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Teaching the Triple Jump

by Douglas Todd, Director, Cross Country and Track and Field
Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC), Walnut, California

Thanks to Coach Todd for this useful analysis of the triple jump, its phases, and the basic drills that will
help the beginner get the feel of the event.

Reprinted from Track Coach #146 (Winter 1999)

An understanding of the feel or rhythm of the triple jump is important to the development of any triple jumper. Because the athlete must clearly understand how the event flows from one segment to the next when done correctly, it is crucial that the coach begins instruction with a whole-part-whole teaching philosophy. The novice triple jump athlete must develop the kinesthetic awareness of the whole movement before instruction progresses to the individual parts. Without knowledge of the whole, the individual parts are meaningless.

Hand-in-hand with developing a feel for the event is the need for the athlete to get accurate feedback from the coach and his/her own individual feedback system (i.e., his sensory perceptions of his own physical movements). The combined feedback, or knowledge of response, is vital to the learning process. Accurate knowledge of response can cut the learning curve in half.

One of the best drills for teaching the rhythm or feel of the triple jump is described below. I have used this teaching method with my track team athletes and with numerous physical education classes during Track and Field activity units. It is simple, but effective, having worked in one-on-one settings and with a coed freshman PE class of over 50! Technique is not the goal of this drill; timing, rhythm and kinesthetic feel are the focus.

DRILL ONE

  • Line the athletes up on the goal line of the football field. They should have as much room between them as possible. They should all be facing you on the 10-yard line facing the group.
  • Tell them that there are two possible legal triple jump combinations. They are: LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, TOGETHER and RIGHT, RIGHT, LEFT, TOGETHER.
    The lefts and rights refer to foot strike patterns and the word ‘together’ refers to the end of the jump when both feet are together and the athlete has landed in the sand.
    As neither combination is better than the other, you will have them experiment with both and find out which they prefer. Once a preference is determined, the athlete should focus on it for a while.
  • Have everybody stand on the goal line facing you. Tell them to stand on their left foot with their right foot held off the ground.
  • Have them hop off of the left foot and land on the left foot. When his left foot hits, the athlete should then jump and land on his right foot. After the right foot strikes the ground, the athlete jumps off that foot and lands with both feet together, as if landing in the sand.
  • Repeat this process starting with the right foot. Do each a number of times until the athlete can determine which combination feels the best.
  • Repeat this process, allowing each athlete to use whatever foot combination he prefers.

    • Allow him to use a two-step run-up to the line, then a five-yard run-up, and finally allow a ten-yard run-up. The goal or emphasis in each of these drills should be the correct foot strike pattern and learning the feel and rhythm of this event. No attention should be paid to arm mechanics, length of phases, posture or any other technique variable at this point.

    BOUNDING
    A triple jumper must know how to bound; this skill is crucial if the athlete hopes to be successful. There should be some type of bounding work built into practice each day, especially for the beginning athlete.

    Start with single-arm bounding, and progress to double-arm bounding. Initially, it is much more important to work on the athlete’s timing and help him develop a smooth, or relaxed bounding motion. Covering distance, or “power” bounding, can come later and will come more easily once the athlete has developed the proper timing and sequence for the movement.

    Drill Two is designed to teach bounding to a large group of athletes in a relatively short period of time, as it keeps everybody busy and allows even the lesser skilled to see some success.

    DRILL TWO

  • For this drill, you need a shopping cart. (For purposes of illustration, assume there are twelve athletes being taught to bound.)
  • Place six athletes in lane four on the starting line. Place the other six athletes in lane four as well, only put them at the 50-meter mark. Each group should be in a straight line, one behind the other. The groups should be face each other.
  • Have the first athlete in the “starting line” group put his hands on the cart handles. Start pushing the cart toward the next group. While pushing the cart and moving forward, hop from the right foot to the left foot and then back to the right. As this motion becomes more fluid, begin taking bigger or larger hops and try bringing the knee of the forward moving leg up to and at least parallel with the shopping cart handle.
  • The drill should be repeated the entire 50 meters with emphasis on moving from one foot to the other with the knee getting even with the shopping cart handle. Speed is not the issue for this drill, but as the athlete becomes more proficient, his speed will increase.
  • Once the athlete has completed 50 meters, the shopping cart is “passed” to the next athlete, and the process is repeated going back down the track in the opposite direction. The athlete just completing the drill moves to the end of the line and recovers before his or her next turn.
  • Eventually, remove the cart and the athletes now bound on their own. This drill can be done with large groups of athletes. It can be done on a dirt track without any problems, and you can vary the distance. I believe this is an easy and effective way to teach athletes to bound.

    • PHASE OF THE JUMP
    Each phase is a distinct, separate action and must be learned and practiced as such. However, each of these phases must be blended together into one continuous, flowing movement when performed, which brings us back to and reinforces the whole-part-whole teaching philosophy mentioned previously. This whole action cannot be understood and performed without an understanding of and proficiency with the individual parts.

    Since by now your athletes should have a good feeling or awareness of the overall movement, I believe the best course of action for the majority of jumpers is to work at and drill the individual parts. Once each part is learned, the task becomes one of blending each part back together and learning the transitions. Coaching the transitions from runway to hop, from hop to step and step to jump is where the real work is found. Smooth transitions and active landings take time to master fully. Thankfully, however, much progress can be made by improving the individual phases.

    In the various phase discussions that follow, I will describe a left-left-right-together pattern. All cues and description are the same for either pattern.

    HOP PHASE
    The hop phase is a cyclic motion, and it corresponds to the athlete’s “left-left” sequence pattern that was learned in the first drill. The athlete runs down the runway, takes off or leaves the ground from his left foot, cycles this leg through, and now lands on the left foot.
    There are several important things to focus on in this phase. The first is maintaining as much horizontal velocity as possible. To do this, the athlete’s foot must strike the runway directly below the hips or center of mass.
    The foot must strike the runway in a “pawing” motion, which is similar to a person trying to propel himself forward on a skateboard.
    The posture of the athlete is important during this first phase as well. The body should be erect and upright at takeoff, during flight, and on landing. Any forward lean or bending at the waist can cause excessive forward rotation or inhibit necessary movement into the next phase.
    Sending both arms forward at takeoff is also important in the hop phase. A double-arm takeoff is not difficult to learn and has the added advantage of getting both arms out in front at the beginning of the jump. A strong double-arm pump increases the amount of force the athlete applies and improves overall jump distance.

    DRILL THREE
    The athlete should spend time performing the hop motion. However, the hops do not have to be from a full approach, nor do they have to come down on the runway. One of the best ways to perform a number of practice drills is to hop into the sand. Each setup can be a little different and varied according to ability level and emphasis for that particular day.

  • Line the athletes up on the runway approximately 10 meters from the sand.
  • Ignoring the takeoff board, have them run to the sand and execute the left-left takeoff. Where the athlete actually jumps from is irrelevant. What is relevant is that… the takeoff is more horizontal than vertical, the posture is good, the athlete has a focal point out beyond the back of the pit (he is not looking down), he lands on the same foot he took off with, and the foot strikes the sand beneath the hips and not out in front of the hips.
  • Since the takeoff foot for the hop phase must move in a cyclical manner, use the following cue: “Heel to butt, thigh high, paw.”
    “Heel to butt” reminds athletes that after takeoff the heel cycles up to the butt, which shortens the lever length and allows the leg to move forward quickly.
    “Thigh high” helps the athlete focus on a full range of motion for this leg and helps put the athlete in a good position to “paw” or strike the ground on landing.
    The final cue, “paw,” reminds the athlete that he is not simply landing but is involved in an active, aggressive, forward-propelling movement.
  • The drill can be done without a great deal of speed and can be done with a large group of people at once. Begin with a small run-up and little speed, eventually building up to longer and longer run-ups and increased speeds as the skill level improves.
  • There are other ways to teach the hop action, including:

    • 1. Single leg hop in place.
    2. Hop up stairs.
    3. Hop across the field with a partner following along behind and holding the non-hopping foot. (The athlete performing the drill should not wear spikes.)
    4. Hop over cones or other low obstacles. (The obstacles should break away or fall down when struck.)

    STEP PHASE
    The step phase is a crucial phase to the overall jump, but in many ways, a successful step phase is a result of a well-executed hop phase. Knowing how to bound and performing a strong, technically sound hop ensures an effective step phase. However, the step phase must still be practiced and mastered. There are a number of drills that help athletes get the most from the step phase of the jump.

    DRILL FOUR

  • After bounding is mastered, perform a hop and follow the hop with a split landing in the sand. (right leg in front, left leg trailing behind) The athlete should start back about ten meters from a takeoff area and at takeoff perform a hop. (Remember the pattern for this is left, left, right.) This time the hop must land on the runway. After the hop landing, the athlete must propel off the left foot and into a big bounding action. The right leg is in front, the thigh of the right leg is parallel to the ground, the athlete’s torso is upright, and he or she carries this position into the sand, landing in this split position. Holding this position teaches the athlete to ride this step position as long as possible and to get as much distance out of this phase as possible.
  • From this drill, the athlete can move to a hop and then step with an active landing, rather than the split landing in the sand. Begin on the grass, and look for the same kind of foot strike and positioning looked for in the hop landing. The athlete must be pawing the landing foot. The landing leg must be moving back down the runway (away from the sand) if the athlete hopes to move forward toward the sand.
  • After these drills are working well, mix the routine a little. Have the athlete perform not only the hop-step drill but some hop-hop-step drills, as well. It is also helpful to have the athlete drill both sides or jump patterns; he could do hop drills on both the right and left side, which is good for strength development. By overloading the motor system with drills on both sides, the expectation can be to see an even greater adaptation.

    • ARM ACTION DURING PHASES
    The arm action of the triple jumper is crucial. Good arm action can significantly add to the triple jump distance and must be practiced. However, sometimes too much emphasis on the positioning and location of the arms at each phase can cause the athlete to forget the main reason for the arm action in the first place.

    The arms are used to deliver a blow to the runway. They are used to increase the amount of force the athlete can apply to the runway, thereby increasing the amount of force returned, which translates into increased distance.

    A simple arm action cue the athlete can remember is “Leg back, arms forward.” In other words, every time a leg is coming down toward the runway, the arms are moving forward. Each time a leg is moving back toward the runway, the arms should be moving forward forcibly.

    DRILL FIVE
    I call this the BOOM, BANG, POW drill. Have the athlete walk with a double-arm swing and an exaggerated leg lift. Each time the athlete’s leg “paws” the ground, his or her arms should be moving forward. Arms should be driven to shoulder height and then cycled back.

  • This drill helps the athlete time, or “sync,” the arm movement with the leg action.
  • Once the rhythms of the drill are learned, speed can be added and more and more force can be put into the repetitions.

    • JUMP PHASE
    The jump phase is the final phase of the triple jump action and is identical to the long jump flight into the pit. The difficulty of this phase is the lack of horizontal velocity at this point in the jump. Another factor that can contribute to a poor jump phase is the athlete’s body position after “landing” from the previous step phase.

    Success here is dependent on what has happened before, so much time should be spent on this phase. Drill this phase off the grass into the sand or off the grass and onto a landing pit. The important thing to remember is to drill off a bounding action with only as much speed as would be found in the actual triple jump movement.

    Spend significant time on this phase. The athlete must experience the feeling of working against the forces that are attempting to negate a successful final movement. They will begin to understand the importance of effective arm action and knee drive as they spend more time trying to jump off a previous bounding movement.

    DRILL SIX

  • One-step jump: Use the right foot if the right foot is the one the athlete lands on from the step. Have the athlete stand with both feet together, facing the sand. Take one big step onto the takeoff foot and then perform a jump landing. Use only the speed the athlete can generate with one step. He should start close to the pit to ensure a safe sand landing.
  • Bound-Bound-Bound-Jump: The athlete performs three bounds and a jump movement into the sand. Make sure that the last foot to hit the ground before the sand is the same foot that the athlete will jump off when he performs the actual triple jump.
  • Bound-Bound-Bound to Low Box-Jump: This is the same movement as described previously, but the last jump is performed off a low plyo box. This drill requires two things to work successfully: the first is a plyo box that has a large enough surface area to provide a good target, and the second is a confident athlete. Do not try to force this drill onto a new triple jumper. Bring this drill in as athletes become more rhythmic and coordinated and are ready for a new motor challenge. Going off the box really “loads” the takeoff leg and forces the athlete to work both arm swing and free leg drive to get any kind of distance off the jump.

    • Remember that most of the jump phase is covered during long jump practice. Work on the transition to the jump phase is needed. Coming off the step phase, body position is the primary concern. Correct body position prior to the jump takeoff will benefit the athlete by allowing him to apply arm drive and free leg swing (i.e., forces) in the right direction and at the right time.

    FINAL
    As each phase is learned, a coach must help the athlete combine them. Eventually, the athletes will make their way toward short-approach full jumps and, finally, full-approach full jumps. Remember to coach each phase first. Once a certain proficiency is achieved, move to the transition from one phase to the next.

    Focus on maintaining horizontal velocity and jump for body position between phases and NOT distance. Too much emphasis is placed on phase percentages (of the total distance), and judgments are made of an athlete’s ability based on how well their jumps fit into these “ideal” models. Distance between phases will come with strength, maturation, and improved mechanics. Each jumper is different.

    It is our job as coaches to exploit what the athlete does right, to help him use these strengths to his best advantage, and minimize or eliminate any weakness. The triple jump is an intricate event and takes time to master. Give athletes time to learn and feel comfortable with the various phases and component movements. Patience will yield a consistent crop of triple jumpers for one’s program over the years.