CLEAN YEAR

2016 was a really bad year for athletics.  The doping scandal brought much damage to our sport with bad consequences for many athletes.  As a coach I feel really sorry for those athletes that did not have anything to do with it, but have had to suffer because of politician reasons.

I hope that this year of 2017 we can have a good beginning and a clean year for athletics, and that all athletes will be available to compete without any problem. I wish to all jumpers all the best for this year, and also I wish that you can complete your goals and the achievement that you all wish for.

Happy New Year Jumpers!        

The Fundamental Preparation Phase of Triple and Long Jump.

How do you improve your jump by 1 centimeter every year? I know it's difficult to achieve this goal, but it is possible, and I can prove that.  Everything is a matter of discipline, patience and perseverance, the only problem is, no matter how much talent you have, if you as an athlete have never worked on the fundamental basis of triple jump, it will be very difficult to achieve good results.

What is the fundamental basis of Triple jump?  It is the foundation that gives us a sense of rhythm, coordination, speed control, the sense of reaction on the ground at the moment of takeoff and landing, and the power to recognize the time and space between jumps.

The importance of this technique is such, that the athlete always has to work with it jump throughout the whole year -even an athlete who is only beginning to specialize in triple jump, or a professional athlete. When a coach is able to make a good training program and emphasize this type of foundation in all its training phases, work with the athlete will be easier and of an even higher quality. You will also be able to have a better observation of the athlete’s development.

The beginning of the Basis of General Physical Preparation normally start in October, but many countries have different systems of  working  with it; for example some countries  begin in October  and others begin in November. For me the perfect month to start is in October, as indoor competitions begin in December, and it is the perfect time to develop speed and the technique, even when the athlete is overloaded.  

 Many athletes just focuses on indoor competitions and at the same time they want to have better results outdoor. This way is not a problem in itself, but many coaches, without thinking of the consequences, change the training system and they focus only on getting better results in indoor competitions and then forget the consequences that this can bring for the athlete later.  What they are doing is lowering the intensity in the phase of preparation. This means that they have to increase the intensity of workouts after indoor competitions, with the result that the athlete stays overloaded for outdoor competitions, and you don`t need to be  to be a specialist  to see that the consequences will be poor results .

Working on the basis of preparation and improvement of the triple jump or long jump,   is something that you as a coach can never underestimate.  

Also, working with this fundamental stage of development of triple jump , will give the advantage to the athlete of  developing each year, and of course increasing his distance by 1 centimeter every year.

PATIENCE

How many athletes were disappointed this year, some because they couldn’t make it to the Olympics and others because they couldn`t fulfil the results that they wanted at various competitions, or even in the Olympics. I know exactly how they feel ,and the pain that this causes in each of us.  In sport, if you want to have results, you have to work really hard, and almost every time you have to pass beyond the limit.

Sometimes it is really difficult to talk about hard training because many people have different opinion about this theme.  For example, a young athlete thinks that because he is young must train really hard to get to the top level (here I am talking about athletes between 15 and 25 year old). Adult or Pro- athletes  think that because they are more mature they have to train less to avoid injury.

To keep the body strong and healthy of course every athlete has to train hard, but the most important thing is to train smart. Please note  hard training is not the only  way to get results-it is the combination of good training programs which are  especially  based  on working to  develop  the base of the athlete and the psychological preparation of athletes for training or competition at any level.

PATIENCE is a word that you hardly hear among coaches and pro-athletes anymore. Everybody wants to have results now, and so often this means exchanging the idea of patience for training hard instead.  Everybody has to have patience to have results. If you as a coach know the amount of time an athlete has to train to jump every centimeter each year, then you must understand the meaning of patience, and pass on this understanding to your athlete. If you as a coach have all your programs well-prepared for sure, with patience, you will get results.

TEAM GB AT RIO OLYMPICS 2016

The Olympics are not even over yet, but I’ve been really impressed by team GB’s amazing performance , bringing in a fantastic haul of medals , which has them sitting at present in 2^nd place in the Medals List.Well done, Team GB!

What is even more impressive, is that their achievements are showing themselves even in areas where medals were not expected. From all reports, I understand that this amazing success has been the result of years of investment in Sport, in the form of Government Grants, and National Lottery Funding, with the steady rise in improved training and performance starting from around the time of the start of the Lottery Funding.

This confirms to me what I’ve always believed in- that for a country to achieve in Sport, it HAS to invest in coaches, equipment and facilities.

This seems to be exemplified again in the case of my native country, Cuba. While I lived and trained there, sport was of the utmost importance to the country, and it was invested in to a high level, which paid off by Cuba producing some of the highest achieving athletes in the world.

Sadly, in recent years, the government seems to have invested less and less in Sport, and this is now showing in the poor performance of Cuba in the medals list. This is heartbreaking for me, to see my country lose so much of its Sporting reputation at the moment, and I really hope that this is something which can be addressed and recovered in the future.

Back to Team GB though, and one thing which has puzzled me, is the lack of representation in the Triple Jump from the UK. Considering that the UK has held the world record in this event, set by Jonathan Edwards, it’s strange that the UK have no athletes at all in the Olympics, in this Sport. Even Philips Idowu seems to have disappeared, and the same goes for the Women’s Triple Jump.

Jumps are my passion, and especially Triple Jump, and I would love to see a resurgence of interest here in the UK. As a Coach, I offer specialist one-to-one training here in the UK, in both Long Jump and Triple Jump, with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the Jumps field. If any athletes out there would like to discuss a coaching plan to improve their performance, you can contact me via my blog or at panicoach@gmail.com

SPEED APPROACH IN TRIPLE JUMP

In the last few weeks I received various emails with the same question; is speed approach the most important thing to achieve a good jump? First let me ask a question to all of you, if speed is the most important thing to achieve a good jump, why there are so many triple jumpers out there capable of running 10.05/10.40sg at 100m and yet they are still unable to jump even 16.00m?

There are many factors to achieve a good jump, and I would to discuss what I think they are the most important for me. Naturally a triple jumper needs to have good speed but he also needs coordination, rhythm, a really good reaction on the ground and, the most difficult to achieve, the ability to maintain or increase the speed between jumps.  An athlete can even have a good ability in  all these factors  and yet still not be able to pass the barrier of 16m, and this has to do with his ability to create time and space between jumps.

Some coaches, when their athletes start to have problems in improving his personal record, the first thing that they want to improve is the speed approach. These coaches forget that in triple jump; you cannot concentrate only in improving one technique, because as I always said, everything has to be balanced. If you want to improve the speed, the athlete also has to be prepared to handle that speed from take-off until the final jump. To be clearer, if you work to improve the speed,  it also has to work with plyometric exercises to improve the coordination between the arms and legs, rhythm, power of reaction at the time of impact on the ground, posture and the hip position during jumps.  Then you have to put all that work together to get the balance directed to develop a good jump. 

          

For an athlete to have the ability to create time and space between jumps, he needs a combination of a good sense of rhythm, and the ability to maintain or increase the speed between jumps. These two factors have to work together to carrying a good jump. When an athlete has good speed approach, of course it has an advantage, but the problem is, how to control that speed for a good jump?  To give you an example, I have helped athletes who managed to jump 17.05m with 7 step approach and when he performed jumps from 12 step approach, their jumps results were the same distance or lower than 17m,  therefore, speed control plays a big role in these results. 

  

Therefore to improve these issues, we started working to control the approach, and work with plyometric exercises to improve the time and space between jumps. I want to clarify that these exercises should be performed with speed between obstacles, for example cones or hurdles. It is very important that these exercises are conducted under the supervision of your coach

That entire problem has to do with control of speed; it is not how fast you run, but it having the ability to control the speed approach.

WHY SOME ATHLETES FAIL TO MAKE THE DISTANCE THEY EXPECT?

I discussed this issue some time ago, but I still want to answer the question to one of my colleagues. Many athletes are frustrated at not being able to make the distance or the limit that they want, although according to them, they train well enough to do it. I have personally visited various athletic clubs in Europe, and it is impressive, the amount of talent that you can find in those clubs. The problem is, when you look at the historical results of many of them, almost all of them have good results in the junior stage, but when they start the senior stage, the results begin to deteriorate. Many factors can cause this impoverishment, but I just want to mention one that in my opinion is the biggest cause of this problem.

It is the lack of work on the technical development of the base of young athletes. I know that one of the biggest problems also is that the majority of the coaches in the clubs work as volunteers.

Most of these coaches are trying to do what they can to get results and there are some who manage to achieve this.

 All coaches are looking for result and they want to have results, but when you work as volunteer almost always you will have to confront problems that will stop the development of the athlete. I respect the traditions of each country, but I wonder when you have to work two jobs in the day, and at night you have to work as a coach, not matter what, it`s not possible to focus 100% on  your athletes. Even if you're suited to train in that way, the results will not be good. I want to clarify of course, that I speak here about when you train an athlete to the elite level.

I have talked to some coaches about this subject, and some of them have told me that they have no problem with this, but if this is true, then why do the athletes still struggle to make results? With respect for all the coaches in the world, but to have results and success, you need to work with your athletes full time. As I said before, all coaches want the same thing, (results) and this desire often makes us forget some factors that later will impact negatively on  the development of the athlete’s  and the stability between the athlete and coach.

In my long experience as a professional coach, I've noticed that one of the most important things to have results, is to know the athlete, listen, respect and trust them. If you are not available to work full time with them, it will be difficult to recognize the qualities of the athletes. When you know the athletes, working together is even easier and this relationship strengthens the confidence between both. When the athlete does not trust his coach and vice versa, no matter   how hard the athlete trains, there will always be problems, with painful consequences for both.

I've always said that no athlete can reach the top level with only 2 or 3 times training a week, and also the athlete will have not result training on his own with a training program on internet.  Many coaches saw the results of (Julius Yego) javelin thrower of Kenya. It is crazy, but now some coaches set (Julius Yego) as an example that you can reach the top via the internet, just because he did it. I think there are no problems with learning the technique via the Internet, but one thing is the technical theory, and the other is the practical technique.

I want to make clear to everyone that, when it comes to reaching the elite level you have to be guided by a good professional coach with knowledge and experience in the discipline. Also, often athletes have to travel to other countries to seek technical assistance, as many countries, including European countries,do not have the technical knowledge of the discipline to take the athletes to the top level. Another important aspect is to train five days a week and in many cases two sessions, in addition to working hard at polishing the technique and the basic technical movement of the exercises etc.

The overall result is the balanced combination between the athlete and coach, with confidence, knowledge, experience and the competitive character of the athlete. 

Amazing news for would-be Olympic athletes- IAAF lowers Jumps Limit for Olympic Entry Level

How many triple jumpers or long jumpers out there are struggling to achieve the limit for the Olympics? Many people think that triple jump is an easy discipline but they have no idea how hard you have to work to achieve each centimeter every year. A few days ago the IAAF made changes to the limits for the Olympics 2016 in Rio for some disciplines and amongst those was the Triple Jump.

I heard some comments on whether such a change could lower the level of the elite jumpers. I respect the opinion of each person, but in my opinion this change will develop and provide better growth to this discipline. When an athlete manages to jump the limit for the Olympics, almost always the results during competition in The Olympics are better.  Also if we want to develop this discipline and put it on a higher plane, this change has come at a perfect time when a couple of months ago the Olympic committee began talking to eliminate the triple jump as Olympic event.

I want to tell to all those triple jumpers in the world, please do not lose hope.  I know there are many of you who have not the possibility to train with all necessary conditions to achieve  your dreams. Also some jumpers have no support from any organization (sponsor) nor even from his own federation.  If you really want to participate as an athlete in the Olympics and believe you have the possibility to be there, then you know the sacrifice that you have to make to achieve it. If you do not have a good coach, look for one that has the knowledge to take you up to 17m+ in a short time.

Remember that to achieve these objectives, you already must be jumping over 16m+, you have to be injury free, you have to be strong mentally, and prepared to achieve your goal. Another  very important thing is that you have to be prepared to put your training as a first priority, and leave aside many of the things  that you normally do weekly, such as party, drink etc. If you believe in yourself, do what you have to do to achieve your goal however difficult  it is, and remember just one jump can change your life.  

If you, as an athlete, do not have the conditions or the possibility of having a good coach, and for some reason you are in London, or are able to travel to London, you can contact me and we can discuss how I can help you with your training. Also if your federation can’t help you, and perhaps they could benefit from my experience and advice, they also can contact me at panicoach@gmail.com