What to Do When Your High Jumping Gets Worse

Hey Jumpers,

Imagine for a moment, that you get a new PR, say 5'10"...and you're pumped. At the next meet, you expect to get 6', no problem. The meet comes and instead of hitting 6', you only jump 5'8". And to add insult to injury you barely squeak over 5'6" the next week!

What the heck is going on?!

That my friends, is a very good question...one that deserves a very good answer. I however, only have part of the answer, let me first give that part.

When this happened to me I would try to do three things:

1) Remember that bad days happen. Even the best jumpers in the world have off days or weeks or seasons. In this case, attitude is as important as your physical training. Staying positive will be essential for bouncing back, especially if you do poorly in the next meet.

2) Review the video from the meet. If my form looked good, I'd know it was just my legs that day...maybe too tired or cold. If my form looked bad, I had something to blame it on AND something to fix to avoid a repeat.

3) Make sure my legs were extra fresh the next time I jumped. A tiny bit of fatigue, mixed with a bad result can equal a huge mental hurdle to overcome. Be fresh and get some confidence back, don't try to clear your PR again, get some good clearances at lower heights and enjoy the feeling of clearing the bar.

Now, the real question is how do YOU bounce back from a bad meet? If you have a tip or trick to share, click the link below:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dENNR05TMy1WYmNxODBwbm44dTRseVE6MQ

You can submit your idea so I can share it with everyone. If you don't have one, no worries, I'll post the best ones I receive in a few days so all can benefit.

Thanks to the 125+ of you that completed the survey on Monday, from the responses it looks like some big PRs have already been posted! Best of luck,

Gregg

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