BALANCED APPROACH
KEEPING HEAD AND NECK IN BALANCE PLAYS A CRUCIAL ROLE IN A SUCCESSFUL HIGH JUMP RUN-UPS, AS DR SEAN CAREY EXPLAINS
IT IS ALWAYS good for aspiring high jumpers to observe the different styles of preparation and run-up of elite practitioners. For instance, Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic, like many of her male and female contemporaries, spends a considerable amount of time standing quietly, feet together underneath her head and arms hanging by her sides, thinking through or visualising what she is about to do and what she wants to happen.
Sometimes she has her mouth open, sometimes it’s closed. But having satisfied herself with her mental preparation, Vlasic takes a step back with her right foot and leans backward so that most of her body weight is taken by that foot.
Then she looks forward to where her feet are about to land and starts her J-shaped run-up with long, almost slow-motion, strides, arms moving in sync, before accelerating, crucially using her eyes to look over the bar to where she wants to go.
A few paces later she obtains lift-off. Interestingly, apart from the lean forward from the pivot point of the ankle joints to initiate running forwards, Vlasic remains pretty upright throughout the process.
Variation
New world indoor champion Vashti Cunningham, however, starts the process very differently. Unlike Vlasic, she doesn’t want to spend too much time in quiet-feetparallel standing contemplation – she wants to get moving.