After coaching hundreds of clients in my Singapore personal training gym to excel in the standing broad jump (SBJ), here are 11 reasons that cause Singapore men and women to fail the standing broad jump.
Poor Technique
No Routine
- The SBJ is a test. It is the same every time. Just like a basketball player shooting a free throw. All the best free throw shooters have a routine that they follow that makes each and every shot the same. This gives them consistently good results.
- The same is true of the SBJ. When you step up to the line, you need to have a system of knowing what you will do, where you will look, how you will ready yourself and how you will jump and land.
Too much swinging/rocking
- Swinging is a bad idea. You will see many people swing their arms back and forth in and out perhaps 5-8 times before jumping. The jump itself is a single powerful event and we want to use a single, powerful swing to generate force with the arms. In fact in a maximal effort jump, the arms account for up to 15% of the final result! So the way to do this is one hard, forceful swing.
No “throw-down” and slow change of direction
- To get a maximal jump, we want to use what is known as the “stretch shortening cycle” or SSC. This is the springy property of your body. Just as in any other spring, we get the greatest rebound effect when we quickly compress the spring, then let it bounce up. That is what we do in our SBJ technique. We THROW ourselves down quickly and forcefully, and the immediately change direction and explode off the mat. It takes great strength to change direction from down to up quickly, and that is one area which we need to train both from a technique standpoint, as well as from a strength standpoint.
Poor jump angle
- Most people simply jump at too low an angle.
Poor use of hips (using thighs too much)
- Most people start their jump with their knees “forward” using their thigh muscles. In fact we need to use the more powerful muscles of the hips and butt, rather than the thighs to get maximal power and distance. To do that we need to change our jumping posture from “knees forward” to “buttocks backward”.
Poor arm swing
- As mentioned earlier the arms account for a significant portion of the jump power and distance. We need to swing our arms up hard and high. As high as elbows touching our ears. That is far higher than most people swing their arms. To get this position consistently, we need to have good posture in our upper backs and our shoulders. (Yup! Posture again!)
Incomplete hip, knee and ankle extension
- Some people stop short of full “triple extension”. That means the ankles, knees and hips extend in a coordinated fashion to blast the body upward and forward. This is a inter-muscle timing issue and can be trained.
Poor landings leading to injury
- Some of the landings I have witnessed at IPPT tests make me cringe! Legs and arms flailing all over… Remember that you must be able to land safely. This is a function of strength also because you need eccentric or “lowering” strength to land safely just like you need “concentric” or lifting strength to jump well.
Insufficient physical attributes
Overweight
- This is a no brainer. Like I mentioned in the section on overall physical attributes, being overweight really hurts. In the SBJ even more so than in other events. When I say overweight I mean fat. Anything more than 10% body fat is going to hinder your jumping. If you are anywhere higher than 10% at the moment, I can confidently say that losing fat (while keeping the same muscle mass) will improve your jumping.
Insufficient power in legs
- You are too weak to jump far. Being stronger almost guarantees a better jump. In fact, strength is the attribute that we work on most during our IPPT training or personal training sessions.
Insufficient arm and shoulder power
- Remember that arm power is critical in jump distance. It is worth about 15% of the jump distance. We need to train the arm swing and shoulder strength as if it is a critical component of the SBJ. (Which it is)
There we go! 11 reasons why people in Singapore fail NAPFA or IPPT in the standing broad jump (SBJ).
Here is another video of me jumping over a 160cm hurdle with room to spare! I’m not naturally “gifted” at jumping but by eliminating the mistakes shown above, as well as with consistent and correct training. Even a “regular” guy like me can do it.