Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE BROAD JUMP the mid-air action as completed in the last movement of Practices 2 and 5, and tell the athlete from the high point in his flight to force his trunk forward and down and to shoot out his legs (Plate XLVI, Figs. 139 and 140, and Plate XLVII, Fig. 141). Get this phase right, despite the fact that he will probably "sit down, or fall back, in the pit each time. Then show him how to save himself from fouling by letting his legs bend at the knees as his heels cut the sand, and by using a forward and upward swing of the arms to help his body to lift forward over the fulcrum of his feet (Plate XLVII, Fig. 142). Never allow a broad jumper to practise jumping over a worsted stretched across the pit, or he will never learn the running-in-the-air action. I advocate teaching and stabilizing the run-up as the last stage of preliminary instruction in technique, because if the novice is unable to use a full-length approach run at optimum speed he has less temptation to aim at getting out, instead of getting up. As usual the coach should detect and correct major faults before he starts looking for the athlete's smaller mistakes. Fundamental errors to be expected are: (I) In the run-up: uneven striding; uneven speed; lack of concen– tration; shortening, lengthening, or checking the last four strides; too much or too little speed. (2) At the take-off: foot inverted or everted; too much or too little bend in the take-off leg; too hard a foot-stamp; incomplete rock-up; centre of gravity not over take-off foot-i.e., athlete leans forward, back, or to one side-take-off leg and thigh not fully straightened; knee of free leg picked up too hard and too high; centre of gravity does not go ahead of foot fulcrum before foot leaves take-off board. (3) In mid-air action: knee of take-off leg not driven up hard enough to raise the hips; hips dropped; knees not raisefl suffi– ciently; trunk not upright; head dropped back; arm action unbalanced; feet swung forward and heels kicked back, instead of one leg swinging back naturally as the opposite knee is raised; trunk turned partly sideways; leg action too fast or too slow, and jump lacks rhythm; arm and leg action unsynchronized; leg action continued after high point in path of flight has been passed. (4) In landing: trunk not forced forward after jumper has reached high point in flight; arms not flung back as legs are extended; legs extended too fully; feet not far enough ahead of body; legs not 'giving' sufficiently at the knees as heels cut sand; 2 A 369