Jump and reach
Ready when: Hop, step, jump and land (b2) done.
What you are learning
To jump as high as you can from standing: bend, swing the arms, push through the toes and reach, then land softly. Measured on a wall, it shows progress in centimetres.
Words on this card Run-up, Take-off, Side-on
- Run-up
- The run before a jump or throw.
- Take-off
- The moment the foot leaves the ground to jump.
- Side-on
- Standing with a shoulder, not the chest, toward where you aim.
Set up
A strip of masking tape running up the wall from the child's standing reach; a crayon or chalk dust on the fingertips.
Weather: dry ground
Show it first for the one teaching
- Stand side-on to the wall and reach up with the near hand: mark your standing reach.
- Bend the knees and swing both arms back.
- Swing the arms up hard, push through the toes and touch the tape as high as you can.
- Land with bent knees and hold still.
Your part while they practise
Mark the standing reach first; mark the best touch.
Step by step
- Mark the standing reach.
- Chalk on the fingertips.
- 3 jumps, touching as high as you can, holding each landing.
- 3 rounds. Then 3 jumps from one step, taking off from one foot.
How much: 3 rounds of 3 jumps, then 3 one-foot jumps 6 min a session 2 days a week
Say one thing Pick one line from "What you will see" for today and say only that.
The game: Beat your mark
The height of your best touch above your standing reach is your score.
Who plays: 1 or more, taking turns.
How to play, turn by turn
- Turns
- Each player's standing reach is marked
- Each player has 3 jumps; the best touch counts
- Measure from the standing reach to the best touch
- Fair play
- Each player is measured from their own reach, so different heights play fairly.
- Points
- 1 point for each centimetre above your standing reach.
- Fouls
- The jump does not count
- A step or run-up in the two-foot jumps
- The landing is not held (a step or a fall)
- Winning
- Beat your own best mark. With two players, the bigger number wins.
- 15 cm for 1 star
- 25 cm for 2 stars
- 35 cm for 3 stars
Easier or harder
Two feet only.
One-foot take-off from 3 steps, each foot.
What you will see, and what to say
- the child looks down at take-off
Look up at the tape
Eyes on the spot you want to touch. - the child lands stiff-legged
Bend your knees, hold it
Soft knees, then freeze.
Self-check
3 jumps in a row within 3 cm of the best mark, each landing held.
Stop and get a coach when
Pain in the knee or heel.
Fitness for this
Warm up first: how to warm up, at workonfitness.com. For strength and stretching, its exercise library shows each exercise step by step, with an easier version.
This card trains take-off power, full-body stretch, landing.
Basic is done when the child has met the self-check on cards b1 to b9 and wants a measured challenge.
awiseathlete.com/sports/athletics/athletics-b9