the video shows this drill. Disclaimer: This video was done by a former athlete that was a triple jumper and was in college at the time of filming. (Thanks Tapas)
Repeat Takeoff with 4 Steps Between We do this drill after the initial repeat takeoff drill. It adds a little more speed and two more steps. Because of room issues where we practice we can only get two jumps in per repetition. This is the next progression from the repeat takeoffs. In this drill you can really see problems with the 3rd to last step here. During this drill we have the same foci with different cues.
The 2nd part of the video shows this drill.
Short Approach Jumps After doing the takeoff steps with 4 steps in between I progress out to either six or eight step jumps. We work on the same things from the other drills. At the beginning of the year we go through each cue to make sure they know what I am talking about and what I want. Whatever the athlete is struggling on at that time is our focus towards the end of the year.
Full Approach Jumps I never do full approach jumping in practice as I don’t have the room indoors and I believe without the athletes arousal levels increased because of a meet they will not execute their jumps with the same intensity and speed as in a meet. I don’t want their bodies to get used to this speed and then have what they jump in practice be the same in meets.
The three parts above are the only things I do for long jump practice. Many people use many different drills and I used to use a lot of drills at the beginning of my coaching career. I have found drills are only as good as what you coach within them and I can accomplish getting close to my model with the three above.
|