Informative Speech on High Jump

1602 Words7 Pages
You are in a track meet getting ready participate in the high jump event. You hear the announcer call your name on deck. You take a deep breath, focusing your brain and body on the task ahead: to get over the high jump bar without knocking it down. Attempting to perfect everything that you were taught during practice, you start to run towards the high jump matt. Right before you hit the matt you jump off of one foot into the air soaring towards the bar and at the last second kicking your feet out so they don’t hit the bar. Landing on the matt you quickly turn your head to the bar and see it wobbling. You hold your breath as you wait for the dreaded thud the bar makes when it hit the ground only to have it stay on the standards. Congratulations you have just participated in a 120 year old event called High jump. High jump is a Track-and-field event where an athlete uses his/her own strength to jump over a certain height. It was first introduced to the world in Scotland in the 19th century. Many aspects of high jump have evolved over the centuries to help the athletes achieve more while also protecting them from harm. In Sean Donnelly’s article An Introduction to the High Jump he states that competitors have been introducing more effective techniques to arrive at the current form (14). The technique back in the early 19th century was for the competitors scissor kick over the bar. The jumpers would stand parallel to the high jump bar but their bodies would be facing to the side. Then they would kick the leg nearest the bar into the air and over the bar driving the body straight up and over. Then the second leg would get kicked up into the air and follow the body over landing on the other side. According to Rebecca Jenkins in The First London Olympics: 1908 the rules for high jump were just to jump over the bar given that the person jumped off of one foot and this was

More about Informative Speech on High Jump

Open Document