The high jump in Russia has been a point of national pride for many years now. If you check out the world leaders in the men’s and women’s high jump event you will invariably see several Russian jumpers in the top 10 in the world. In fact, Russia has accumulated 5 of the top 11 world marks of all time in outdoor competition (counting Avdeyenko of the Ukraine), which is a powerful testament to their training methodology.
There are several other countries who share the ability to put a few competitors at the top of the world list each year, such as Finland in the javelin, and Jamaica in the sprints. This always begs the question of nature vs. nurture, and of course the question of culture. I feel that the success of Russia in the high jump is highly due to their training systems and development. Although an older video, I was very excited to see a 25 minute clip of Russian training methods from the late 1970’s. Here is the video.
1980 Russian High Jump Training: Complete with a “megaman” sound track!
The video addresses many parts of high jump training. The exercise types are as follows:
- Part I. Core strength and flexibility exercises.
- Part II. Gymnastic and spatial awareness exercises.
- Part III. Hill and sprint training
- Part IV. Hurdle mobility
- Part V. Soft tissue work and therapy
- Part VI. Elastic exercises and plyometrics
- Part VII. Hydrotherapy
- Part VIII. Special strength exercises
- Part IX. Takeoff based exercises
 
Of all the training present on this video, there are several that I would list as essential for high jump training.
Hill sprints
Hill bounding
Hill bounding double leg
Hill single leg bounding
Rudimentary hops
Tire Pulls/sled pulls
Hurdle mobility
Fast hurdle runs/coordination
Short sprints and fly sprints
Soft tissue work and therapy
Standing multi jumps from elevated platform
Bounding from a run-in
Depth jumps over a hurdle
Single leg Depth jumps over a hurdle (11:53, extremely impressive!!)
Double leg depth jumps from high boxes (over 1 meter)
Hurdle hops for height (double and single leg)
Hurdle hops for distance (single leg)
Up and down box jumps
Jumps up to a box
Plyometric box jumps up boxes of ascending height
Single leg jumps over boxes of differing height
Single leg jumps on and off of boxes of differing height
Hang cleans
Cleans from floor
Push press
Single leg push press
Split jerk
Snatch
Barbell step-up 1/2
Squat
Forward two-legged hops with a barbell
High knee runs with plate overhead
Curve running with barbell on back
Hack squat
Leg press
Calf extension on leg press
Single leg – leg press
Back extension
Hurdle takeoffs, landing on same leg Resisted running + a takeoff “long jumps” over a hurdle.
Single jumps
Jumping over hurdles on a curve
So there you have it. World-class exercises for high jump in a 25 minute video. Of course this list is not all inclusive for the many training methods out there for single leg jumping, but most of the primary methods are there. Of course, one must remember that actually practicing jumping for maximal height is the most important training method of all. The proper combination of these supporting exercises, however, will offer a lot of help to any aspiring jumper.
A training method not found in this video would be that of multi-throws with various shots and medicine balls, which is a typical practice of many track and field athletes across the world. Of all the training practiced in the above video, I think some of the methods that are tremendously effective are the single leg jumping exercises such as single leg depth jumping or single leg hurdle hopping. Any developed single leg jumper will benefit tremendously from this intense type of  work. These intense single leg exercises are critically important for a single leg jumper, but for some reason do not show up in much of our modern coaching literature.
I hope that you as a reader will find these training methods both informative and perhaps applicable in your own training pursuits, whether as a track and field high jumper, or just an athlete looking to increase their vertical leap off of one or two legs.
Joel
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