First US caucasian to jump 7'

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

per anderson, re your comments about Avant using the Dive Straddle with a bent leg;

No, he used a pure "Dive. " He approached pretty much straight on, threw both hands into the air then went over, hands, head, torso, then both legs... in that order.

[jhc68]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

Yeah, Steve, you are right, it makes no difference and I hope no one reading this thinks it does... it is just an anti-alzheimers mental exercise to recall these guys and then see who has the time and energy actually to look stuff up. In fact, very little that gets discussed on this site DOES make any difference, does it?

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

jhc68 I think you and *I are thinking idenically on all this..... it's just a way to find things to talk about !

But sometimes I have somw racist overtones on some of these " white " threads. I have not felt that on this one a bit.

Who is the highest HJ'er in Duke University history that is left handed, is now 60, and grew up in Huntington, New York ?

[jhc68]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

I dunno... maybe he jumped just short of 2 meters some years back?

[Per Andersen]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

6 5.5hjsteve.
Thanks for setting me straight re Avant. I only saw him in photos in T&FN. I would ,however be thankful if you or others could tell me if Avant used a runup that was faster than what was common among U.S. jumpers of that era.

[Guest]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

Per Andersen wrote
"6 5.5hjsteve.
Thanks for setting me straight re Avant. I only saw him in photos in T&FN. I would ,however be thankful if you or others could tell me if Avant used a runup that was faster than what was common among U.S. jumpers of that era."

Comment: I'm the one who started the discussion about Avant's style. I can remember it as clear as day except for the one question as to speed. Remember I was competing against him (not very effectively, I'm afraid) over 45 years ago. At the time his speed seemed much faster than those of us that were stradling. We depended on a slower runup and explosion to our height. Especially Dumas. Avant didn't. But in thinking about the speed he approached the bar in comparison to later jumpers like Brumel and the more recent floppers that followed I don't think he really was that much faster in his approach to the bar. But again that's the fuzzy part of 45 years talking.

[Per Andersen]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

jwetter
Thanks for your thorough answer re Avant's run-up speed. It confirms my thinking that dive oriented jumpers utilized more speed generally than most straddlers.

[jhc68]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

My memory is that Avant had a faster than average run up and ran almost straight at the bar. Because his clearance involved a head first, diving belly roll, his lead leg had to come up very quickly toward his chest on take off. He converted horizontal force into lift efficiently, in contrast to power straddlers like Thomas. I don't know that Avant ran a lot faster than other jumpers but I bet he left the ground a lot faster on the last step. Thomas spent a very long time in a power position on take off waiting to complete the long arc of his straight kick leg to put his right foot way up overhead. Faust also used a straight kick-leg straddle style but was way quicker about it than Thomas or Dumas. Brumel was more of a diver and made most other straddle jumpers look like they were moving in slow motion. To my feeble mind, Avant was doing what fast, modern floppers do: using a quick bent-leg take off to maintain speed throughout the take off phase of the jump and convert lots of energy into vertical lift.

[jhc68]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

Re Joe Faust: He is still an interesting character. He has a sort of disorienting website (google High Jumping World and you'll find it) that is always being put together and, just when it gets to have a lot of material, Joe trashes it all and starts all over again.

[Per Andersen]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

So would you guys happen to know if Joe Faust is the character Joe or Joey Rosenberg in Jack Kerouac's book "Big Sur" from 1961. Kerouac described him as a sort of beat- Jesus who had been the California High School H.J. champ at 6'9" + he had long hair like Raul Castro!
Anyway I was lucky enough to see Shelton and the dive straddler Nilsson during the summer of '54 in one of their attacks on 7ft. Nilsson definitely ran much faster than Shelton but I was too young to appreciate the significance and always tried to copy Shelton's technique in my own jumping.

[jhc68]

Re: First US caucasian to jump 7'

Pers, I never saw Faust with long hair, it was always close cropped, but he does seem to be very ardent, mystically oriented Catholic. Printed media in the early '60's said that he had spent time in a monastery in Northern California. That would have been about the time Kerouac was being published. I guess only Joe knows.