Triple Jump Form Critique?

Try and land flat-footed instead of on your toes. Yes, you take more impact and it is jarring, but you can transfer energy better instead of losing energy when absorbing the impact. Also, it is not always better to jump higher in triple, you need to maintain speed throughout, so a shorter second phase is fine for a new jumper as long as you are able to maintain speed with it.

For the future, increasing maximum speed and explosiveness will of course make you better, you need to be able to have a quick burst and be able to get to top speed very quickly. Just a few thoughts, good luck.

4/8/TJ? wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEwryZnOyCk

I shot a video of me doing triple jump in practice. This is my 3rd day actually practicing triple jump, my first time jumping from the 36' board (last meet I jumped from the 32'). I have a meet tomorrow and to make it to the finals I have to jump 40' or more, what things can I change to increase my distance? Also, why is my second step so short compared to the professionals, where their jump looks more like a bound then a step?

For a new kid you look ok to the board. You keep your head level, you do reasonably well on the hop, but you need to be quicker into the stpe phaze and hang on to it.

Slow down a little. An exercise you can do is to just hop step into the pit. Keep yor head level, try to be smooth, slow it down, don't push your hop so far, then hang on to your step into the pit.

TJ should be pretty close to 3 even phases, though the coaches will give you ratios that all start with 30 something %. Its close to even and you are about 45,10,45.

You can work through the exercises at slower pace to get into the rhythm. It takes some power to get the step through. You look like you're afraid to land from your hop. You have to hold your phases, but in your case you can hop a little shorter. Use your strength, a little less speed.

40 feet should be easy for you. Put some cones out there at 13 feet. Come in slowly and work to the cones. As you become more adept, add in a little speed. Focus on getting quicker and more powerful into the step, and learn to hold it.

You'll get 40. Stay tall off the board. Your 2nd phase is suffering because of your posture at take-off. Push the hips off the board and stay level (not butt out). Don't listen to people who say "hold the jump" What they're saying is don't land...that's impossible. If you stay a little more level off the board, you'll carry speed better through the phases. Let us know how far over 40 you get!

I used to triple jump. It is an event that requires alot of drills. Core strength and strength developed with drills is very critical unless you are a natural jumper with tons of spring which it doesn't appear you have. Not to worry...you have enough to work with. My suggestion is to do alot of bounding drills to strengthen your muscles. When you bound, concentrate on holding the bound as long as you can from bound to bound and still maintain your rhythm and speed. This will help you with the rhythm of the TJ because that is precisely what your rhythm should be like. That brings your hop phase to about 27-30 percent of your total jump.

Necessarily, don't Hop too high or you'll lose momentum on the landing and your Step will suffer. And the poster who said you can't hold your Jump is wrong. You must practice drills to learn how to crunch and hold all the way into the sand. It's challenging, but doable.

These drills, and a study of the triple jump (you have to become a student of the event) will help you to improve over the next few years. As far as the next few days, try some bounding and concentrate on keeping your torso perpendicular to the ground and develop a feel for the practice you do. Then, get on the runway and take a VERY short run to the board...maybe 25 feet... And do the jump remembering how you felt in the bounding exercise. You should be able to jump 25 feet or more. When you go full speed in a meet you will have no problem hitting the 40 foot mark.

I can also tell you how to be perfect on the board every time if you want to know. Anyway good luck and let us know how you do.

I meant to say " that brings your Step phase to about 27-30 percent of the entire jump"

In the first paragraph I said hop. My error.

Listen to doperdan and the old runner.

The strength coach should stay in the gym.

doperdan wrote:TJ should be pretty close to 3 even phases, though the coaches will give you ratios that all start with 30 something %. Its close to even and you are about 45,10,45

it depends upon how closely you approximate "even"

the empirical relationship for the 3 phases is :

pi - 2 / 1 / pi - 2

->

34.77% / 30.46% / 34.77%

as a newbie tj'er, i assume you have some lj marks prior ?

the empirical relationship for lj ability transposed to tj is

~ tj = ( pi - 1 )*lj

that shoud give you an idea of what your ideal tj shoud be & you can use prior formula to work out what your hop phase shoud be

Just an update, I jumped a 40'01 , placed 8th and qualified for the finals Saturday. Unfortunately I could not get a video, but I think it was my speed that made a difference. My first attempt I jumped a 36'4, where I just strided through the mark. On my second attempt, I strided again but probably jumped a 36 even as I barely made the pit, however on my second phase I stepped on the long jump board which gave way, so the officials allowed me a rejump. I sprinted down the runway much faster than usual, and jumped a 40'01. On my third jump, due to fatigue i did not run as hard as I could, and jumped a 38'9. Overall a good day, aiming for 42+ on Saturday.

However, due to landing flat footed, my shins are still hurting, is that normal?

ventolin^3 wrote:

doperdan wrote:TJ should be pretty close to 3 even phases, though the coaches will give you ratios that all start with 30 something %. Its close to even and you are about 45,10,45

it depends upon how closely you approximate "even"

the empirical relationship for the 3 phases is :

pi - 2 / 1 / pi - 2

->

34.77% / 30.46% / 34.77%

That's what I said.

And if you read between the lines you'll even see that I anticipated the comment from you.

The reality is that there is no exact number here. Despite what the mathematicians say. Wind, track, speed, your period, all play. Hence the 30 something. Of course I did see that tongue in your cheek. :-)

4/8/TJ? wrote:

Just an update, I jumped a 40'01 , placed 8th and qualified for the finals Saturday. Unfortunately I could not get a video, but I think it was my speed that made a difference. My first attempt I jumped a 36'4, where I just strided through the mark. On my second attempt, I strided again but probably jumped a 36 even as I barely made the pit, however on my second phase I stepped on the long jump board which gave way, so the officials allowed me a rejump. I sprinted down the runway much faster than usual, and jumped a 40'01. On my third jump, due to fatigue i did not run as hard as I could, and jumped a 38'9. Overall a good day, aiming for 42+ on Saturday.

However, due to landing flat footed, my shins are still hurting, is that normal?

Its not called the cripple jump for nothing.

Make sure you have the good shoes, and I suspect you jumped exactly the same as you did in the video. Advice from here rarely is implemented by people new to an event.

First there must be understanding grasshopper. If you think greater speed is the answer, then you will never develop.

As an aside, as 16 year old boy, 5'8" tall, 133 pounds, and running around 11.5 for the 100m. I jumped 46' 10" off the left foot, and 48' 2" off the right foot. And that was in 1969. You need to learn about the event if you want to improve. I had the best coach and was in the strongest training group in the country. (Not the USA) If you want to learn, pay attention to this clip. The BBC have great master classes.

Just study this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6NKWhEl_V0

Notice that everyone jumps forward and not up in the second phase but they reach for a lot of extension in that second phase before taking off for the third phase.

I barely managed 41 feet with 21 foot long jumping ability so I never could quite get it down myself.

I'm not sure if I actually did or not, but it did not feel as though I jumped the same because it felt like I carried my step phase much farther, and my foot steps sounded more like dum - dum - dum instead of dum - dumdum like in the video.

If you listen to Old Runners...you'll get Old Advice. What some people apparently don't get is that gravity affects everyone and the only way you can delay your descent, is to apply more force to the ground. What you CAN do in the air is control undesired rotations. You CAN hold your hips in position as to best maintain horizontal velocity. To offer advice like "hold your jump" is uninformed and not very helpful. Keep your hips level, move across the ground while best using the phases to keep your speed up through the jumps. The best drills you can do is to triple jump from varying approach distances focusing on your clearance/posture off the board. If you can get your hands on some materials by Boo Schexnayder, he'll make things simple for you and give you some direction in your training.

At the finals today, I jumped a 40'05 my first jump, 38'7 my second and scratched on my third attempt. Didnt make the finals, although I PR'd. Heres a video of my first attempt, sorry if its blurry. It looks as if I'm getting no height in all of my phases, and I'm jumping a 40 from my hop and jump phases.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl3hjmdxj90

You are getting way too much height on the hop. It is taking away from your horizontal velocity and hurting your last two phases. Really attack the board in the horizontal plane on the hop. It looks to me that if you modify your hop, you would have enough velocity to easily reach the last white board on your step and still destroy the jump phase.

I've always heard that the hop should be your lowest phase and then think about increasing your vertical distance on the last two, particularly the jump.

You need to do bounding as well as do some drills that only focus on the first two phases. Your step phase is so short, it's not funny. You need to keep your knee up, what's known as riding the step, otherwise, by keeping it low, you're bringing it down quicker, cutting off distance.

As someone else said, take a look at videos. Being a student of the event really helps. My school had a kid who could barely break 12 seconds in the 100, but could jump 45' because he became such a good technician.

raw thang is right about your phases...you should think of it like climbing up stairs, with each phase being higher than the previous. In reality it doesn't always work that way but visualizing it like that helps.

Also, if you plan to keep jumping long-term, you should work on your arms. I'll leave it to someone more qualified than me to explain the details but in your middle phase you want to drive both of your arms up when you take off.

Hey, Good Job 4/8/TJ!!!

What can I say to be helpful? You are leaning a little too far forward on the Hop and of course your Step is too short. As a result, your Jump is not maximized because you have too much energy (which is why you came out of the pit kinda strange). it takes some time and willingness to learn technique to get to your best and that isn't in a matter of a week or two.

Bounding is the most basic drill you can do to start changing your technique. Rhythm and development of springing from step to step are what you will improve most with this drill.

Keep up the good work and study the event as much as you can.