GUIDELINES & OVERVIEWS

Practice:

Practices are Monday through Fridays from 3:45 – 6:00 pm-ish
and some Saturdays 9 am – 12 pm

Be at practice every day! If there is a conflict or you are going to miss a practice, you must clear it with the coach (school or family conflicts only)
Be Prepared! Come to practice with equipment: shoes, spikes, sweats, etc.
Be able to complete practices
Listen to your coaches

Meets:

Dual meets are on Wednesdays or Thursdays and invitational meets are on Saturdays. Saturday meets are generally for Varsity athletes and some upper-level JV. All athletes are expected to be present for Falcon Relays!!!

You must be wearing issued TPHS track uniforms at all meets – NO EXCEPTIONS
You may not leave a meet early – even if you are done competing
Wednesday/Thursday meets start at 3:45 pm and end around 7:00pm
At the end of HOME meets there will be a clean up session and then a short team meeting before leaving
For away meets we are limited to taking 180 athletes. There will be busses to and back from meets.
You may go home with parents when the meet is over (parent note needed).

We expect all athletes to treat all teammates with respect as well as teams we compete against.

If you are unable to follow these rules and guidelines, then Falcon track and field is not for you

Creating a Successful Track Season

1. Practices

Come to practice each day—don’t make excuses to cut practice
Do the workouts—deal with being tired and having sore muscles at times

2. Event Specialization

Choose an event area you want to be in, or think you can be good at: What are your strengths? (speed, endurance, power, jumping) Each strength leads to a specific event area
The learned (technical) events (hurdles, jumps, pole vault, throws, and even distances) take time to master—you must be persistent!

SPRINTS: 100m, 200 m, 400 m
HURDLES: 100 HH (girls), 110 HH (boys), 300 IH
JUMPS: Long Jump, Triple Jump, High Jump
DISTANCE: 800m, 1600m, 3200m
THROWS: Shot Put, Discus
POLE VAULT
RELAYS: 4x100m and 4x400m – open to all event areas but are ultimately determined by the head coaches

*Be careful not to try and master too many learned (technical) events in the first year—they are time consuming
**If you are a sprinter you should attempt to jump or hurdle. If you are fast in the 100m you can also long jump!

BE COMPETITIVE – SET GOALS – TRY NEW THINGS – GO FOR IT

OVERVIEWS

LONG JUMP OVERVIEW

Success in the long jump is dependent on how fast you run! The world record for men is 29.36 feet by Mike Powell in 1991. The world record for women is 24.67 feet by Galina Chistyakova in 1988.

There are 4 phases to the long jump:
Run-Up / Acceleration Phase
Take-Off Phase
Flight Phase
Landing Phase

The Run-Up
The object of the run-up is to generate the best controllable speed to the take-off board and be accurate at the board.
To achieve this goal:
• Start your approach at full speed.
• “Fall into your run-up”
• Run through the board! Don’t reach for the board; it will slow your momentum down.
• Your eyes should be looking up and beyond the board.
• Count your steps!

The Take-Off
The purpose of the take-off is to convert your horizontal speed from the run-up to a vertical speed.
• As you approach the board, you want your last two steps to go “flat-flat” or “ba-boom”
• When you are taking off the board you want your eyes looking up, your free knee to be parallel to the ground, and the opposite arm driving up over your head
• Your body should be tall at the board.

Flight Phase
There are two basic techniques for the flight phase: the HANG and the HITCH. The type most of you will use will be the HANG technique. We will show you this type of technique.
• Keep your arms up over your head as long as possible before pulling arms and legs forward

Landing Phase
The key to the landing phase is to “break” the sand as far forward as possible with the heels and move the rest of the body past that mark (Butt-in-the-hole).
• Legs are extending out with arms reaching forward.
• Let the sand come to you! Don’t drop your legs too soon!
• Get used to the sand; you are going to get dirty so get used to it!

Long Jump Drills
1. Seated Hops
2. Leap Ups
3. Step Ups (on the stadium steps)
4. Tuck Jumps
5. Hurdle Hops
6. 1 Leg Hops
7. Standing Long Jumps
8. Multiple Standing Long Jumps
9. Speed Ladder Drills
10. Running Pop-Ups

Meet Info:
Varsity gets 3 trial jumps. Top 4 jumpers go to finals and get 3 more jumps. JV and Frosh get 4 jumps. The farthest jumper wins! If a tie occurs, the second furthest jump breaks the tie. If the toe goes over the front of the board or the athlete does not get both feet into the pit, the jump is a scratch or a foul.

TRIPLE JUMP OVERVIEW

Success in the triple jump is dependent on maintaining horizontal velocity (speed). The current world record in the triple jump for men was set by Jonathan Edwards in 1995. He jumped 60’! The current women’s world record is 50.85’ set by Inessa Kravets in 1995.

There are 4 phases to the triple jump:
Run-up / Acceleration Phase
Hop Phase
Step Phase
Jump Phase / Landing

The Run-up
Like in the Long Jump, the object of the run-up is to generate the best controllable speed to the take-off board and be accurate at the board.
To achieve this goal:
• Start your approach at full speed.
• “Fall into your run-up”
• Run through the board! Don’t reach for the board; it will slow your momentum down.
• Your eyes should be looking up and beyond the board.
• Count your steps!

The Hop
Also known as the cycle phase, the key to this phase is to get distance, not height, off the take off.
• Plant foot should be flat on the board; body should be in a vertical position.
• Head/ Chin should be up
• “paw the ground”

The Step
In this phase, you will “bound” to the other foot.
• Knee should be parallel with the ground; drive knee up!
• Foot should land flat; not on your heel!

The Jump
Also like the Long Jump, the key to the jump phase is to “break” the sand as far forward as possible with the heels and move the rest of the body past that mark (Butt-in-the-hole).
• Legs are extending out with arms reaching forward.
• Let the sand come to you! Don’t drop your legs too soon!
• Get used to the sand; you are going to get dirty so get used to it!

The hop-step-jump can be R-R-L or L-L-R depending on which is more comfortable for you.

Triple Jump Drills
1. Single leg cycles (hop phase)
2. Bounding for height and for distance (step phase)
3. Alternate bounding – LL-R-LL-R-LL-R or RR-L-RR-L-RR-L (hop + step)
4. Tuck jumps
5. Hurdle Hops
6. 2-step, 4-step and 6-step TJ
7. Hop-Step Cone Drill
8. Step-Jump Cone Drill (don’t emphasize the hop)
9. Box Jumps
10. Speed Ladder Drills