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Coaching Long Jump Technique - Hang or Hitch-kick?

December 16, 2008 by Jimson Lee

When you think of high jump, no one uses the straddle roll anymore.

The last time we saw that technique being used was Vladimir Yashchenko (2.33m & 2.34m World records from 1977-78) or Valeriy Brumel (2.23-2.28m World records from 1961-63)

In the long jump, most Elite men (if not all) use the hitch kick. The Hang technique is still commonly used in women.

If you want some great examples of the hitch-kick, go to the previous articles on Irving Saladino or Ivan Pedroso 9 meter Long Jumps.

When was the last time you saw a world class man use the Hang technique in the long jump?

I say USSR’s Robert Emmiyan from the late 1980’s.

Here is his long jump from the 1987 World Championships on YouTube:



He even jumped 8.86 meters in ideal conditions - Altitude and +1.9m/s wind - using the hang technique, just 4 centimeters shy of Bob Beamon’s 8.90 WR from 1968. Here is that video on YouTube:



Look at the height off the board! I’ll bet his vertical jump is over 48 inches.

It wasn’t until the 1991 World Championships when Mike Powell broke the World record in the long jump in a great dual with Carl Lewis.

Hang or Hitch-kick?

I’ve seen too many high school and College kids try to hitch kick or “run in the air” that resembles a Dayron Robles shuffle in between hurdle steps.

The Hang or Hitch-kick technique serves three purposes: (1) balance, (2) prevent forward rotation once you leave the board, and (3) preparing for an optimal landing position. That’s it. “Running in the air”, without ground contact, does nothing to increase your jump. Nothing can be done to change the flight path once the foot has left the board.

You will need a lot of height off the board and a lot of air time to do a PROPER one-and-a-half stride or two-and-a-half stride hitch kick.

So if you feel pressured to change technique, focus on your runway speed and height off the board.

After all, the long jump is simply the 17 step sprint with a high jump at the end of the board!

Great Long Jump Coaching article

Athleticscoaching.ca has a great 6 page article on CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LONG JUMP TECHNIQUE (PDF File) by Dr. Heinz Weidner, Dr. Harmut Dickwach.

Summary of the article:

The authors from the German Democratic Republic discuss the run-up, take-off, flight and landing phases in a model target technique of the long jump and list some performance prerequisites for the event. The article is a translated summary of the text that originally appeared in Der Leichtathlet, No.27, July 1989. Re-printed with permission from Modern Athlete and Coach.

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Written by Jimson Lee · Filed Under Coaching, Featured Story, Track and Field, Videos 

Comments

2 Responses to “Coaching Long Jump Technique - Hang or Hitch-kick?”

  1. Adarian on December 17th, 2008 8:01 am

    Easy to describe the style of long jumps, but how do you do what the prescribe.

    One minor correction, you can alter the flight path and decrease the length of the jump but not to increase the length of the jump.

    I didn’t read if they did a correlation between length of last two steps and style of jump?

    That may be the mismatch in optimum long jump performance.

    A lot of people have 22 strides for approach by don’t come close to having a 42 to 45 m approach length. Sometimes people read these articles and try to do what is prescribe but fail.

  2. Jimson Lee on December 17th, 2008 8:46 pm

    @Adarian - good point. There’s nothing you can do to improve after take-off, but lots of things you can do to degrade performance. Just like anything else on race day.

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