Unread postby decanuck » Wed Feb 28, 2007 5:25 am
I don't know what your level of expertise is so I guess I'll give a quick sum of what limited principles I know regarding triple.
Triple jump is all about preserving runway speed. You don't have to sprint the fastest or have the highest vert, but if you have the dynamic strength to preserve your runway speed through the three phases of the jump then you'll be successful.
The good news for you is that you don't need to be doing a lot of actual jumping. In fact, one of the worst things you can do as a triple jumper is triple jump a lot. TJ puts huge stresses on the feet, shins, knees, pelvis, and spine. As a coach, managing this damage is paramount. Your athletes will compete better healthy and inexperienced than they will seasoned and injured, and a low volume of practice jumps will help this. That's not to say that you don't do a lot of training, though.
For practice, TJ from a shortened approach once per week is more than enough. The other jumping session should be long jump off the third phase jumping foot.
For training, incorporate lots of gross leg strengh in your weights (back squats, front squats, deads, cleans, hang cleans, lunges, one-leg squats). To capture these strength gains, superset these exercises with ones where the athletes lift 30% of their body weight as fast as they can (use speed squats, step ups, squat jumps, dumbell squat jumps, alternating lung jumps etc)
Again, dynamic strength is key so add in bounding at least once per week (alternate takeoffs, jumping steps, hop-steps, one-leg jumping steps), double leg jumps conditioning (tuck jumps, spring jumps, russian splits, etc - doing these through the sand is great), and series of box jumps or hurlde rebounds or combinations of both. Proper sprint training is important too, but it should be geared towards a good runway than a good race (ie a more upright, hips forward position, longer driving steps that shorten during the final 6-8 steps of the runway for acceleration).
I train in a combined events group, and a few of us do triple for the varsity team. We don't practice it--ever--but we're quite successful at it. All the LJ, lifting and dynamic stuff we do is enough.
One final thing that I can't stress enough. Make sure the first priority in every aspect of treaining is emphasizing biomechanically proper movements. A triple jumper with bad form will soon be a triple jumper with a bad back, shin, knee or what have you. TJ will highlight any technical imperfections like a can of yellow paint.
Hope that helps.
