Vermont scoreboard: Monday's results and Tuesday's schedule
Top 20: 1. Brittany Pfaff, Rice 2520; 2. Katie Polakowski, Essex 2459; 3. Hailey Burkhart, MMU 2267; 4. Chelsea Montello, Fair Haven 2224; 5. Roselie Phillip, South Royalton 2188; 6. Adama Kay, St. Johnsbury 1983; 7. Shannon Park, Fair Haven 1968; 8. Rosy Gallo, Essex 1921; 9. Chelsea Murray, Fair Haven 1887; 10. Lauren Brown, St. Johnsbury 1867; 11. Tegan Coley, Windsor 1838; 12. Ellie Pitmon ...

A few of my jumpers experienced approach run difficulties a little while ago. Here is an account of one session I did with a 25 year old female jumper with a pb of 5.91m [5.83m this indoor season].

She told me that the previous weekend it didn't matter where she placed her first checkmark she was fouling constantly and simply didn't feel right. So my coaching task was to restore her confidence in the approach run distance so that she could go into the next meeting and be able to run and jump effectively.

We did some approach run work away from the sand pit. I marked her approach run on the indoor track at Cardiff. We reinforced the concepts of how to start the approach run, the mid-phase body alignment and the attack to the board with emphasis on a good touchdown. She did 6 repetitions with no pressure of the board. But what we did additionally was to place a check mark at the fifth foot-fall. She is a left legged take-off with a 17 stride approach run which measured at 32mts. I wanted to her attain some consistency over the first 5 strides - this fifth stride touchdown was with her take-off foot.

She did a set of 6 of the initial start but slowing down at the half-way mark of her run-up. She was made aware that she had to be 'busy and effective' over the initial strides. This 'extra focus' appeared to help her. I told her to sight this check mark to ensure that her toe hit it.

NOTE: The overcoming of inertia [starting from a static position] is sometimes a large problem for inexperienced jumpers.

We then transferred to the run way and pit. The 5 stride check mark was set down and marked with a small chalked circle.

She also has a second check mark 8mts away from the board which coincides with the last 3 strides to the board.

We found that these check marks not only helps me to sight accuracy to the board but focuses the jumpers attention to maintaining balance, rhythm and coordination over the whole approach run distance. Also, some jumpers have a nasty habit of not maintaining an active drive all the way to the board - this something I insist upon because arms contribute approximately 30% to the lift at take-off.

After many repetitions of this she then jumped - NOT ONE FOUL - and she was jumping out to 90% of her personal best performance. I wouldn't and don't expect jumpers to jump really long in training because they simply haven't that adrenalin boost and competitive anxiety to put a big one out there. So I am happy with 90%.

Checks marks are an invaluable coaching tool and can really help the jumper focus on the different phases of the whole run-up distance.

Another thing we did was to visualise. She wasn't allowed to start the approach run until ALL she could see was a white lined 'tunnel' to the pit. This she could very well but does take a little practice. The last thing I asked her to do was to keep her eyes on the board right up until the last two strides. I even encouraged her to look at the board at the moment of touchdown. Some coaches might disagree with this because it might lead to unwanted rotation but you don't have to tilt the head forwards merely focus the eyes on that white board.

At the conclusion of the session we measured her approach run distance and it had gone from 32ms to 32.60mts. This is the distance she will use for her next competition. FINGERS CROSSED!!

She liked the idea of including relevant check marks along the distance and we will use them a lot more in our technical sessions.

Nigel Lewis is a Senior Level 4 Athletics Performance Jumps and Combined Coach in the United Kingdom and is a Senior Coach Education Tutor for UK Athletics. He has produced many technical manuals on Long Jumping, Triple Jumping and Plyometric Training.

He was the Jumps Coach For Botswana and Wales at the last two Commonwealth Games in Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006 respectively and has coached the jumping events at the highest level.

Click on http://www.longjumping.co.uk for further details.