Since ancient times, people have always moved and sought to overcome obstacles that they encountered on their way. Later, when they learned to tame animals, the difficult sections of the road could be overcome by riding an elephant or a horse. But to test their capabilities in overcoming obstacles, people found different ways. So gymnastic exercises appeared. Jumping over time went into individual disciplines of the Queen of Sports.
Consider one of the areas in athletics - high jumps by stepping (the people also call him “scissors”). It appeared in a natural way, when a person faced a low obstacle, not exceeding his center of gravity. Then it is enough to raise one leg and rearrange it for an obstacle, and pick up the other leg in the same way. But if the barrier is higher than the center of gravity, then from the spot it will not work out so easily to step over it. Need to apply a jump. And the higher the obstacle, the repulsion should be stronger. If you still raise the bar, then you must already apply a run so as not to hover over an obstacle (or not to bring down a barrier in modern competition conditions). For this, the athlete must have certain skills in order to overcome obstacles that far exceed his center of gravity and physical growth.
History of discipline
Since the technique of high jump by the “stepping over” method is the simplest, then, accordingly, the result of the jump in this way will not be too high. The first record in official competitions in England in 1868 was 1 meter 67.4 centimeters. He belonged to the jumper Robert Maych. But officially, the first world record was recorded in the biography of a London medical student Robert Gooch. His result was 1 meter 70 centimeters. The peculiarity of his style and jumping technique differed from his predecessors. Guch didn’t run straight to the bar, as all other athletes did (even now Kenyan tribes do this, achieving breathtaking results of about two meters), he ran at an acute angle to the bar and the movements of his legs when crossing the bar were like scissors.
In such a simple way, athletes brought the world record in 1937 to 2.09 m. Women, using the same technique, achieved a result of 191 cm in the 60s. It belonged to Yolanda Balash. Later, the method was modified, and it was called “wave”, then “roll” and “cross over”.
World Record Tips
High jumps by means of a step over are easy to perform and do not require expensive equipment. This discipline is popular among young inexperienced athletes, schoolchildren and visitors to the health sections.
How to achieve good results using this technique in high jump? It is important to take time to warm up. Jogging should be before each lesson. A huge role is played by stretching. Special exercises for muscle stretching will greatly facilitate the training. It is also important for beginners to teach them how to land properly. Do not quickly overestimate the height of the bar for beginners to avoid injuries.
As mentioned earlier, high jumps by stepping over require a special training, which takes place in the following stages:
- Jogging.
- Stretching.
- Swing to the sides with your feet, standing against the Swedish wall or just holding onto some sort of handrail. Exercise can be performed in pairs.
The correct execution of the high jump in the way "step over"
The jump itself consists of the following phases:
- take off;
- preparation for repulsion;
- repulsion;
- overcoming the bar;
- landing.
There are two ways to take off - in a straight line to the bar and at an angle. The student must be given the opportunity to try these two methods at a low height, so that he chooses a more convenient technique and further improves it. The following elements of the high jump are the “stepping” method.
Jump execution methods
In a simple technique, the fly leg is moved over the bent bar, the push leg is quickly picked up and transferred with the whole body over the bar. In the “scissors” method (take-off is carried out at an acute angle) repulsion is made in front of the bar. The body is in a lateral position to the obstacle, hands are simultaneously swung upwards to push the moment of rebound and to maintain coordination in the phase of overcoming the bar and until the completion phase of the jump. At the moment of landing, the fly leg first becomes the first one, then the push leg. The mastery of high jump is to translate the speed of horizontal take-off into vertical flight. In this case, the center of gravity with the limbs must be so balanced with movements that they do not hook the bar themselves or prevent the body flying through it in the air.
High jumps by means of step over are not very popular today, nevertheless, this wonderful technique will undoubtedly help beginners to achieve their first results.