I must be somehow getting better at making videos as I was asked by leading athletic equipment supplier NEUFF to produce a video on acceleration for them. In it I talk about the value of developing acceleration for all athletic events and I also take a look at some of the means used to develop it - such as hill running, harnesses and sleds.
Technique is also considered - such as body angles and heel recovery. I also consider the land, for example, which should be placed on a sled and how too great a resistance can negatively affect sprinting biomechanics.
To hopefully provide some clarity I also explain why adding a heavy weight to a sled can also act as a conditioning means for the more senior (training mature) athlete,
Let me know what you think of the video.
And if you're looking for sleds, harnesses and other items of athletic kit for all events do head over to NEUFF.
FOR ALL ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT: PLYO BOXES, MED BALLS, THROWING IMPLEMENTS, SLEDS AND STARTING BLOCKS GO TO NEUFF ATHLETIC 

What do I mean, well the lack of competitive opportunities for athletes, who have been trying to train as best as they can. This seemingly applies to athletes from all over the world at the moment and is affecting the various track & field events differently. Of course, I’m particularly concerned with the long and triple jumps being the events I coach.
 
Our UK’s English, Welsh and Scottish Champs have all been cancelled and we wait to see whether any higher-level comps (other that the British Champs scheduled for September) will actually happen. Elite athletes in the sprints jumps, hurdles and throws seem to be finding the odd comps abroad but here our lock-down restrictions have mitigated against limited scale meets being run for those of a lesser level and of course young athletes. 
 
One of the main issues to limit UK comps has been that very few tracks were open … and it’s only now in late July that they are unlocking their gates and putting into practise COVID secure environments. For many tracks the locks are still in place for field events as well … my local track, for example, will open soon but the pits won’t – yet, the alternative one I’m currently using does allow pit usage and has done for numerous weeks. There are anomalies and a major one is between sports where football can be played competitively …
 
Last night I watched a specially staged long jump meeting from Sweden featuring many of the country’s top jumpers and it was supported by the Swedish Federation. The broadcast quality was top-notch. Tobias Montler and Khaddi Sagnia both competed in Gothenberg. It seems that there will be a series of these meetings. I believe the driving force behind them is top Swedish Coach – Yannick Tregaro (who presented at the European Jumps and Sprints Symposium which was held last Dec in Karlstad, Sweden and which I attended).
 
So, it seems that I and fellow coaches will have to follow Yannick’s lead if we want to have any regular jumps comps in the UK this year, but having looked at the documentation produced to run one it’s going to take some organising and a stumbling block may well be finding a track willing to cooperate. So, watch this space for if and when we put on any jumps meets. I certainly want to make it happen.
​Click on the banner below to watch the meeting from Sweden.

I regularly get questions posted on aspects of jumping, sprinting and conditioning on my various social media and in particular my YouTube channel., so I thought I would share a couple with you with my answers.

QUESTION 1 TRANSFERENCE OF TRAINING
I have been saying the same thing for years be it with runners or swimmers. It is all about thinking about transference and keeping the exercises as close to the chosen sport or activity as possible. I believe in working on challenging stability and making exercises as proprioceptively rich as possible so that the athlete figures out how to create a feeling of 'stiffness' and control is really important. So using plyometric exercises combined with landing and taking off from a slightly unstable surface or Bosu Ball can work OR stepping up onto a Bosu Ball with a weight or sandbag on the shoulders might be more rewarding. Wonder what you think?
ANSWER
I agree that working on unstable surfaces can be great for proprioception and injury avoidance and learning that "control" needed. One of the best ways, I believe of challenging the long jump take-off, for example, is by using a low mat for the penultimate step (as you may have seen in a video or two of mine). This should only be a couple of cms high and it overloads the take-off improves force absorption and return. We use a 6-10 step approach as it is very demanding. So this drill is very close to the requirements of the long jump take-off and has that direct transference as you indicate. I'm not one for heavy weights and Olympic Lifts in their own right, although we do do these (with the mature jumpers) following more triphasic methods. For young athletes there are far better and much more specific ways to get stronger, for jumping and sprinting from my point of view. With older athletes it's then a case of working out what they need more specifically - which could include a greater emphasis on weights and a specific muscular action.

QUESTION 2 SPRINT TECHNIQUE
My right thigh gets higher than Asafa Polwell’s one. Maybe it’s just about increasing frequency?
ANSWER
Your knees need to do forward and up and not just up (as may be the case by the sound of it). Think about moving your hips to generate speed and lifting the heel from the back of the body to the front and across the knee to achieve this also. If you improve your hip speed then your stride length and frequency will improve as well as your technique.
There are plenty of videos on the channel which will help you with this.
Check out this one. https://youtu.be/2hlZnNWf_wg

QUESTION TRIPLE JUMP
Double arms or single arm action which is the best,what is difference between this two types.
Double arm is probably the best throughout all the phases from a balance and power transference perspective. A single or quarter on the take-off can allow for more speed .- but due to the way the arms can recover it can lead to imbalance in the hop going into the step. Computer models for what they are worth in the real world vindicate the use of a double arm action throughout the phases and also a hop dominant phase ratio.
Women tend to use a counter movement swing more for balance than propulsion. Hope this helps Here a useful video: 
https://youtu.be/YwPdMri6XzA

AND DON"T FORGET TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE JUMPER WHERE MANY MORE QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED. ONE OF THE STAND OUT ONES BEING HOW TO RETURN FROM LOCK-DOWN BY ENGLAND ATHLETICS MEDICAL LEAD, PHYSIO Stuart Butler. Click on link to view to go and watch video for more content.

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​I hope you are coping with lock-down and that in terms of your track (and other sports) participation you are at least maintaining your fitness and if you are a coach coaching virtually, if you're unable to coach face-to-face. I've been beavering away and have just published the summer issue of THE JUMPER. it's packed full of multi-media that will hopefully keep you interested!

CONTENTS

In this issue we have articles on how to return to speed after lock-down written by top UK and England Athletics physio Stuart Butler. We also have an article on how to review and monitor your athletes' training by elite Brazilian coach Nelio Moura and an article on jumper's nutrition. 
I write on the importance of speed for the long and triple jump and unearth some research which relates 100m (and other variables) to potential distance a jumper could achieve (for the long jump).
There are also more coach and athlete led features - for example, we talk to Gabe who's a coach of all track & field events based in Singapore. 
There's also a feature on how Electro Muscular Stimulation can boost athletic performance, plus product reviews.
We talk to Markus Lundborg, the triple jumper and driving force behind the Triple Jumpers Podcast and social media.(70.6k followers on instagram!).
The Jumper is also packed full of links to my YouTube videos where relevant and external sources. So, all in all there's much to read, watch and listen to. 
​
I hope the content assists, educates and entertains you, whether you be a fellow track coach or athlete or involved in another sport.

Over a number of years I have developed the use of low gym mats for developing the long and triple jump take-off. The mats are positioned variously, for example, on the third last step, and the take-off step, the third last step only and on the penultimate step.
The different positions can produce a different outcome and there are ways to alter the emphasis of the drill by manipulating the mat spacing.
In the first of a two-part series on my youtube channel I go into detail about the use of two mats for establishing a better take-off rhythm, take-off and take-off drive. You can watch the video below.
There have been some questions on the YouTube channel and my Instagram page on the mat spacing - this is my response to one questioner:
 ... try centring the first mat in the middle of the board, then the third one's centre should be circa 4.90-5.20m. Do experiment, the spacing needs to promote the speed through the last strides, the Jumper should not push from the third ... the contact is flat footed. Note this spacing is for long run-ups, mats would need to be a little closer for shorter run-ups and to manipulate speed if desired. Hope this helps, good luck,
Type of mat
I also had a question on the type of mat that I use ... they are basic judo/gym mats of 1m square that interlock together to make larger sizes. I have added an Amazon link to this page, should you be interested in getting some for yourself. The mats can take a spike and are non-slip. I also use them for triple jump and getting. for example. a longer step phase (i.e. jumper hops onto mat and then steps onto the second which is placed a suitable distance away. I will say more on the use of mat drills for the triple jump (and general jumps conditioning) in another video/blog post.

Do let me know how you get on?

Recently I was asked to do a session for Ireland Athletics, This involved two days in Athlone working with their top long and triple jumpers. As part of my tasks - I produced some course notes - as it were - to support the athletes and coaches learning. Well, I got a little carried away - partly as I know how to use an on-line multi-media magazine creation software programme (Lucid Press). The consequence was more magazine that power-point presentation. So, I thought I would further work on The Jumper and then release it to a larger audience. 
You can click on the image to view what I have created and there's also a short video of the content embedded into the page too via YouTube. As of today after not too much promotion 500 people from around the world have taken a look at The Jumper.
Should support be forthcoming (I have set up a Patreon page), then I may do a further "issue" and ask (and hopefully pay) other coaches from the jumps community to contribute.
Let me know what you think.
Within the first issue of The Jumper are:
My thoughts on how to piece training together
Long and triple jump run-up accuracy tips
Weight training for the jumps - limitations and potentialities
Plyometrics and specifically drop jumps 
Links to The Triple Jumpers Podcast
The Jumper also contains links to some of the videos on my YouTube channel which further illustrate what's being talked about in some of the articles.
Again do let me know what you think.

European Jumps & Sprints Symposium Sweden
Last weekend I went to Karlstad in Sweden and met up with around 100 coaches mainly from Europe to watch various practical and theory sessions, taken by many of the world's leading coaches.
The event is run every two years and is organised by Swedish Athletics. I was lucky enough to have visited two years previously when the event was in Falun. The symposia always take place in Sweden.
There were numerous presentations of great interest and I filmed and recorded some of them. Attached to this post is the practical session taken by Yannick Treago on warming up and the penultimate step and take-off for the long jump. Yannick has coached numerous elite jumpers, including legendary triple jumper Christian Olsson and currently long jumper Thobias Montler - you can see much of the session in the video. I was very interested in the thoughts on take-off and the role of the arms and a different inflection on this (and the penultimate step). I say different as Yannick's views mirrored those of Brazilian, double Olympic gold medal winning long jump coach Nelio Moura - who presented in the UK a few weeks back (you can see his thoughts on take-off and the arms also on the YouTube channel and via the previous post). It's odd, that as far as I am aware, we in the UK don't work this higher lift arm action ... I have been trying it out and I think it could well be the way to go. So, look out for some commentary on that in future videos and posts.

It's been a busy period for me despite it being the supposed "off-season". The off-season is the time when winter training begins and plans are made for the indoor season and the outdoors, As I get older the months seem to fly by and this fast forward of time is perhaps not helped by the "looking forward" to the next track season ... it's a case of wishing for it to speed forward so that the improvements in the athletes being coached can be really seen and appreciated.
Anyway, back to the present and this off-season! Recently I got to meet top jumps coach Nelio Moura, Regular readers of this blog or viewers of the YouTube channel will know that I have interviewed him in the past - for Athletics Weekly magazine.
It was great to catch up with Nelio at Loughborough University over a coaching clinic weekend organised by England Athletics. Nelio took four sessions , two practical and two more theory. These covered plyometrics, take-off drills for long and triple jump, has coaching journey and also the more technical aspects of the long and triple.
It was interesting to find out that Nelio's first successes as a coach was with a race walker! He was a triple jumper himself but soon moved into coaching and he now coaches with his wife and daughter. Nelio spends time at present between Sao Paolo, China and Madrid coaching. Why the latter two, well he has been working with Chinese jumpers for a while, so the trips to China make sense. And Madrid, well that is where the Chinese and some of his Brazilian and south American jumpers congregate from time to time in the summer to train.
I enjoyed the weekend with Nelio and was lucky enough to have a couple of chats on my own with him and pick-up a little more knowledge. 
I am in the process of pulling together some videos from the weekend and the first is now live on the channel - this is on plyometrics. (You can watch it from the box below). Next up will be one on his thoughts on take-off. The two videos will cover the practical sessions taken by Nelio. I may try to pull together some comment on the more theoretical ones.
Good luck with your training and competitions,
​John