Left foot - right foot

[mump boy]

Not at the elite level in this specific event but Jess Ennis changed leg after her injury in '08

I don't know which was her natural foot but she jumped 6.40 and then jumped 6.51 3 years in a row !! from her other foot.

Considering her massive improvements in other events and obvious speed and jumping ability, i would suggest that the change severely effected her ability in this event

[user4]

The ability to change takeoff feet always puzzled me. I was a high jumper with a PR of 6'11" off my left foot. My best jump off of my right foot was 5 feet. I could do any dunk you can think of off my left foot; off my right foot I couldn't even touch the rim. Admittedly, I never really worked on jumping off the other foot...but this was because it always seemed impossible and felt incredibly awkward. Is this really a skill that can be learned, or are some people naturally more ambidextrous than others?

This agrees with my experience. I could do incredible dunking feats off of my right foot but felt like I had a shoe made of butter on my left... Now here is the really odd thing: Im left handed and my left leg was always the stronger leg !!.. go figure, I have no idea why I could jump much higher off the right. My only guess is that I held the ball with my left hand and therefore had to jump off my right foot. ..it is a learned response very early.

[gh]

it's important to note that "jumping ability" can be viewed as a lesser compoonent of the long jump: in the end it all comes down to speed.

[Atticus]

it's important to note that "jumping ability" can be viewed as a lesser compoonent of the long jump: in the end it all comes down to speed.

Except for the HORDES of very fast athletes who can't convert horizontal velocity into vertical velocity (aka 'jumping ability'). I am always amazed at so how many Euro LJers can lumber down the runway and then get incredible height off the board and go far.

[Gabriella2]

Atticus, is that 'lumbering down the runway' from statistical analysis or visual impression?

Many Europeans, especially former Soviet country athletes, give the impression they are bounding down the runway rather than sprinting, but speed analysis shows they are going just as fast. Kravets used to look like she was casually bounding down, when in fact she wasn't at all. Equally Lebedeva gave the impression she was super quick, when it was just that her cadence and turnover was very quick.

Didn't Denise Lewis have to switch legs? I'm sure her PB was virtually the same before and after. I recall somewhere Fiona May did, or that she took off from a different leg in the TJ to LJ, but that might be a false memory

[Atticus]

Atticus, is that 'lumbering down the runway' from statistical analysis or visual impression?

I guess it could be an 'optical illusion', but watching the approaches and comparing them, in the same competition, to others, they certainly look slower. They looked similar to Bubka's approaches in style, but he really did look like he was blasting.