1. Long Jump Run-Up Velocity
Freelap USA – A lot of the long jump performances have been stagnant or regressed over the last few years, and many point to the run up velocity as being part of the cause. You have several testing parameters that address max speed and acceleration, but include 150 m test. Can you share how they interact with both the Triple and the long Jump?
Boo Schexnayder – You have a limited time frame over which you can maintain high levels of fine motor control, so the ability to accelerate powerfully is prerequisite to high performance. This explains which some fast people can’t convert on the runway, because too much energy is expended to get to optimal velocities. Maximal velocity correlates with performance more than any other parameter for obvious reasons. The 150 is important to me because it is a good indicator of the ability to maintain motor control under duress and at high levels of power output. The ability to move freely through takeoff without guarding, tentativeness, or deceleration is directly related to 150 m performance for this reason.
2. Injury Prevention in Long Jump Traning
Freelap USA – When designing the actual jump training coaches have a huge set of options but must individualize the application of plyometrics or athletes may get injured from the wrong sequence and loading pattern. What are good general precautions that could guide us beyond contact totals and rest periods? Progressions are talked about but is there something deeper?
Boo Schexnayder – I really don’t think there is much dark and deep there, I think the problems arise from moving the coaching eye off the target. It’s very simple, over the course of time you must increase the impact values and levels of tension applied to the tissue, and employ some variety to give yourself some room for error and reduce injury risk. All decisions on exercise choice need to be on target in that regard. I think most injuries result from (1) fear of regression during rest phases, therefore loading values don’t fluctuate enough, (2) poor evaluation of the intensity associated with each individual exercise used, and perhaps, the most common of all, is (3) failure to progress. Each type of plyometric exercise serves a specific purpose in the progression and once that purpose is accomplished, it should go away. Many coaches fear losing something, and continue it in spite of its expired usefulness, and it becomes a new boulder in the bag of training baggage rather than a contributor.
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See Coach Schexnayder at the 2014 BSMPG Summer Seminar
