Here's a couple of answers I bet no one is thinking of.....

I coach elementery 5th grade through 8th grade, I use the box to answer the simple question of 'will it hurt if I jump really high?' in addtion to working with the athletes form. I see using the box as a major advantage especially with younger athletes who can barely jump on to the landing pit mat.

As for jumping on grass, never thought much of it. In my days of jumping at a small school, we would jump from grass or dirt (in the days of cinder tracks) -- never saw any injuries.  I would watch out for morning dew, the grass would be very sippery!

JS

--- On Fri, 7/11/08, peypip <skihard@...> wrote:

From: peypip <skihard@...>
Subject: [HJ] Questions
To: highjump@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, July 11, 2008, 1:08 PM

First off, great job announcing the trials Dwight. I only wish they
would have shown more high jump!
With some time before the Olympics start I thought I'd stir up a
little activity on this board with a couple questions I have been
thinking about for a while.

1) Jump boxes and ramps
I know a few coaches who swear by them and other who never use them.
Does anyone here use them? If so, when and why? If not, why not.
I do not as I feel that it messes with their rhythm over the bar and
can lead to bad habits such as rotating the jump foot to parallel or
even away from the pit.

2) Jumping on grass
This is one I only just started thinking about. The pole vault coach
at our school bought our old pit and set it up at his house (he has a
lot of land). Our AD went ahead and gave him an old high jump pit as
well. He is probably going to put in a run up for the pole vault but
as of now everything is just on the grass. This summer I have met a
few of my high jumpers out there to get some jumps in. They all seem
to like jumping on the grass. They wear their spikes and have had no
real trouble with slippage. This got me to wondering if maybe
training for HJ on the grass may not be a bad idea. It seems like
many jumpers complain about shin pain in their jumping leg by the end
of the season. I am wondering if you spent time jumping off of the
grass if it might help to put less stress on the leg.