High jump is one of the most elegant disciplines of track & field – looking at the high jumpers soar over the bar makes the whole process seem fun and easy. Well, at least it might seem that way to the beginners who decide to try the discipline themselves! To nurture their love for the high jump, it is best to take some extra care when coaching them. Start with the drills that will make your would-be jumpers feel comfortable even at the beginning!
First of all, remove the bar: this will make the drills less painful for the young athletes, as they won’t have to keep falling on the hard metal bar. As a replacement, you can use a rope that will be equally easy to knock down, but much less painful to land on!
Secondly, you will want a drill that will teach high jumpers how to land on their backs. Keep the rope low and have the athletes flip over it until they are perfectly comfortable with landing on their backs. After that, they can start watching for their hands and feet, keeping them up to improve their bar-clearing technique.
Next drill is the scissors kick: have your high jumpers scissor-kick over the bar, testing both legs to see which one feels more comfortable as the take-off foot. Another great way to determine this is to have them kick a ball: the leg used to kick the ball will be their inside leg, while the other leg’s foot will be determined as a take-off foot.
After that, all that’s left is to set the approach run. The jumper should start by walking five paces forward away from the standard and then proceed by turning 90 degrees and running 10 steps forward. As a coach, take care to mark the fifth and the tenth steps. The fifth step is the point at which the jumper starts turning toward the bar, while the tenth step will be the take-off point. For further guidance, see an example of a high jump training program; you can also check this high jump training video that demonstrates the essentials of the jumping technique.
This pretty much concludes the very basics on how to introduce the young athletes to the high jump. Figuring out your technique is kind of like finding out how to choose the best online slots – once you got it, you’ll never