High jump Skills and Drills

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Start at the beginning Four phases of high jump – Approach Take-off Bar clearance Landing Basics to stress – approach needs to be controlled speed during approach trunk needs to be upright, head held high last stride should be fast gain vertical lift at take-off drive the shoulder and arms upward at take-off drop head and lift hips over bar go for maximum lift before rotation lift, then straighten legs rapidly as soon as the hips clear bar

Warm up drills

High jump drills For all drills stress trunk upright, hips forward and head high 2X20m walking – lifting the heel and stretching the ankle quickly 2X20m bouncing ankle extension 2X20m bounding arm drill 10 hurdle hops, both feet, hurdle at lowest height 10 rocket jumps , hands on head, squat, then explode 10 frog jumps, 2 feet jump out continuously, butt down, chest up 10(each leg)single leg jumps, right, right, left, left single jumps, use arms and get knee up as high as possible ISO lunges – lunge and hold 10 knee tuck jumps – jump up bring knees to chest

Ab workouts ABS – core strength is key to high jump -ab workout 3 to 4 days a week at the beginning of the season -ab workout 2 to 3 days a week during the season

Approach Set up approach early in the season Teach J curve, this gives the momentum to go over bar -run circles around cones, lean in -run 2 circles then pop up on mat -run 2 circles then scissor over bungee Marking approach -8 to 10 steps -establish take off foot -take off spot 1 arms length in from the standard and 1 arms length out from the bar

Approach -run through 4 step approach until athlete is hitting mark consistently, then move to 8-10 step -run through 8 step approach, use cone to establish where J starts -at beginning have athlete pop up, driving knee high - jump over at low heights so clearing is not a concern

Marking step -take off point is one arms length in from standard and one arms length away from bar -take 4 strides in a J curve, make several 4 step approaches -from the 4 stride mark, take 4 more strides back, make several 8 step approaches adjusting as needed to hit take off mark -when comfortable with mark measure

Take off -body should be leaning in -drive knee up -drive arms up -body should naturally turn in the air

Bar clearance -head back, don’t drop chin too soon -butt and hips up -leading arm leads body, don’t drop arms too soon

Landing -once bar is cleared, drop chin and kick legs up -should land on shoulders Stretches to help with landing -bridges, fall backs and jump backs