Quick Tip: Split Jumps

Hi All,

Today I thought I would share a drill I use ALL THE TIME for split jumps. Split jumps are one of those things that I see a lot of people struggling with. A lot of time it’s hard to get kids to develop the right muscles, keep their legs straight, and often they will kind of plateau in terms of the angle their jumps hit. But this is a drill I use all the time, and it seems to be really effective.

This drill is great for many, many reasons. But here are a few: 1) strength building. Because the first jump is going up onto a mat the effort gymnasts have to exert is much greater (it also requires some concentration, which can never hurt). 2) It helps gymnasts tell how much they could actually split if they were higher/faster. The jumping down part of this helps gymnasts develop muscle memory of a correct split jump, and also emphasizes the fact that they are probably not getting the maximum split out of their current split jumps. Really, of all of the split jumps drills that I do, this is easily the one I use most because it seems to be effective much more quickly than most other things. Of course, you need to be working all of the other parts as well. Splits, dynamic kicks, jumps etc. But this is a truly fantastic drill that will do a lot for your jumps on its own.

Train hard!