How To Do The Fosbury Flop
So you want to improve your high jump?
So you want to improve your high jump?
Perfect. You are in luck. Today we will learn from Dick Fosbury, an olympian who in 1968 pioneered the now-current technique for the high jump.
You see, Fosbury was the person who popularized the high jump technique of jumping over the bar with your stomach to the sky. Prior to Fosbury’s famous leap, everyone used relatively the same technique of doing a type of scissor kick over the bar.
Fosbury went against the grain and pioneered a new technique that is now the gold standard for the high jump.
So what can we take away from this?
Well, there is a lot.
Let me break down the 3 biggest takeaways.
Boldness - it takes a special type of person to look at the technique that had been accepted as “normal” and go about it in a completely different way. At the time, there were many people who didn’t believe that the Fosbury Flop was superior. Many people thought it was a flawed strategy that was never going to work. Just a passing fad. Despite these nay-sayers, Fosbury persisted.
Creativity - at NFH we tend to have a soft spot for people who go about life differently. Fosbury is no exception. He pioneered a new technique. He is the perfect representation of questioning the status quo.
Commitment - competing at the Olympic level takes a lot of hard work (obviously), Fosbury believed in his style of jumping enough to compete at the highest level with it. If he practiced both styles of jumping chances are he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he did. It was due to his belief that his style of jumping was superior that he was able to take his spot as one of the legends of the high jump. If it weren’t Dick Fosbury everyone would still be doing the high jump the old-fashioned way.
So what can you do with this information?
Ask yourself where in your life are you doing the scissor kick when you could be doing the Fosbury Flop.
Sometimes it is obvious, it just takes a little questioning.
Happy Monday.