Triple jumpers are, pound for pound, some of the strongest (if not the strongest) and explosive athletes out there. I regularly test standing vertical jumps for my track and field athletes at the University of California, and year in and year out, the triple jumpers are above and beyond their high jump, long jump and sprinter counterparts. If you spend some time on the internet, watching training videos, you’ll realize the same thing, that triple jumpers are some of the “baddest athletes on the planet”.
My friend Reggie Miller, a jumper from the Southeast Missouri State University, is a guy with an outstanding curiosity and passion for his event area. The other day, he shared with me some of his research as to the strength and power measures of some well-known triple jump athletes. These measures include things like:
- Squat max
- Clean max
- Snatch max
- 30m sprint (electric, dead start)
- 100m dash time
I know you’ll find the below list very interesting. A good question to always ask one’s self is how your current levels of athleticism in various aspects of training (speed and strength) compare to those at the next level you are looking to reach. Clearly, different jumpers have different strength and weaknesses, but ultimately, knowing just how fast and powerful these jumpers are can be an inspiration in one’s training. Personally, I am not a big “number chaser” for my athletes (I find that the lift numbers come easily in the scope of intelligent training with a motivated athlete, and the lifting numbers of the most powerful athletes is the egg laid by a powerful triple jumping chicken), but if you are hoping to jump 50’ in triple jump and your deep squat and clean are 250 and 185 respectively, you probably have some strength work to get after!
(A quick note on the below list: Clearly, asking a jumper their best squat max is always a bit of a guessing game. As you’ll see from the list below, you have two jumpers who weigh around 170lb claiming squats in the mid-600’s. Seeing that the raw world record in squats in the 165lb weight class is 606lb, I am doubtful of the depth of some of these squats, although most seem pretty honest. Watching a few of these guys jump in person, I believe their 500lb deep squat maxes. Keep in mind also, that in triple jump, and track and field jumps in general, ½ squats do have a useful role in the training sequence, so this may have played an influence in what these jumpers considered a squat max. In any case, 600lbs, even to ½ depth is pretty nasty if you weigh only 170. Of all the test outs, you may notice that the definitive indicators seem to be speed and clean/bodyweight.
Finally, for some of the low clean strengths in various jumpers, realize that not all jumpers extensively use the Olympic lifts to prepare for triple jumping (it isn’t a requirement!) so some jumpers may seem very weak in this practice, when really their skill is just very low. Looking at the very high performers, however, nearly all have extremely good Olympic lift numbers)
All this said, I give you a short research report by a great student of the event, Reggie Miller.
Strength and Speed Research in Triple Jumpers: By Reggie Miller
I wanted to find a correlation between sprint times, strength to body weight ratios, and how far a jumper would jump. The idea would be that we would be able to plan our training in a way so that if you wanted to jump a certain distance during the season you would know what 30m time you would have to be able to run and how much weight you would have to be able to lift in the gym. So I asked jumpers from all over the world what their max lifts were and what their best sprint times were. One thing to note was that I also only asked jumpers that have good or excellent technique. Most jumpers that were surveyed have jumps between 14.50 and 18.00.
Chart of Strength and Speed Testing, Triple Jumpers of Different Classifications
Key: TJ PR, Strength Ratio (Clean/BW) 30m, Squat, Clean, Bodyweight, 60m, 100m
*Notes: Brian Wellman’s 100m was hand-timed on his first movement.
About Reggie Miller
Reggie Miller is a Senior Jumper at Southeast Missouri State University, carrying personal bests of 15.84TJ and 2.16HJ. He posts his training videos at youtube.com/ezoen.
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