The effect of hand-held weights on standing long jump performance

Abstract

The standing long jump was one of the events in ancient Olympiad Games. Extra weights were held in the hands of athletes during the jump. It has long been debated whether the extra weights were used to make the challenge more difficult or to enhance the jumping performances. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of extra weights on standing long jump performance. A Redlake high-speed camera was synchronized with a Kistler force platform to collect the data of eight male jumping performances. The results Indicate that the total horizontal propelling time, time to maximal horizontal force, horizontal impulse and horizontal velocity of body CG at takeoff all increased. with loaded jumps. In addition, the vertical velocity of body CG and angles at takeoff decrease with loadedl weights. It was suggested optimal extra weights for extending standing jump distance is 8% of body mass.