How many attempts in one high jump meet is too many before fatigue costs more than it's worth?
A jumper who cleared cleanly early can start missing heights they have cleared before by attempt five or six, and the plant usually shows it before the miss does.
By the fifth or sixth attempt of a long meet, a jumper who cleared cleanly through the early heights sometimes starts missing ones they have cleared before, at practice and earlier that same day. The question coaches actually want answered is whether that is a real limit showing up, or just normal variance from one jump to the next.
Why meet-day attempts cost more than practice jumps
A practice session usually spaces full-intensity jumps out with real rest between them. A meet stacks attempt after attempt at rising heights with a short, fixed wait in between, and the body pays for that differently than it pays for a spread-out set. The first sign of the bill coming due is usually in the plant, not in the air.
What tends to go first
- The plant leg stays bent a beat longer before it straightens, instead of extending through cleanly the way it did on the earlier attempts.
- The approach speed looks the same on the clock, but the hips do not rise as much for it as they did a few heights ago.
- The last two steps into the plant get shorter or longer than the rhythm that worked earlier in the meet.
What the Film Room can tell you, attempt by attempt
The high jump setting reports hip rise as a share of body height and takeoff angle. Clipping each attempt and watching that hip-rise number slide downward across the day, while the approach itself still looks the same, is a more specific signal than 'they look tired': it says the speed into the jump has held up but the conversion of that speed into height has not.
A single 2D camera clipped from the stands cannot tell the difference between genuine neuromuscular fatigue, soreness carried over from an earlier event on the same day, and an athlete who has mentally checked out after a miss. All three can produce the same falling hip-rise number. Knowing which one it is still takes knowing the athlete's whole day, not just the clip.
Time your next meet with the phones you already have
Timing, the Film Room and the speed gates are free forever, with no account. A Club plan, $71 a month, puts your meets on your own results page, and one plan covers every phone.
Related
Why does my high jumper always miss the first attempt at a new height but clear the second?
The first jump at a new height almost never looks like the jumps that cleared the height before it, and the gap between the miss and the clear is usually small enough to film.
Read →Why does my high jumper lean away from the bar before they even reach the plant?
Some inward lean on the curve approach is correct high jump technique, the fault is starting it too many steps out, and film shows exactly when it begins.
Read →Can the Film Room tell you how high your jumper actually cleared?
The high jump setting reports hip rise and takeoff angle, not centimetres off the bar, and the reason is worth knowing before you expect the other thing.
Read →Try it: Track and field timing app for meets: gun, finish camera, results