By Tom Kaberna

How do you know if your kids are long or triple jumpers?

If an athlete can jump I sell them on doing both.  I use the formula of doubling their long jump and adding a foot to see what they are better at but then that just gives me insight into which one we need to work on more for that athlete.  There are rare cases I have had where an athlete isn’t coordinated enough to triple but can long jump well.  I have only had this happen twice so far and maybe I just wasn’t patient enough with them in reality.  If the athlete is really slow then I focus my efforts on triple jump with them since long jump is so reliant on speed.  I usually have a lot more triple jumpers than long jumpers because of this. 

How do you pick out who will long jump?

At the beginning of each year we allow the new athletes to choose different events they want to try throughout the week.  They are typically pretty good at figuring out if they should jump or not.  Also, if I see an athlete that can sprint well the vertical jumps coach and I usually talk to them about trying our events.  If an athlete can sprint they can usually do one of the jumps pretty well.  I hear a lot of head coaches give the jumps coaches the athletes that cannot sprint for them.  If your program does this they will never be elite jumpers for you either. 

How do you balance the time of your jumpers with other events that they participate in?

If they are mainly a long and triple jumper for me then I am in charge of their training.  The sprint coach takes my kids for handoffs and block starts the day before the meet or at the beginning of the year for a little bit.  We both expect my athletes to be able to run a good 100 and 200 with my training.  If they do another field event then I am typically still in charge of their training and I “loan” the athlete out to our vertical jumps coach for 45 minutes here and there typically once or twice a week.  If the athletes are mainly sprinters but they only do one jump for me, which is rare, then the sprint coach has them mostly and loans them to me for 45 minutes once or twice a week for the technical part of the jump. 

I am new to coaching what is the first thing you teach?

The first day I teach them proper posture and to land full footed on their penultimate and takeoff step.  I also talk about blocking segments (free leg and arms) at takeoff.  We go through the repeat takeoff drills a lot early on with the newer athletes and the four step takeoffs to make sure they understand the real fundamental concepts about posture and landing flat footed and blocking segments.  We probably don’t get into penultimate mechanics for a couple sessions with the new kids besides landing flat to make sure they aren’t doing anything radical they used to do in middle school.

How often do you work on long jump?

We work on each jump once a week and sometimes twice if we have time or I feel like the athletes need the work because they are struggling with something.