3 Posts That Will Help You Teach Young Athletes How to Long Jump
I hope that these three articles, when combined, will provide you with a complete basic guide for teaching long jump to young athletes.
Learn how to introduce the event, teach the run-up, and recognize and solve common mistakes young athletes make.
How to Teach Young Athletes to Long Jump
Discover a sequence of activities that can be used to introduce the long jump to beginners.
Read the full post
How to Teach a Long Jump Run-Up in 7 Easy Steps
How should a young athlete measure out their long jump run-up? Where should they start on the runway? How long should their run-up be?
Read the full post
10 of the Biggest Mistakes Young Athletes Make in the Long Jump
Ten of the most common errors young athletes make in the long jump, along with some possible coaching solutions.
Read the full post
Use some of the above tips next time you have to teach long jump
If you use any of the tips outlined in the above articles I would love to hear how it goes. Let me know by leaving a reply/comment or by using the below contact details.
Further reading:
Books from Amazon US Store:
Fundamentals of Track and Field
If this post helped you please take a moment to help others by sharing it on social media. If you want to learn more I encourage you to leave questions and comments or contact me directly.
Darren Wensor is a sports development professional, coach educator, specialist coach of young athletes and founder of the blog coachingyoungathletes.com. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Anchor or via email.
Coaching Young Athletes 
Darren, with regards long jump run ups
Your article is tipical of what you would learn at a level one course. Please try this, it will make a difference
Always use the 13 board of the triple jump runway as the take off board when practicing run ups. The 13 board is a long way from the sand pit, this will stop the athlete from thinking about the sand pit. ( the take off board is far to close) it also helps the coach to have the athlete run fast with a good technique.
Have them run from where you think there optimum speed will be, have them run right through the 13 board with a tall posture ( don’t worry about the age and the strides) then vary the length of run up by a few centimeters depending on how far the take off leg is away from takeoff board, with regard the take off leg it doesn’t really matter if it’s the front or back leg at the beginning of run up ( as long as they dont foul, yes my preference is front leg.) Then with tape measure, measure from 13 board to start of run up. Never have an athlete step it out. It is always different. Once you have done that take the tape measure to the long jump take off board to how many meters you measured from the 13 board.
To convert speed into height is difficult for young athletes when they are
jumping, 99% of the time it is flat.
I have the athlete slow down a touch to allow themselves to have a tall posture for takeoff, it also allows them push off the take off board with power and strength. Also have them jump off a pop up board from 5 to 10 meters to have them feel what it’s like to jumping high rather then jumping long.
Darren, all your articles and coaching institutions are not wrong, they will work they they are proven, but they are old, hope you don’t mind, just my thoughts, happy to discuss.
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Hi Rod. Thanks for your detailed comments. Your contribution is exactly what I would love to see more of on this blog – alternative views from coaches that add to the information already presented. It is good for the readers and good for the author! Your tips are really useful and I look forward to experimenting with them in addition to the methods that I use. More such information sharing within the coaching community is needed. I would love to hear more from the coaches out there. Darren
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