Historical Evolution of the High Jump

[pinoyathletics]

Historical Evolution of the High Jump clearance techniques with Diagrams

http://pinoyathletics.com/2012/09/16/evolution-of-the-high-jump/

[Per Andersen]

Historical Evolution of the High Jump clearance techniques with Diagrams

http://pinoyathletics.com/2012/09/16/evolution-of-the-high-jump/

A bit rudimentary though. Some of the picture series are poorly made. Especially the Eastern Cut-off sequence where picture #6 does not belong or is just extremely badly done.
Similarly # 5 in the Western roll sequence is poorly made. It does not follow #4 + it does not resemble anything. Just terrible.

The straddle sequence looks like a copy of a series I have seen of Brumel, except #4-5 in the sequence are way off.

On the other hand I did like the western roll photo of Mary Bignal (Rand). Hadn't seen it for ages.

[noone]

I just wish Debbie Brill got some credit for the "flop" (in Canada we called it the Brill Bend) -- to say one solitary American invented it is ludicrous!

[lonewolf]

I just wish Debbie Brill got some credit for the "flop" (in Canada we called it the Brill Bend) -- to say one solitary American invented it is ludicrous!

I saw Debbie flopping in the Calgary Indoor in winter 1968. She reportedly developed the style on her own prior to the Mexico Olympics...and, yes, they were calling it the "Brill Bend".

[Daisy]

From what I remember in previous threads they developed the technique independently. I guess Fosbury gets all the credit as he was the best known of the two.

Here is very cool footage from 66: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoYRGQlfHQA

[noone]

From what I remember in previous threads they developed the technique independently. I guess Fosbury gets all the credit as he was the best known of the two.

Here is very cool footage from 66: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoYRGQlfHQA

Yes very cool! Thanks!

[Per Andersen]

From what I remember in previous threads they developed the technique independently. I guess Fosbury gets all the credit as he was the best known of the two.

That's it.
Another question is how the Brill bend would have caught on as a HJ technique if Fosbury never existed. Unlike Fosbury Brill did not initially have great success. She was top ranked in 1979 and set her indoor WR in 1982.
Would her technique spread like wildfire as Fosbury's technique did? No. It would have taken a good deal longer.

[gh]

Fosbury and Brill indeed had parallel evolution, geographically close yet with no knowledge of each other.

But as we "proved" with photo evidence in T&FN, neither of them was first. Guy named Bruce Quande (off the top of my head) used what was clearly the same technique at the '63 Montana HS meet.

And my HS coach said he saw a guy in Germany in the '30s do basically the same thing.

The provenance is indeed murky.

[noone]

I've been wondering if anybody still uses the straddle nowadays. Has the straddle WR been improved upon since the days of Yashchenko?

[gh]

The Bruce Quande '63 "flop" story is now posted on the front page.

[Daisy]

Interesting article. Especially this quote from Brill:

If we had had 'coaching', we wouldn't have developed our styles. We'd have had to jump the 'accepted' way, which was the straddle.

[Marlow]

Interesting article. Especially this quote from Brill:

If we had had 'coaching', we wouldn't have developed our styles. We'd have had to jump the 'accepted' way, which was the straddle.

Not true. Bernie Wagner gave up early on Fosbury's straddle and encouraged him to flop.

[Per Andersen]

Interesting article. Especially this quote from Brill:

If we had had 'coaching', we wouldn't have developed our styles. We'd have had to jump the 'accepted' way, which was the straddle.

Not true. Bernie Wagner gave up early on Fosbury's straddle and encouraged him to flop.

I think Brill was thinking more about her own development. She had no coaching from age 9 until she was 13/14. By then, 1966/67, she was already backwards jumping.
Her first technique was a straight-on forward jump with bent legs. The only advice she took was to switch to the scissors. After that her technical development was very similar to Fosbury's.

[gh]

Deb's statement is also true in the sense that Wagner gave up relatively late in the game with Fosbury. His lack of coaching went on for too many years for him to be able to consider changing later.

[pinoyathletics]

Thankyou very much for everyones feedback. I will implement some of these constructive feedbacks and critcisims into a revision of this article. I do appreciate the input as High Jump is not my field of expertise as I was a sprinter. This article enjoyed over 1000 views in 2 days.

[Per Andersen]

Thankyou very much for everyones feedback. I will implement some of these constructive feedbacks and critcisims into a revision of this article. I do appreciate the input as High Jump is not my field of expertise as I was a sprinter. This article enjoyed over 1000 views in 2 days.

Then I'll just add that I disagree withe following statement regarding the straddle:
"The Russian and Americans pioneered the evolution of the straddle technique"

American high jumpers were the first to utilize both the straight leg straddle and the dive straddle.
However, what mostly influenced Russian straddlers were the Swedish dive staddlers of the early-mid 50's.
While American straddlers had gradually slowed down the speed of the approach run, culminating with Dumas in 1956, the Swedes started using a longer and faster run-up and focussed mostly on the bent leg dive straddle (Bengt Nilsson world's #2 and Euro champ in 1954). This is what influenced the Russians. They added even more speed and utilized power (weight) training to a greater degree.
Brumel did not RADICALLY speed up his approach run. He just ran faster that anybody up until then.
Yashchenko was even faster than Brumel.