Are you cutting your curve in the high jump?

This is going to be a short, but hopefully important post as many high jumpers tend to have a problem cutting the curve in their approach to taking off. Typically, this happens when high jumpers face higher heights. Instead of maintaining their rhythm and technique to run a curve that will position their body at an angle to flip them over the bar, they instead cut their curve and struggle to jump and get the height to clear the bar.

I want you to try something.

• I want you to mark your curve for your approach to the bar.
• I want you to keep on practicing your run up with the bar at a higher height.
• I want you to put the bar above your personal best and practice your approach as if you were to clear the bar at the higher height.

This is important because when we experience challenges during the competition such as trying to clear a new height (especially if it is a personal best), we forget maintaining our form and mess up our approach. As soon as you cut the curve, it is game over.

Your curve is normally about 5 steps into the bar.

Keep on practicing the curve. Even if it means you do short runups to train your body to maintain the curve.

As you get better, you must learn how to control your body along the curve at speed.

If you find that you are failing at your attempts in the high jump, there is a good chance that you are cutting your curve without even knowing. Fix this and it may help you clear more heights in the high jump.

Watch this video below to learn more about the high jump curve.

To improve the consistency of your curve during the high jump approach, make sure that you measure the point at which you start to curve into the bar. You will usually need 1 or 2 measuring tapes to measure out your runup properly. You can click here to find measuring tapes available on Amazon.

If you want to improve your high jump performance, I would recommend getting the high jump drills ebook.

*If you’re interested in jumping higher, you can purchase my high jump training program that I used to jump over 2m. It’s available for $4.99. Click here to order it and I will send it to you within 24h.