High jump

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High jump, long jump and triple jump articles (coaching and technique)
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Article #2: Athlete VS Coach

By Hugo Munoz
Kangaroo Track Club

The other day I got a phone call from an athlete asking for my help and telling me: “My coach doesn’t know about
high jump, and is trying to mess me up”.
Before I start this article I would like to say that my intention is not to point fingers or to throw anyone under the bus.
The intention of this article is to help athletes see an opportunity where they may think there is a big problem.

Let’s imagine that the only problem is the limited amount of knowledge of the coach which it was the case on the
particular phone call that I got the other day.

No one knows everything.
Whether your coach is a rookie or this is his 30th season, in one way or another (personally or professionally) he/she
is learning with you. In order to coach an athlete there are a lot of factors that have to be taken in consideration - not
only talking about training theory, but also the technical aspects of your particular event and understanding that
everybody is different.
On this topic I would like to share a personal experience, when I was training with my coach, who helped me reach
my personal best of 7’6 ½ in 1995 (2.30mts). I started to train with him because he had a number of good high
jumpers before me (7 footers at the time of the western roll) and I thought that “he knew everything”. So one day I
was walking the track with him and we were talking about the usual high jump, technique, competitions, training, and
how he was proud of me for breaking the national high jump record etc….. At the end of the conversation, he said
“Hugo, this is good also for me, because with you I am also learning” and I said “What?! , What do you mean?!, I
thought you knew what you were doing?!” , and his answer was “No one knows everything…. ;)”
Communication is key, help your coach help you.
Your coach is not only your mentor, but your partner in battle (competition). Your coach wants you to succeed as
much as you want to succeed, and that is why they are out there with you. Believe me when I tell you that I haven’t
met anyone that became a track coach for the money, because they do not get paid much and in many cases they
volunteer their time.
Always talk to your coach. When jumping you may feel like you are doing a movement the right way, but the outcome
is totally different (very common when you are doing technique work). Let them know how you are feeling about your
training whether it is about workout or technique. Your feedback is very important.
As an athlete you can feel what you are doing, but you cannot see what you are doing, and that is where your coach
comes in to play big time. Help your coach help you.
When you come to practice, come prepared to train physically and mentally. Your mind must be in tune with your
body to be able to control your movement. Listen to your coach, and remember you are the athlete and you are the
one that will have to make the technical corrections happen. There is not a magic word that will make you do things
for you. Your coach can show you the path… but cannot walk the path for you…

What do you think coach?
Ask your coaches opinion on the things you’ve learned and helped you improve, and continue your own learning by
reading, watching videos or going to camps. There is nothing more rewarding as a coach than coaching an athlete
that is genuinely interested in learning more about their event/sport and wants to succeed.
Learn the event WITH your coach.
Becoming a student of the event/sport is one of the best ways to improve and get better. There are some great books
and instructional videos out there and despite that training theory and technique is always relative to the particular
athlete (meaning that not everything applies to everyone) every athlete is different in one way or another. Learning
more about your event/sport will help you learn more about yourself and figure out what works for you and what
doesn’t. As you keep learning more, keep an open mind and an open line of communication with your coach, and
discuss what you are learning with him/her. Like that you are both learning as a team (you and your coach) and can
decide what it can be applicable for you or not, and why.
If you happen to be lucky enough that you’ve had an opportunity to go to a clinic or camp where you learned a lot
about your event/sport, from one of the top coaches out there, and at the camp you learned some things that “clicked”
with you and worked better for you, try to be respectful and sensitive in the way you approach what you learned to
your coach and teammates when you go back home. Remember that your coach may be an accomplished person in
the event/sport, or in life, or both.

Your coach wants you to succeed. If you approach them with something that you learned, and is working for you, and
see the improvement… I find it hard to believe that your coach is not going to encourage what you are doing, but
even more… your coach may want you to share with him/her what you know, or what you did so they can learn from
your experience…. This is a good thing!

Chemistry, a big part of an athlete and a coach relationship.
Chemistry between a coach and an athlete is key in order to be successful. As an athlete, I had the opportunity to
train with number of coaches, and I will say that all of them knew their stuff in one way or another, some more, some
less, but they knew. The difference from one to another was chemistry and compatibility that I had with them. Some
of them were able to only to motivate, inspire, and help me believe in myself. Others could explain things in a way
that I was able to create a clear picture in my head so I was able to get my body to do things that I couldn't do before.
The fact that I “clicked” or not with a coach didn’t mean that he was not a good coach, it meant that I had or did not
have a good chemistry with a particular coach. There is a coach for every athlete and an athlete for every coach.

Conclusion.
A coach-athlete relationship is like most relationships, it has highs and lows but with good communication, respect,
and willingness to work together will pull you forward. Do not waste time and energy by arguing and challenging your
coach, save your energy for the real challenge, competition time.
I do not know anyone that went in to coaching in order to bring an athlete down, the coach will be evaluated on how
well you did during the season, remember that you success is their success.
Believe it or not, your coach goes through the same emotional things that you go through every day, they are human
just like you. They believe in you against all odds, as a coach you have to. Your coach will raise his arms with you
when you do well and with the same arms your coach is going to pick you up when you fall. Every time we as
coaches see one of our athletes improving or having a great performance in a competition we feel their joy,
happiness, and excitement. When we are lucky enough to see the classic “I can’t believe it” expression in your face at
the moment of your celebration we find the reason of why we coach, because nothing will makes us happier than to
see you, our athlete succeed.


Article #1: High Jump: Teaching new jumpers the basics

By Hugo Munoz
Kangaroo Track Club
When you think about high jump, names like Javier Sotomayor, Charles Austin, Jesse Lima, Stefan Holm, Jesse
Williams, Dusty Jonas come to mind. Former or current world class athletes that are so graceful and talented they
make this sport look so easy. Not seen by most of us are the years of hard work and discipline that they put in,
providing us with the final product that we admire.
The reality is that athletes like these are not born every day, and most coaches find themselves with a scenario
similar to one I faced last summer. During one of my annual high jump summer camps in Minnesota, I was
approached on the first day of the camp by a young girl. After our brief introduction and a warm-up period, I asked
her to “show me what you’ve got”. Looking somewhat confused, she responded by saying “What do you mean?”
With a broad smile across her face, she informed me that she was had never high jumped before!
Having seen the Olympic Trials high jump competition on television, she decided that she wanted to try it. The camp
experience was going to be her first time ever going over a bar. Many first timers come out for track because the PE
teacher convinced them that track would keep them in shape for their first sport (football, basketball, volleyball,
baseball, etc), or for the social aspects of it. The first battle may very well be to motivate the athlete enough so they
do not quit the team after the first week of workouts. One good thing about this young lady was that she was
motivated and there for the right reasons, she wanted to high jump.
Regardless of their motivation to be part of the sport, our job as coaches is to mold aspiring athletes of all shapes,
sizes and abilities. The question we are going to attempt to answer in this article is: How do you teach the high
jump to someone that has never done it before?
Before we start high jumping
Before the kids go to their first high jump practice, I would recommend having them watch a high jump video. High
jump videos are widely available on the internet and you can find one with music, that’s even better. In addition to
motivating them, watching the video will help them get a visual image of what the event looks like. There is no need
to discuss technique at all at this point. After watching the video, and hearing all those “wow’s “, go out and let the
kids jump a little, have fun, and observe what they do. If I make any comment that day, it would be “Let’s imitate what
we just saw on the video and have fun.”
Way of running. Before we can think about the number of strides, the curve, and jumping well, we have to be able
to run well in order to get to the take off with a good body position. The approach is where it all begins (in a full jump),
and as much as good posture is important, being relaxed at the same time is also key. The athlete must stay tall with
hips high, chest up, shoulders back and chin up but not over exaggerated.
When an athlete is starting to high jump, I would not recommend to starting with a full approach (long approach).
Nine times out of ten the athlete will not know what to do with multiple strides, would not be able to control his/her
body. If he or she decides to increase the speed coming to the takeoff, the chances of injury increase greatly and it
will lower their confidence in their ability to high jump from the beginning.
Additionally, I would suggest that the run and the actual high jump be worked on separately in the beginning.
Start by working on the run without taking a jump. Start on the straightaway of the track and slowly transition into the
curve. When the athlete is starting to make the transition to the curve and starts leaning, it is important to remember
that while leaning the athlete stays on the curve with the inside foot (take off foot). This will create centripetal force
and their speed will keep increasing while simulating the sensation of the take off. Driving the curve with the outside
foot, thus pushing themselves through the curve, results in a forced running motion and decreased speed.
Starting to jump on a short approach. When the beginning jumper is ready to take some actual jumps, they should
do so from a short approach. A five step approach is an appropriate starting point for beginning jumpers, employing a
left foot mark for the athletes that take off with the left foot and vice versa for athletes who take off from the right foot.
Mimicking what the athlete has been practicing on the track, an emphasis should be placed on staying tall, keeping
the hips high and making foot contact under the hip followed by a forceful push behind the hip. The short approach
may keep the athlete from reaching a desirable speed, however proper body position should not be sacrificed in order
to generate additional speed.
Because this is a short approach, the athlete will begin with some body lean from the start. It is important for the
athlete to feel the need to lean, therefore I strongly recommend to tighten the curve. By this I mean that the curve
cannot be too wide. If the curve is too wide, the athlete will not lean. On a short approach and depending on the
athlete, the mark from the standard to the side could be anywhere from 6 to 10 feet, depending on the speed,
strength, height, and body weight, of the athlete.
When the athlete is running the curve, even with a short approach, it is important to watch for common mistakes such
as rotating the shoulders. Rotating the shoulders creates a false sensation of leaning. Another common mistake in
the curve is to run the curve on the toes. While on a short approach the athlete may be able to get away with it (not
much speed), but as soon as they put more steps into the approach the pressure that they will feel in the curve will
increase, and stability will become an issue resulting in slowing down when getting to the take off. Running the curve
on your toes is like running the curve in high heels (girls can easily relate to this), the higher the heel is from the
ground the more unstable the athlete will be. Now imagine trying to run the curve like that!
Penultimate, and take off. I have found that a discussion about the penultimate step with young high jumpers ends
up confusing them. We know that there is a slight lowering of the hips, however this happens so fast that if the
athlete concentrates on this in the penultimate step, they will often sink and arrive at the take off with low hips. The
simplest way that I can explain how an athlete should arrive to the take off is staying tall, upper body slightly back, the
hips high while maintaining the lean in to the curveall the way through the take off.
Arriving to the take off in a good position is crucial, and is where the “bullet leaves the barrel”. At the moment of take
off, imagine a line drawn all the way from the take off foot, passing through the hip and going all the way to the
opposite shoulder that is away from the bar. Ideally, at the moment of take off, the athlete’s body weight would be
distributed evenly about that line. We know that is impossible (as we are not shaped like a javelin), but the closer the
athlete can get to position the better.
As the jumper leaves the ground, it’s important that the hips remain high. Also at this point in the jump, when
discussing the action of the free leg, I prefer to use the term “thigh high” rather than “knee drive”. The reason for this
is because torque starts from the center out, and the knee is a representation that should have been originated on the
hip. Talking about the knee could cause the athlete to drive the knee at the moment of take off, leaving the hip down
and behind. By bringing the thigh high at the moment of take off and not letting the knee go over the hip, I have found
that it keeps the center of gravity high at all times while climbing.
The clearance. Despite the fact that most of what happens in the clearance is set up by the approach, the job isn’t
done until the jumper is on the other side of the bar. The jumper must keep his/her hip high and forward while
rotating over the bar, and extend his/her legs at the end while keeping the hips high and forward (as much possible).
An analogy that I often use when discussing bar clearance with an athlete is draw from observations made while
standing behind the pit. In this position, you are able to see the shoulders, then the chest (I can still see the
shoulders), then the hips (I can still see the shoulders and the chest) , then the thighs (I can still see the shoulders,
the chest and hips). At this point, the jumper will extend the legs, indicating to me that the jumper rotated over the
bar, keeping the hips high and forward throughout the clearance. The analogy that I like to use is the athlete’s body
is the earth rotating, and the sun illuminates first New York (shoulders), Chicago (stomach), Denver (hips) and finally
Los Angeles (lower thighs, almost knees). From behind the HJ pit, I should be able to see all those parts of the body,
indicating to me that the athlete has kept their hips high and forward all the way though the flight.
Putting the short approach together with the full approach. The number of strides that a jumper takes with a full
approach will depend on the individual. Among the factors to consider are how long the athlete can maintain posture
and how fast the athlete can run while still maintaining control.
An athlete may be able to run extremely fast, but it they do so in a manner that puts them in a bad position at takeoff,
it’s unlikely that they will jump well. Proper posture and mechanics, as outlined earlier, must not be sacrificed in an
attempt to produce greater speeds at takeoff.
In order to determine the appropriate number of strides and speed, start by backing up their approach 2 strides at a
time and slowly bringing more speed into the model that we have created with the short approach. If the athlete was
jumping with a five step approach for example, back them up to seven steps. For a left foot take off, the pattern of
the approach will be L(mark)-R- (initiate curve ) L-R-L-R-L (take off) . As soon as the athlete is comfortable with 7
steps and is ready to handle more speed, you can add 2 steps. The athlete must be able to maintain proper running
and takeoff mechanics at seven steps before adding steps and/or increasing speed. Depending on the athlete, slow
development could mean days, weeks, months, or years.
The high jump is one of the most technical events in track and field. One movement leads to the next in a type of
chain reaction. The high jump is about transferring horizontal momentum into vertical momentum. While the
discussion of the technical aspects of the event is seemingly endless, the truth is that for a beginning jumper the
mental aspect may be the most important. When you have athletes like the young lady mentioned earlier who are
eager to learn the event, positive instruction that builds confidence is essential. A lack of confidence will make it
extremely difficult for the athlete to learn and perfect the technical aspects of the event that you are trying to teach.
With confidence, they will soar to new heights with ease. A lot of life lessons can be learned through experiences in
track and field, and if the athlete learns a little bit about high jump along the way and is excited to come back for next
season, you can consider that a success.

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