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Which foot should a high jumper take off from?

The foot decides which side the run starts from, and most athletes have already shown you their jumping foot somewhere other than the high jump.

It is one of the first things a new high jumper needs settled, and one of the few questions in the event with a clean mechanical answer. The athlete takes off from the foot farther from the bar. Which foot that is depends on the side they approach from, so the real question is which foot they jump best off, and the side follows.

The rule, and why the side follows from it

In the flop, the takeoff foot is the outside foot at the plant, the one farther from the bar, while the inside knee drives up. That pairing, together with the lean the curve creates, is what turns the athlete so their back ends up to the bar. Off the inside foot the turn does not happen, which is why the flop is not done that way.

So a jumper who takes off from the left foot starts on the right-hand side of the bar, as you look at it from the runway, runs in straight and curves to the left. A right-foot jumper does the mirror image from the left-hand side. The scissors works on the same principle: the takeoff foot is the one away from the bar, and the inside leg swings over first.

Finding the foot without a bar

Most athletes already have a jumping foot, and they show it every time they jump off one leg without thinking about it. Watch for it before you ask, because an athlete who is asked will often pick the foot they think they are supposed to use.

• A running one-footed jump to touch something high, such as a basketball backboard. Do it several times and note which foot they leave the ground from.
• A basketball layup. A right-handed layup is normally taken off the left foot, but watch the athlete rather than assuming.
• The long jump, if they have done any. The long jump takeoff foot is usually the high jump one as well.
• Kicking a ball. The foot planted beside the ball is often the jumping foot, though this is the least reliable of the four.

If those all point the same way, and for most athletes they do, that is the takeoff foot and the side is settled. An athlete who is consistent does not need a longer investigation.

When the tests disagree

Some athletes genuinely jump about as well off either foot, and some have jumped off the less natural one for long enough that it now feels normal. This is where a camera earns its place. Have the athlete do short-approach scissors off each foot over a low bar, set the phone at the same distance and height on each side so the two views mirror each other, and put each clip through the Film Room's high jump and vault setting.

The number to compare is hip rise as a share of body height. It measures how far the plant actually lifted the athlete, it ignores the bar height, and because it is a vertical measurement it is less affected by camera angle than the takeoff angle, which a curved run distorts. If one foot gives clearly more lift across several jumps, that is your answer. If the two are close, pick the side where the athlete runs the curve more comfortably, because an approach they trust is worth more than a centimetre or two of lift.

Signs an athlete is on the wrong side

• An extra quick step squeezed in near the end of the run, so they can take off from the foot they actually prefer.
• The wrong knee driving up at the plant, so the athlete turns towards the bar instead of away from it.
• Landing on a shoulder or a hip instead of the back, jump after jump.
• A curve that keeps flattening out, which often means leaning into it from that side does not feel safe yet.

The Film Room will not spot these for you. It does not know which foot an athlete took off from or which side they ran from, and a single side-on camera sees the curve poorly. What it can do is tell you, in numbers, whether a change gave the plant more lift.

Switching sides also switches the foot the athlete starts the run on, so measure the approach again with the athlete running it from the new side rather than copying the old marks across.

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