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Tonight's practice was focused on speed. The main drills touched upon some mechanical elements of sprinting and proper starts out of the blocks.
So, we focused (mostly) on the approach during our long/triple jump training session.
The athletes are becoming increasingly consistent in their approaches, and thus are maximizing much of their potential from a speed standpoint. Some still need to learn how to properly takeoff at higher speeds, but overall they are doing quite well with hitting the boards during meets!
In all honestly, I think we've only had 3-4 scratches TOTAL the past 2 meets - pretty impressive for such a young group!!!
While most athletes did approaches, I took triple jumpers and worked on properly using the back leg to execute an explosive/powerful step phase (video above).
The girl in the video is having trouble performing the step phase correctly. Instead of using her back leg in a swinging/momentous way she is simply driving her knee upwards. This may sound like she is performing the step phase correctly as many coaches preach that their athletes "drive their knees", but the driving of the knee is only half of what needs to happen in preparation/execution of the step phase.
Try this - stand tall with one leg behind you. Now, bring that leg forward and go straight into a knee up (in front of the body) position.
Reset.
Now, stand tall with one leg behind you but bring the leg forward NOT by simply raising it but by swinging your foot like you are trying to kick a soccer ball. Again, end in the knee up position.
What did you notice?
If done correctly you'll notice that the first movement created very little force or momentum while the second movement pulled your forward.
If taught correctly, this could be a huge game-changer for a number of inexperienced jumpers!
While I worked on this athletes watched one another's boards (at approaches) and gave each other constructive criticism and feedback on what went right/wrong in their approach. I went over to listen to some of their discussion and was incredibly happy and proud of the knowledge many of them have built this season and how well they used that knowledge to communicate and help one another!
Again, our boards were (for the most part) spot on!
TOMORROW
Meet # 12. CANNOT WAIT!!!
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