Becoming a Champion: Triple Jump for Girls' Track & Field

Stacey Smith uses her experience as both a coach and competitor to teach the triple jump from warm-up to practice, from competition to cool down, in this outstanding instructional track video.

Coach Smith introduces the concepts necessary to be a successful triple jumper. She then covers warming up, including drills and how to incorporate sprints into your warm-up. Head Circles, Arm Swings, and Trunk Circles are just some of the drills that are covered. The importance of putting in 30-45 minutes to properly prepare your body is stressed because of the explosive power needed to triple jump.

As with the long jump, triple jumpers are sprinters first and controlling that speed is the focus of this section. A-Skip, Karaoke, and High Knees are some of the drills used to develop controlled speed to keep the jump horizontal and not vertical.

The approach, which is the main part of the jump, is covered from the beginning to end. Coach Smith covers how to teach a proper approach, showing numerous drills using both the track and runway. Smith puts it all together by teaching the proper way to execute the three phases of the actual jump (the hop, the step and the jump). Smith offers simple, effective coaching cues and drills that drive home the point that The Hop is the crucial point to the triple jump, The Step is the most difficult part, and The Jump just follows.

Along with technique, Coach Smith offers over a dozen drills to increase the strength and form of your triple jumpers. In addition, she discusses meet day providing you with a series of hints to help manage your jumpers in competition.

Coach Smith provides over 20 drills that cover the triple jump from start to finish. Having a large selection of different drills which develop the entire athlete is key to successful triple jumping.

48 minutes. 2013.