I’ve noticed that generally track jumpers have a very slight build compared to sprinters, there are lot of sprinters who are very muscular and seem “heavy” yet most jumpers are skinny. What are the thoughts on body weight playing a more significant role in height/distance of jumps as opposed to running speed?
I’ve seen both prototypes jump far. I’ve seen sprinters who long jump, and jump far. Obviously HJ tends to have more lithe athletes but there are anomalies to that too. Generally speaking in long jump I don’t know what the breakdown is but i think its more half and half in physical makeup between slight and more muscular… The issue with body weight to me is usefulness… I think theres a point youre just carrying extra muscle , hypertophied fibers that you dont recruit during a takeoff. A persons quantity of motor units is i believe genetic, and the quantity preset and so therefore they can only recruit a max number of fibers per contraction, and non-recruited fibers act as the athletes bearing load along with their organs and other parts…
Just taking the best of the best as samples… RANDY WILLIAMS 1972 dwight phillips 2008, lutz dombrowski 1980, jeff henderson (2016) all won the olympics and i’d say they were built pretty solid like a compact sprinter… bob beamon, carl lewis, ivan pedrosa, saladino were also olympics winners and were more sleek… I’m not really sure there’s a prototype…Jesse Owens was a monster, Ralph Boston was long and tall 6’ 4 i believe… plenty of variation