correlations - speed and vertical leap?

[basehead617]

to any coaches and afficionados of sprinting lore out there..

its usually said the most common way to determine beginning athletes' best events, in say, a young school T&F team, is vertical leap. highest 1/3 train in sprints and jumps (maybe throws for the taller/bigger folks), middle 1/3 in middle distances, lowest 1/3 in distance events.

from your experience and knowledge, is this always true? have there been <11sec sprinters with average vertical leaps (mid 20"'s), distance runners with high verts?

how strong is the correlation in practice..

[Jefferson Buffalo]

Re: speed and vertical leap?

And you look as if a vertical leap might damage anything softer than a concrete landing surface, you're a thrower.

[Rob]

Re: speed and vertical leap?

..

[buckeye II]

Re: speed and vertical leap?

I coached at a high school with little sprint talent. I would steer any high vertical leaps that had any explosiveness to the throws and others to hurdles & pv unless they had a predispostion for hj/lj. We typically placed in the top 3-8 teams in the largest division without ever scoring below 800 meters (300 hurdles on occasion). Field events and distance carried us. To score at a high level, distance runners usually needed decent speed, thus a solid veritcal leap. I am trying to dispell the notion that only the low vertical leaps should move to distance and that top level throwers don't need high verticals.

[basehead617]

Re: speed and vertical leap?

i said throwers would be taken from the top 1/3, if you noticed..

what about cutoff guidelines.. i guess for any college coaches out there, people would come in knowing their events already.. but for the sake of the discussion, would you say people with ~28"+ verticals (male) you'd push toward sprints, and 20-28" into middle distances? (800/1500) - obviously to be top tier in the middle distances you need great speed but i'm talking about on the low-end college or even intramural level. and <20" distance running?

i know we're all into numbers here, surely some of you have thoughts on this

[Track fan]

Re: speed and vertical leap?

This is accurate for collegiate level track. Yes the unatheletic 300 pound lardass will put the shot further than anyone in your highschool, but once you get to the collegiate level you need more than sheer bulk. I remember a friend of mine telling me a story about an Olympic level weightlifter he knew who had a high 20's or low 30's vertical and the man was 300+ pounds.

[buckeye II]

Re: speed and vertical leap?

basehead,

I've coached every level from toddlers to OT qualifiers. My experience is that events are pre-determined by college aren't they? My experiences coincide with your assumptions concerning veritical leap and speed. Anything over 30" is typically going to be solid in some event. It is just a matter of finding their niche.