Does anyone know a way to improve the hop phase of a TJ? At the moment I snatch at it a bit like I’m desperate to get my foot back on the ground. What would you suggest to improve it? In case it’s important I jump around 12m50 at the moment but I am primarily a long jumper.
TJ Hop Phase
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KeymasterYou “snatch” at the takeoff for the hop? If so, try to feel yourself run off the board a little more.
ELITETRACK Founder
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Keymaster
I assumed by snatch he meant “paw” or “grab” at the track.
ELITETRACK Founder
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Participant
I mean like really rushing – not even giving myself enough time to properly take off before I’m trying to get my foot back on the ground again to do the step. I don’t know exact phase lengths but my step is my longest I think and I go about 8 metres in the hop, step because I usually land on the LJ 1 metre board after the step.
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Participant
but my step is my longest I think
Although this may be true, I find it highly unlikely. If possible have a friend or coach measure your phases to give us some parameters in which to determine if the hop phase is really a problem. Forgive me for my ignorance but I need to respond in feet and inches. Your jumping approx. 12.50 m(41ft). You think your Hop,step phases equal 8m(26ft). This means your jump phase is approx. 14ft . All this running of the mouth is just trying to point out how short your jump phase is if in fact it is your shortest.
My guess is there are some posture problems in your technique that need to be corrected in order gain distance in your jump phase. -
Participant
What would be rough ideal phases for a 41ft jump? Are they not meant to be roughly equal? If hop step are 26ft, if they were identical length then that would be 13ft each with a jump phase of 14ft.
I've injured my left foot at the moment so I can't TJ just now to find out my phase lengths until it clears up. I'm just doing LJ just now since I can still run and I LJ off my right leg. -
Participant
These are not my words but sums it up basically. Two questions- Are you right or left handed? What leg do you use on your hop and step phases?
Technique plays a particularly important role in the triple jump. This event has been referred to as "power ballet," requiring speed, power, rhythm, balance, flexibility, concentration and body awareness. Each of the three phases of the jump is practised as a distinct, separate technique, and then combined into a continuous, flowing movement. The momentum from each phase must be carried to the next with an even rhythm. Of the total jump, the desired distance of each bound should be 35% for the hop, 30% for the step, and 35% for the jump. There are two triple jump combinations: left, left, right, together and right, right, left, together, referring to which feet strike the ground at each point.
Hop: the athlete takes off with their strongest foot (e.g. the left), cycles this leg through and lands on the left foot. The body should be erect and upright at take-off, during flight and upon landing. Any forward lean or bending at the waist can inhibit movement into the next phase.
Step: the take-off (left) leg pushes off and stays behind the body with the heel held high. The drive (right) thigh is held parallel with the ground, with the lower leg vertical. The drive leg then extends with a flexed ankle and is thrust downward for a quick transition into the jump phase.
Jump: The take-off (right) leg pushes off forcefully from the ground. The arms move forward and up, both thighs move into position directly below the torso, with the legs bent at the knees. The arms and legs then go forward and this position is held until the heels hit the sand.Landing position for both horizontal jumps is similar, with head and chest dropped forward and arms swung back. This allows the feet to extend far beyond the centre of gravity without the jumper falling back into the pit.
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Keymaster
What would be rough ideal phases for a 41ft jump? Are they not meant to be roughly equal? If hop step are 26ft, if they were identical length then that would be 13ft each with a jump phase of 14ft.
I've injured my left foot at the moment so I can't TJ just now to find out my phase lengths until it clears up. I'm just doing LJ just now since I can still run and I LJ off my right leg.Phases shouldn't necessarily be equal and it's difficult to tell what the optimal ratio is for a given runner. Check out this article by James Hay. Bing Yu also wrote a great article on optimization of TJ phase ratios a couple years back.
ELITETRACK Founder
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Participant
jumper14, that's so similar to me. I do everything with my right leg, and proably hand as well. Feel like my left can't do much. I could only do about 3-4m long jump if I take off with it. I've just started using the 9m board. Furthest I did from it was about 10m if I was not overboard. But I know both legs play a crucial part in triple jump so trying to strengthen my left now while its not injured.
PLY, can I know the reason for asking about the right handed and power leg stuff? -
Participant
PLY, can I know the reason for asking about the right handed and power leg stuff?
tjumper I thought of leaving this subject alone, everyone is different and the last thing I want to do is cause confusion or take away any confidence some of you young jumpers have. With that said, because you ask I will answer.
Since you first discovered you were right handed your left foot became your strong leg. Over time you developed your right leg because you figured it would help you with the activities that you do. Think of the TJ as more than just running and jumping, Think about Planting the foot, think about how the hips are involved,think about the heel -toe motion. These are all natural activities that you did before you ever heard of the TJ or LJ. As a right handed person, when you were a toddler did you reach for something just out of your reach with your left or right hand? If you said right what foot is planted on the ground?(your strong leg). And this held true in almost everything you encountered during your developing years. Your left foot planted and your right foot carried out the action(kicked the ball or kicked your friend). When you had childhood races in the streets which leg naturally went in the front pushing off the most?
But in your mind the misconception was I'm right handed and boy can I kick a ball a country mile with my right leg so that must be the leg I jump with. Check out a youth basketball game, how many kids can hit a left handed layup jumping off there right leg, Now check out the same kid on the right side jumping off his left leg. Although this example has more to do with the kids better control with his right hand , once he knows this most of his layups come on the right side and his left leg gets even stronger.
All of this chatter is JMHO, but I've coached a bunch of jumpers at all levels and 50% of the young jumpers always came in as right foot jumpers who with a little prying coverted over. Just this year I had a Young lady who had been jumping for 2 years and was stuck on 13'5 and 30ft. She was right handed and planted with her right foot. When asked she said her left foot just did not feel right and she could not jump with it. Because I was new at the school and not the head coach I let it go ( cowardly move). After a week of seeing her upset with her performances I decided to coach. And all that coaching involved was simply telling here that for training purposes we were going to do everything with the left leg at practice. This is a true story- I told her to use 3/4 run speed and concentrate on being aggressive and getting height off the board. First jump with left leg 15'2, all the jumpers started cheering and she almost cried. That was a great coaching experience for me as she also improved her TJ to 33'8 and won her district placed second in the regional and Qualified for state.
So to sum it up, If you are so inclined spend the off season developing your natural rhythm in your left leg through bounding. And remember SEEK PERFECTION WHEN BOUNDING. -
Participant
playing basketball allowed me to develop my left leg while i do high jump/triple jump/long jump off my right leg this allows a sense of balance but i bet i couldve jumped higher in high jump using my left leg if i knew how because i do all my dunking off my left foot.
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Participant
sorry i babbled my bad
i tried to explain that thru track triple jump and long jump training if u use the same foot for everything u might create imbalances…playing basketball off my opposite foot allowed me to prevent those imbalances and decrease chance of injury. doing unilateral work helped as well.
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Participant
Yeah know what you mean, I do some LJ off my left leg just to even things out. Can only use shortened approach though or I end up on my face! With the right handed, left leg theory i would just ask about the difference between strength and power. I mean if your left leg was always supporting your weight while the right did stuff like kicking – yeah it gets strong but it's more static strength while your right develops skills like timing/better co-ordination and gets used to doing things at speed.
I have no doubt that my left leg probably is my stronger leg – it just can't exert the strength that it's got in the same way as my right if there is any speed, timing or skill involved.
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Participant
I mean if your left leg was always supporting your weight while the right did stuff like kicking – yeah it gets strong but it's more static strength while your right develops skills like timing/better co-ordination and gets used to doing things at speed.
I have no doubt that my left leg probably is my stronger leg – it just can't exert the strength that it's got in the same way as my right if there is any speed, timing or skill involved.
True true… Does this mean that if the stronger leg manages to master the skills like the other leg, the performance would be much better? Also, is it 100% true that the stronger leg is opposite to whichever 'handed' u are?
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Keymaster
True true… Does this mean that if the stronger leg manages to master the skills like the other leg, the performance would be much better?
I don't necessarily think it needs to master the skills but there is definitely an advantage to minimizing the discrepancy between the strong and weak legs.
Also, is it 100% true that the stronger leg is opposite to whichever 'handed' u are?
No. While this is true in most cases I've seen athletes who are just the opposite.
ELITETRACK Founder
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Participant
Have you ever noticed that trying to do a skill wrong handed often results in a better outcome? Take the experiment where you try tossing a piece of paper into the garbage can a few feet away. Odds are you will concentrate more when you perform this very familiar task with the "wrong" hand. You may even have more success because of this concentration on the process that you go through in tossing the piece of paper. I often have my athletes to perform technical drills with nonpreferred sides. We spend time purposefully jumping non preferred, hurdling non preferred, and throwing non preferred. We do this for several reasons … more on that for some other post …
In our sport I have noticed that 400m hurdlers often hurdle "cleaner" with their non preferred leg. Perhaps this is due to a greater concentration on the task at hand — "it does not feel as natural so I better get it right." Technically, I notice that when we do unilateral rhythm drills, most of my triple jumpers will actually cover a slightly longer distance with their nonpreferred leg; however, just as you noted yourself, when we apply this to an actual jump with speed some of them fall apart in transition from hop to step or slow down coming into the board and limit their end results because they lack confidence. I believe, like you said, that this is because the comfort and coordination necessary to perform the transition perfectly at maximum intensity is simply not there. A triple jumper must be able to conserve as much speed as possible through each stage of the jump. This requires concentration on technique and physical power but also a practiced coordination that stands up to the rigors of a very fast transition regardless of jumping style — hop dominated, jump dominated triple jump techniques. What I am trying to tell you is that basic technique for your hop, step, and jump phases is part of the puzzle. Concentration on the specifics of that technique is another. Fitness is yet another. And for Triple Jump, rhythm and coordination are that centre piece of the puzzle that many athletes go hunting for after the puzzle has been completed (too late in my opinion as they should have started there and built around it). My suggestion would be to work on your coordination through a wide variety of bilateral rhythm drills and seek to rid yourself of any muscular imbalances that you might have between your dominant and non preferred sides.
You are probably already doing much of what I am going to suggest here.
Seeing as you are injured I would suggest doing easy hop, step combinations R R L L R R L L R R L L on grass to develop an even feeling and an even sounding rhythm. As your fitness improves you can add speed and distance to what you are doing. You may even add in multiple hops for distance on each leg to learn how to hop long (jog into 3 hops on the left leg then go back and do the same on the right leg, or use a standing start to learn to complete your take off), and multiple "steps" for distance from a jog to learn to stay upright and transition well. Finally, when you are back to health, start putting phases together (Hop to Step or Step to Jump) for distance from the run way into the sand. You may find that you feel more coordinated on both feet by that time and that your hop has evened itself out.
I am sure other coaches (if they agree with my prognosis) have more bilateral rhythm drills for you as well.
All the Best and Good Luck
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Keymaster
Tony-
What you speak of is due to the phenomenon known as bilateral crossover.ELITETRACK Founder
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