Mr. Triple Jump

Swing leg

Many athletes make the mistake of concentrating solely on the jumping leg. The swing leg is vital in the triple. A simple challenge perhaps can illustrate my point. Using one leg try to jump up without swinging a thigh up. Don’t get very high do you? Now try to jump up swinging your thigh. What a difference, eh?

My point is, we need to work on the timing of the swing leg if we ever want to get good jumps. in the triple jump there is a particular timing that is critical for getting a good step phase. The swing leg must be bent and swinging through before the jump leg hits the ground. This will put the body in the position to move forward instead of crashing downward and shortening the step phase.

In my observation, the best jumpers will begin to move their swing leg as they exit the hop. Their swing leg will be next to the jump leg or slightly in front of the jump leg when they hit the ground. This is the point that the jumper moves his/her hips forward and starts the arc of the step. Jumpers who don’t get good hops are constantly told they are going to high, which is often true, but more importantly, they need to move their swing leg into place sooner to put their body in place to get a good step phase.

This entry was posted on July 17, 2011 at 11:59 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.