Coach ,

Few coaches are better to learn from than Nic Petersen on the complexities of coaching the triple jump. 

Coach Petersen is entering his 3rd season as Associate Head Coach (and 12th season as any coach) of Jumps at the University of Florida Gators track and field program.

Petersen has been a part of nine National Championship teams and seven SEC Championship teams since his arrival to the program. During his tenure, Petersen’s jumps group has won 21 National Championships and 28 SEC Championships.

In his ‘Teaching the Triple Jump’ clinic, Coach Petersen goes over his teaching progression for triple jump, training inventory, runway drills, 1st run jump drills, short run drills, and extended or specific bounding drills. 

We have pulled two of his most crucial lessons about teaching the triple jump and have provided them for you below. 

Addressing Common Errors

Addressing Common Errors

Coach Petersen’s clinic addresses some of the most common errors that arise in triple jump athletes. 

The first error he discusses is athletes reaching or hopping into the board. This could either be reaching into the board, the athlete sticking their foot out into the board, setting up too much as they make their entry into the board, or decelerating into it. 

An athlete having a low knee drive or taking their hop too high are also things coaches want to key in on. 

In addition to this, Coach Petersen notes that most issues that arise for an athlete during their triple jump are the result of something incorrectly done earlier on in their jumping process. Therefore, Coach Petersen stresses what he calls “coaching backward”. 

“Look for things that happened before [the error]. What caused that?” Whatever the error is might have nothing to do with that actual phase and instead have everything to do with what they did heading into that phase. 

Gator Drill

Gator Drill

The triple jump drill that Coach Petersen is most known for is called the Gator Drill. 

The most basic iteration of this starts with an athlete either on flat ground or on a raised box. They’ll begin by taking their first jump with their right leg, their second jump with their right leg, and then their final jump with their left leg before getting into their actual leap. 

This is a great drill for coaches to diagnose and pinpoint the specific areas where an athlete is excelling or needs improvement. Especially by having these drills on video, Coach Petersen can look back at these repetitions with the athletes and work through various aspects of it in detail, such as ground contact at each phase of the foot position upon landing. 

Coach Petersen suggests instituting a small box (anywhere from 1 to 6 inches) at the beginning of the drill only if you’re working with high-level athletes because the drill is already difficult enough as is. 

Never get out coached,

T&F Community of Coaches Helping Coaches

P.S. The Texas Track and Field Coaches Association is hosting the live virtual part of their clinic starting tonight and is open to anyone to learn from 25 of the top coaches in T&F. 

https://ttfca25.coachtube.com/schedule/