If you have ever participated in a high jump competition or have seen it as part of the audience, you may have noticed that all athletes jump with their backs to the bar . In many high jump competitions, this is a rule while in others it is not done by the rules of this sport, but thanks to Dick Fosbury, an innovative athlete who changed the sport forever . Today in Supercurious We tell you all about the Fosbury jump and how it revolutionized high jumps.
Dick Fosbury: the man who revolutionized the high jump
1. How were the high jumps before Dick Fosbury?
Until then there were different jumping techniques, but all were facing the height bar . Fosbury considered that the techniques commonly used and accepted until then were very complex and that better results could be achieved by jumping backwards. Until then, the technical height jumps were:
- Scissors technique : the first of the techniques of high jump, now considered obsolete, was simply to take momentum with a race facing the bar and, approaching in the whipping phase, in a position perpendicular to the bar, throw a leg and then the another about it, opening and closing both quickly, like the movement of a scissors.
- Costal roller technique (western roll) : or long jump athletics. It consists of an oblique race in the direction of the strip, with a whipping phase perpendicular to it, while the whipping phase is carried out equal to that of the scissors technique, with the only difference that, here, the body is slightly inclined backwards and sideways, facilitating the opening of legs in the air.
- Ventral roll technique : considered the simplest jump technique before the Fosbury flop style came to be part of the story, it consists of an oblique race in the direction of the 7 to 9 step strip, with a beating phase perpendicular to the strip, throwing the leg that will execute the jump and raising the arms to pass the ribbon so that the body is parallel to this during the wrapping phase prior to the fall.
2. Who was Dick Fosbury: brief biography
Richard Douglas Fosbury was born on March 13, 1947 in Portland, Oregon, USA. He practiced athletics from childhood and began to devise a new high jump technique when he was 15 years old , because the techniques of front jump (such as the scissors, costal or ventral roller) were difficult to handle. Being a student at the University of Oregon, he won a university degree to represent the US in the 1968 Mexican Olympics, where he won the gold medal for the highest jump, with 2.24 meters.
After getting this medal, Fosbury, to the sorrow of many and the joy of others, he retired from the sport because he felt he was not ready for success . Not only had he become a very media person for having won an Olympic medal, but also for the way he had achieved it.
3. Why did the Fosbury jump revolutionize the high jump?
Our protagonist, drawing the conclusion that jumping on your back could be more beneficial than doing it head on , he began to prepare a new jumping technique and after many hours of training, he completely refined the jump back. Before Dick Fosbury did it for the first time in the Olympic Games of Mexico in 1968, nobody used this technique, which would later be called " Fosbury Flop "
At first many doubted the possibilities of Dick Fosbury to get a good mark with this curious system; in fact, many believed that Fosbury was a little crazy for risking his reputation. But all these doubts and ridicule did not stop the athlete. That year, Fosbury won the gold medal in athletic jumps with his revolutionary technique.
For many he was a visionary, for others an eccentric, but what is clear is that Dick Fosbury revolutionized the technique of jumping in this sport forever. Tell us Did you like this post about Dick Fosbury's revolutionary technique? Do you have any other curiosity about the jumps of height that you want to share? Tell us your opinion in the comments! ð ?????? We will love discovering it!