I think it’s the best way up until about 16th grade. I subscribe to the Olfield quote of “why create demons at the board?” so we just ignore it and jump from whereever. That being said I also sometimes like having athletes start from varied starting marks and steer to a predetermined takeoff point.
Sure it’s great for creating temporal-spatial awareness, but oversteering to the board is a huge problem in high school and age groupers of those ages because they haven’t developed a mildly consistent acceleration/approach pattern. By doing this you are creating demons at the board.
My reasoning for 8th-9th grade is visual tracking doesn’t become effective till about 10-12 years of age and therefore they use it to develop all the abilities involved with visual tracking skill while in a dynamic movement pattern.
Developing the visual tracking then develop a consistent acceleration pattern in the approach which you change when the athlete adapts and steering happens early on and not throughout the stride. I don’t want junior or seniors in high school focusing on hitting the board, but focusing on executing the entire event with competence and self-confidence.