I love my titles;
Anyways, I have a kid who is an excellent long jumper and decent q’mer. Its just when he sprints he seems to pop up too much after ground contact. I realize sprinting is flight but if could cut the momentum going up in half and redistribute it to move forward more he would cut off considerable time.
Suggestions.
The important thing about sprinting is that there is a trade off between the appropriate amount of time spent on the ground and in the air. Keep in mind acceleration can only be attained when there is ground contact (COG). In essence, the GREATEST amount of acceleration can only be attained when this contact is present.
Elite sprinters dont increase their speed by spending more time in the air, they do it morso by spending less time on the ground. The ratio changes because of less ground contact time, not solely longer air times. The longer air times that are present in some elites are due to greater power from the contact, and thus a longer stride and not COG rising higher in the air.
See if you can get a good head on view of Mo or Asafa and have your athlete note how level the COG is maintained throughout each transition of the race. You will notice there is no large variation or oscillation of the COG between their strides. It can be summed up in one word…ECONOMY.
Whatever your athletes mental cue is, it needs to be changed. I would also consider changing his focus to something besides the quarter. Running 400’s wont help his long jump, although the opposite may be true. If your athlete plans on going somewhere with track he needs to specialize a little better depending on his age. If he is older than 16ish, I would have him do 100-200 and long jump, or triple and long.
His cue for the last two years was to step up and down (via CF). I think I might see what effect changing his arm mechanics may have on this also.
I know the 400 doesn’t really benefit his long jump. He runs on the 4x100 though. He has done the 100 in the past with very little improvement, but he can sprint for days. We moved him the the 400 for that reason and the need for points. His first LJ of the season indoors was just under 22ft. He is a great all around points getter though. He will probably play football in college (DB).
The thing about mental cues is that the same cue means different things to different people. Just keep that in mind as you try to teach him a more efficient style, the rest is mostly time.