Russian High Jump Training: Part I

The high jump in Russia has been a point of national pride for many years now. If you check out the world leaders in the men’s and women’s high jump event you will invariably see several Russian jumpers in the top 10 in the world. In fact, Russia has accumulated 5 of the top 11 world marks of all time in outdoor competition (counting Avdeyenko of the Ukraine), which is a powerful testament to their training methodology.

There are several other countries who share the ability to put a few competitors at the top of the world list each year, such as Finland in the javelin, and Jamaica in the sprints. This always begs the question of nature vs. nurture, and of course the question of culture. I feel that the success of Russia in the high jump is highly due to their training systems and development. Although an older video, I was very excited to see a 25 minute clip of Russian training methods from the late 1970’s. Here is the video.

1980 Russian High Jump Training: Complete with a “megaman” sound track!

The video addresses many parts of high jump training. The exercise types are as follows:

  • Part I. Core strength and flexibility exercises.
  • Part II. Gymnastic and spatial awareness exercises.
  • Part III.  Hill and sprint training
  • Part IV. Hurdle mobility
  • Part V. Soft tissue work and therapy
  • Part VI. Elastic exercises and plyometrics
  • Part VII. Hydrotherapy
  • Part VIII. Special strength exercises
  • Part IX. Takeoff based exercises

  Russian high jump

High Jump: Russia’s national event?

Of all the training present on this video, there are several that I would list as essential for high jump training.

Hill sprints

Hill bounding

Hill bounding double leg

Hill single leg bounding

Rudimentary hops

Tire Pulls/sled pulls

Hurdle mobility

Fast hurdle runs/coordination

Short sprints and fly sprints

Soft tissue work and therapy

Standing multi jumps from elevated platform

Bounding from a run-in

Depth jumps over a hurdle

Single leg Depth jumps over a hurdle (11:53, extremely impressive!!)

Double leg depth jumps from high boxes (over 1 meter)

Hurdle hops for height (double and single leg)

Hurdle hops for distance (single leg)

Up and down box jumps

Jumps up to a box

Plyometric box jumps up boxes of ascending height

Single leg jumps over boxes of differing height

Single leg jumps on and off of boxes of differing height

Hang cleans

Cleans from floor

Push press

Single leg push press

Split jerk

Snatch

Barbell step-up 1/2

Squat

Forward two-legged hops with a barbell

High knee runs with plate overhead

Curve running with barbell on back

Hack squat

Leg press

Calf extension on leg press

Single leg – leg press

Back extension

Hurdle takeoffs, landing on same leg Resisted running + a  takeoff “long jumps” over a hurdle.

Single jumps

Jumping over hurdles on a curve

So there you have it. World-class exercises for high jump in a 25 minute video. Of course this list is not all inclusive for the many training methods out there for single leg jumping, but most of the primary methods are there. Of course, one must remember that actually practicing jumping for maximal height is the most important training method of all. The proper combination of these supporting exercises, however, will offer a lot of help to any aspiring jumper.

A training method not  found in this video would be that of multi-throws with various shots and medicine balls, which is a typical practice of many track and field athletes across the world. Of all the training practiced in the above video, I think some of the methods that are tremendously effective are the single leg jumping exercises such as single leg depth jumping or single leg hurdle hopping. Any developed single leg jumper will benefit tremendously from this intense type of   work.  These intense single leg exercises are critically important for a single leg jumper, but for some reason do not show up in much of our modern coaching literature.

I hope that you as a reader will find these training methods both informative and perhaps applicable in your own training pursuits, whether as a track and field high jumper, or just an athlete looking to increase their vertical leap off of one or two legs.

Joel

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