Long jump is an athletic field event in which the athlete is to have a run up of 12- 20 steps and jump as far as they can into a pit of sand. Today I am going to describe different techniques of long jump and how to improve your technique.
If you are a beginner you need to know the 4 components these are the run up, the take off, the flight and the landing. There are also three main techniques that you also need to know the hitch kick, the hang and the sail but I will talk about all of this seperately.
The run up is one of the most critical parts to long jump alongside the take off because speed, plus height equals distance. so you need to make you are going full speed before the board but first you need to make sure your run up is not too long or too short. so most people have a run up of 12-19 strides depending on your skill level.
The take off is also important to get right because this determines how far you will go. So you need to get you angles spot on, as you definitely don't want to jump straight up do you?, this isn't high jump after all.
Now onto the flight and there are 3 different techniques during the flight. these are the Hitch kick where are in a running motion through the air, the Hang when you are in a hang motion through the air and the sail where you literally sail through the air with your hips out in front of you.
And Finally the landing, this is where you need to transfer your flight technique into the landing to do this you need to bring your hips around to a point where they are directly in front of you and when you hit the sand make sure you have your toes up, heels as far away from you center of mass as possible and bring your arms down by your side but make sure you don't put them behind you because that is where you will be marked from.
Now when your school athletics day comes around I hope these skills and techniques will help improve you long jumping and maybe, just maybe you may even get in the top three.
