Want to Never Win a High Jump Meet? Ignore These 3 Things.

Hey Jumpers,

Many of you will be heading to your first track meets of the season this week and next. One of the most frustrating things in the world can be when you are jumping super high during practice only to do awful at meets.

Let me share my three secrets to successful meets. Do these things and your chances of hitting your best marks at meets (when they count) will go up 300%:

#1 - REST YOUR $*!& LEGS
I know you like to jump, and I know you want practice, but there are few things that can hurt your chances of clearing a good height than tired legs. Before my best meets I was resting 2 full days before. That meant if I had a meet on Saturday my last day of jumping was Wednesday. Thursday if I did work out I kept it under 30 minutes. I took Friday off completely. Then don't take more than 5-7 warm up jumps before the meet starts. Fresh legs jump higher.

#2 - DO A FULL WARM UP
And by "full" I mean at least a 30 minute warm up. Warm legs jump higher. Want proof? Go try to dunk a basketball without warming up at all. Play for 30 minutes and then try again. You'll be shocked at the difference. Take 2 slow laps around the track, run some ladders or wind sprints at about 60%. Then keep moving, put warm ups on, and keep those muscles warm. Again, warm legs jump higher.

#3 - RECORD ALL OF YOUR JUMPS
Bring a camera and have a fellow jump, parent, or whoever record your jumps. If you can, after each jump record a quick summary of how it went too, "I felt like I didn't quite lean enough on my curve..." so when you go back and review the video, you can compare how you felt to how the jump actually looked. With warm legs and rest, you'll be jumping your highest at meets. Use video to glean the most value out of each of those attempts.

That's it: rest for a couple days before the meet, warm up thoroughly, and record your jumps. Do this and you'll give yourself the best chance possible of winning or PRing at your next competition.

Good luck!

Gregg

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