Texas A&M Track & Field Series - Drills and Progressions for Championship Horizontal Jumps

with Jim VanHootegem,
Purdue University Assistant Coach - Jumps/Multis;
former University of Oklahoma Head Coach;
former Texas A&M Assistant Track Coach;
2013 Men's NCAA National Champs!
Back-to-Back-to-Back Men's & Women's NCAA Champions (2011, 2010, 2009);
in 2011 he was named a Mondo Regional Assistant Coach of the Year by the United States Track Coaches Association; coached A&M's first-ever NCAA Champion in the long jump in 2011; member of five NCAA Championship coaching staffs

This is your complete guide to horizontal jumps!

With a focus on speed mechanics and positioning, Jim VanHootegem teaches and demonstrates the drills he uses to develop championship-caliber jumpers.

Following an introductory warm-up phase, Coach VanHootegem focuses on sprint mechanics drills. These drills are used as a teaching tool to train your athletes to achieve a consistent tempo or rhythm during during the approach run. These drills train essential muscle groups to work together in concert.

With the approach run are broken down into sections, VanHootegem provides tips on how to get an accurate approach distance for your athletes. He includes the wall drill as a progression in teaching the athlete how to transition from pure acceleration mechanics to a near max-velocity position during the approach.

Takeoff progressions are delivered moving from slow walking to skipping to running drills. The emphasis throughout the drills is on achieving high hips and the feet low to the ground-low heel recovery with the swing or drive leg. Also emphasized is the actions of the feet in both landings and takeoffs.

VanHootegem uses low hurdles to instill a sense of rhythm in the jumper and to achieve multiple repeated takeoffs and landings. He demonstrates the importance of the takeoff leg/foot in achieving a big split and ensuring complete extension of the takeoff action. Finishing out the video he demonstrates some bounding and positioning drills he uses to enforce good landings between phases and to improve strength.

A multi-jumps section progression moves from double leg and simple to single leg, more complex and more specific to the demands of the events. Some static and dynamic jumps are used both alone and together. In the standing triple jump progression the emphasis moves from a vertical action to a more horizontal action covering increasingly greater distances. A progression of bounds is shown moving from baby bounds to longer bounds and also scissors or straight leg bounds.

63 minutes. 2012.