Everything Track and Field Discussion Forums

All primary school jumpers that landed on thecrossbar beneath their backs seem to develope a fear for the bar. They tend to stop being daring enough to really develop a good arch when crossing the bar and rather try to shy away from the bar a little. What can I do to prevent this?

Landing on the crossbar is usually the result of a bad take off and not of an inability to develop a good arch. There should not be any hesitation in the jump to prevent landing on the crossbar.
Use an elastic cord instead of a crossbar and focus on the take off (and run up). When the take off is good you can introduce the crossbar again. Start on a lower height to make sure they will jump.

My ten year old students all want to jump in a sitting position witch I suppose is the natural way of crossing an obstacle.What can I do to get them in the right position?

have them do backbends before starting. or find an object that is behind the mats for them to bend backward and focus on. but fist try having them do that without the bar up.

im 14 and im 5 foot 8 inches and when i first started i landed on my back alot but now i can jump 5'6 so it works.


ps: its nice to see younger kids getting into it.

There are 2 basic reasons for landing on the bar.

First reason: The flight path is a parabolic arc through the air - like any projectile. If that flight path is not centered with it's vertex (high point) over the bar, or if it is not wide enough (as viewed when looking down the length of the bar) then you will either strike the bar on the way up or on the way down.

Second reason: During your flight you must rotate about an axis roughly parallel to the bar. This rotation should start with your body oriented straight up (vertically) and be just fast enough to get your body horizontal at the vertex (high point) of the flight. (The vertex should also be centered over the center of the bar). Landing on the bar can be because this rotation is far too slow, resulting in hitting the bar with the lower part of the body. The higher up the body you hit the bar, the more likely it is that you will pull the bar into the pit with you and land on it.

Both of the above reasons can be working against you at the same time. Also, both of these reasons are a manifestation of a poorly constructed or poorly executed approach.

I suggest going to "sites.google.com/site/hjcoach" and reading the technique section. This will give you a good background from which you can ask more questions here.

See you back here soon:
Glen

Approach and Flight-dynamics are all very technical and hard to teach a ten year old.They tend to either overdo the vertical leap or the horizontal spin, resulting in falling on top of the bar or hitting it with their heads. I need advice on a method of safely training the right technique.

Take the bar down, focus on the approach and have the child pop up on to the mat with a proper take off. With just pop up work, there's nothing to overdo. Just coach the approach it until its smooth. If the child can't properly run the curve and take off, teaching inflight mechanics are virtually useless. With a 10 year old athlete, focus on gross motor skills, staying tall, running a curve, jumping, etc. Keep it as simple as possible. The vast majority of in flight issues stem from a poor approach. Even with our older athletes, we always trouble shoot by going back to the runway. If ground mechanics are correct (good curve running, proper take off position, etc), he's going eventually start opening toward the bar once you put it back up. Don't sacrifice a proper teaching progression for bar clearances. The heights will come.

You are absolutely correct in saying that very young jumpers won't get an understanding of how the technique works. But you DO need to understand it because the root cause of landing on the bar is a combination of poor approach and takeoff technique, and of the fact that physics is working against young jumpers. It goes like this:

You need to spin 1/4 turn about the bar between the time you leave the ground and the time you reach the peak of your flight (hopefully with your center of mass above the center of the bar). The higher you jump, the more time you spend in the air and the slower you spin about the bar can be. Or, from your point of view, the lower you jump, the faster you need to spin.

So younger jumpers have a harder time, and at some point it just isn't possible to "get it right"; they just can't spin fast enough. That's just a fact of physics. But even if they can't "get it right" they can still "get it better".

The better they get it the less frequently the tend to land on the bar; and that's the cure. You don't have to get them to understand what they are doing, you just have to ease them into doing it. And you can't do that if you don't understand the principles involved.

Having said that, I do agree with the person who suggested the elastic cord. It is a great aid. But, in terms of keeping from having the same problem again the next time they land on the bar, it is just a bandaid. It does not reduce the chances of landing on the bar again.

The previous post from Flo-Rida is generally sound, but has one problem. Whatever drills you have them do, the drills should not teach them to undo what the approach and takeoff are trying to accomplish.

For example: doing an approach and a pop-up onto the mat can be effective, but not if they land on their feet in the mat. To do it that way teaches them to come out of the curve early so when they jump the leave the ground without creating any spin about the bar - the opposite of what you are trying to teach. Better to have them jump without the bar in place and land on their backs as they should in a real jump.

Never, never, never have them run a curved approach to anything and jump so they land on their feet. This includes older kids jumping up to touch a basketball net or rim. If you are going to land on their feet, they should ALWAYS run a strait approach.

Gotta go for the moment. Back with a couple of drill suggestions later.

Glen

After re-reading my last post it is obvious that I didn't go back and edit it before posting it. Sorry 'bout that.

As promised, drills:

- FIGURE 8s - Draw 2 circles on the ground that just touch each other. They should be small enough so that the jumpers get a good lean when running them, but not too small. I don't have a good handle on the exact radius, because my jumpers have all been a bit older, but I think something like 10 feet would be a good radius to to try as a starting point.

Have them run the figure 8 and get accoustomed to reversing their bank from one curve to the other across one foot. NO JUMPING. If the jump correctly, they will not land on their feet, but rather on their heads. (The whole point of the approach and takeoff is to leave the ground vertical and right-side-up, and land vertical and up-side down, something you ONLY do when high jumping.)

- Walk-thruoughs - On a circle of the same radius as before, have the jumper walk up to the "takeoff" leaned toward the center of the circle. You will walk beside them with a hand on their shoulder to support them and keep them from falling toward the inside of the circle. When the reach the "takeoff" spot, they will bring both arms and the lead knee up as if to jump. At the same time, you will push their shoulder toward the outside of the circle in such a way that they are fully upright at the moment their knee and arms reach reach their stopping positions (thigh horizontal, lower leg vertical, and upper arm horizontal, lower arm vertical). The jumper will hold the takeoff end position, and you will allow them to continue rotating outward unrestrained. (don't ignore the next paragraph)

Someone will also have to be on the outside of the circle to catch them, because you will be pushing them outward with sufficient authority that the jumper will fall outward. The idea is to get them used to the idea that they drive upward from an inward lean to veritcal position, and then hold that position for as long as possible and just let the rotation continue. Your job is to demonstrate the principle and let them get the feel of it.

- Think-throughs - Similar to walk-throughs, but with only upper body lean inward. The idea is to get them to think their way through a jump. They carry the exercise up to the point where they leave the ground vertically, and stop there. They should end by simply holding the vertical position with their arms and lead leg in their takeoff drive end positions. The drill stops in that position and the imagine themselves going up and simply letting the spin happen on it's own. The body should be vertical and straight at the end point, not bent or arched toward the bar.

Glen

Thanks everybody for your positive response. All coaches in my country(South Africa) tend to concentrate on taking established jumpers and training them further. I feel that I must teach young children to love athletics in the first place and to derive the same enjoyment from high-jump than I was fortunate to experience. The downside of my strategy is that there's not much money around to play with. We have to make do with whatever equipment is available. We need all the help we can get- therefore my sincere appreciation for all the positive and helpful advice. If you guys will bare with my silly questions, I'll keep on trying to broaden my knowledge of the game I love so much.

Next question: I look at videos of world-class jumpers and notice that some have a fairly slow approach while others approach at a rather fast pace. What's the best?

I favor running the approach with the fastest run you can handle in the takeoff for the following reasons:

- I think allows you to "preload" the muscles just prior to the takeoff. This is something that I would like to have somebody who has a really good understanding of muscle behavior explain.

- When you run and jump you absorb some of the horizontal speed in the takeoff leg and then drive upward with the takeoff leg. Not all of the horizontal speed is absorbed by the takeoff speed, and the part that is not absorbed I call residual horizontal speed. It is this residual horizontal speed that carries you horizontally into the pit. The faster you run, the farther you travel horizontally. This is a good thing, because it helps you to match the shape of your flight path with your rate of spin about the bar.

If you look down the bar and draw your flight path as veiwed from that angle, you will see what I mean (hint - it's a parabolic curve). If the curve near the top of your flight path is too "sharp" or too "flat" (either one) your rate of rotation will not "match" the curvature of your flight path. The result is that you waste much of your jumpimng height because some parts of your body must clear the bar by a wide margin, while other parts barely clear the bar. If the spin about the bar IS matched to the flight path curvature, all parts of the body can clear the bar by the same, small amount - very efficent.

Changing the angle that your flight path makes with the bar (as viewed from above) is another way to match your spin rate about the bar to the curvature of your flight path over the bar.

Glen

Some children run with heavy, determined paces and others go about it with lighter, more bouncy treads. I prefer them "light on their feet". In my view one should get "off the ground a little" wile running in. That way you make the transition from running to flying without losing too much momentum. Am I right?

I agree, "light on their feet" is much better. You might try a skipping drill to see if you can lighten them up. Have them skip with a big skip off their takeoff leg and a normal skip off their other leg. Try to get them to "fish for" the rhythm that gives them the highest "big skip". They will feel the difference long before you are able to see it.

Glen

I've got the young ones skipping. Now back to the more advanced guys. I have this 14year old boy with the best technique I've ever seen. Unfortunately due to a heel injury we used a rather slow approach. Now that the injury is just about cured, I like to increase his speed again. Will that provide sufficient vertical lift and what else can I do to get him jumping as high as I am certain he is capable of?

Pikke,

I would advise using a heel cup for any jumper who has had a heel injury. I favor solid plastic heel cups. The one I had that had padding on the bottom was not rigid enough or shaped correctly to distribute the forces around the whole heel. A good fit is important.

The next thing to do is to get him on an approach that works. I think you have probably been to my web site. If you go back to it and read about approach construction, you will get the general idea. I'm sure you will have questions about how long his flight path is, how big the radius should be, and etc. Just ask. I have been checking the forum daily.