STRAIGHT LEGGED BOUNDING

A dynamic warm up drill....

Many coaches and jumpers might call this goose stepping, but the emphasis in doing a straight leg drill with speed and with the emphasis down and back through the
ground...

The fundamental and most important difficulty of this movement pattern is the jumpers 'inability' to get that leg back underneath them to increase stiffness and response to the track....ABSOLUTELY KEY

A TIP: Always start young long and triple jumpers with learning straight leg bounds with a vertical through the top of the head emphasis so they understand that aspect of the movement and carry it over to any of the specific drills they are going to use.

This way, any movement of the leg to the ground, will have a 'MEMORY' from straight leg bounding.

For Triple Jumping - You can move do performing straight leg R's and straight leg L's from a 4 step run in into the pit.....

Learning to use the glutes to get that leg 'back to the ground' and then having a vertical response from the 'foot-calf-quad complex' is the root of active landings for triple jumping....AGAIN, VERY IMPORTANT

To sum up: Until they can master straight leg with a small vertical component don't drill the event.....

When a long jumper reaches 'touchdown' they must prepare the take-off leg to limit any unwanted compression at the knee joint. They firm the take-off leg and just prior to touchdown they dorsi-flex the toe to shin and attempt to initiate the 'ankle sweep back'.

The fact that they've practiced the straight leg bound 'thousands' of time will help them effect this crucial action...

NOTE: Thanks to Randy Huntington [USA] for help with some of the technical content...

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• long jump
• long jumping
• plyometrics