The verticality is a good thing but there are drawbacks too. Some technical
aspects that
are good for scissor jumping are faults in the flop. So some jumpers who often
do the
scissors grow into faults that are difficult to get out. Mostly: take-off with a
non-stretched
hip (leading to too few rotation over the bar), stretched swing leg (leading to
slow
rotations, too slow, except for those jumping 2.30 or so). Maybe a third thing
should be
mentioned: doing the scissors you fixate the bar with your eyes, doing the flop
I think it is
better to just make that parabola and do not control the bar.
From a certain age I personally think scissor jumping isn't a good thing
anymore. That
certain age maybe is around 15, when they are jumping high enough to not become
a
dive-into-the-pit-jumper. The reverse of course isn't true: there are some very
good flop
technicians who can use scissors in their training or warming-up without
learning bad
habits. Tia Hellbaut to mention someone.

By the way, I happened to be a very bad straddler and so used to do competition
jumps
with scissors. Only in my second track career I really learned to flop, still
not perfect...

Weia (W57)


> I personally like to use the scissors jump as a warmup (scissors,
> 3-step, 5-step, then full), but more importantly it's a good drill to
> get the jumpers thinking only about jumping vertically. Once you add
> the layout to clear a bar they think more about "getting into the pit"
> than jumping up (at least with inexperienced jumpers). I also like to
> do rim or net touches or if the jumper is capable volleyball dunks to
> change up the jumping workouts, do something fun, yet concentrate on
> vertical jumping.
>
> Monty Forthun
>
> --- In highjump@yahoogroups.com, "bhscoach3" <bhscoach3@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all. Just a quick question. What is the purpose of scissor jumps in
> > practice and what does it accomplish? thanks
> >
>