This technique first pioneered in 1894 led to gold for American Michael Sweeney, but also to a bumpy landing. The Western Roll It was in 1912 that George Horine made the next breakthrough when he introduced the Western Roll. With this technique, Horine took off with his inside leg but then thrust his outside leg over the bar in mid-air. It looked peculiar to crowds, but it worked.
The Athletes Laughed Out Loud When He Made His First Jump… A Week Later The Laughter Stopped (And His Competitors Would Spend The Rest Of Their Lives Trying To Copy Him)
The laughter didn’t last long. By the end of the week, Fosbury had not only won the gold but also set a new Olympic record. The athletes, who started the week laughing, would spend the rest of their life trying to copy him.
The history of high jump is a story of how big Horine broke the world record and the Western breakthroughs in performance happen. Roll became the standard technique through till the 1936 games in Berlin. Someone creates a better way, others imitate it, refine it, and improve it. But at some point along Then a new form emerged known as the Straddle the way, the improvements level off, the return on jump. This technique would come to dominate high effort diminishes and results plateau. jumping for the next four decades with the king of this technique being the Russian athlete, Valeriy Then someone thinks differently. They momentarily Brumel. let go of the old way and try something new. The Wrong Direction At first the new approach may look and feel strange, but if the new form is good, with some practice, the new approach leads to breakthrough levels of performance.
As the American coaches flocked to the Soviet Union to learn from Brumel and his trainers, the greatest innovation of all was occurring in their own backyard in the form of a young Oregon State Of course, I am not talking about the development University jumper named Dick Fosbury. of a jumper any more; I am talking directly about the development of a new system to sell your When Fosbury soared over the bar on his first service. attempt at the 1968 Olympics the crowd reacted in shock to something most had never seen before. Rather than rolling over the bar, belly down, Fosbury led with his head and ‘flopped’ over the bar landing on his back. Laughter At The “World’s Laziest High Jumper” After a short stunned silence the laughter began. One newspaper labelled him the “World’s Laziest High Jumper” and another said he looked like a “fish flopping in a boat.”
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