Dynamics of the flip long jump

Abstract

Abstract The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes attempt to jump as far as possible from a take-off point into a sandpit. In the 1970s, an athlete called Tuariki Delamere tried to introduce a ‘front flip’ technique where one goes into a front tuck instead of using a regular technique like the hitch kick and argued that it would allow for a longer horizontal distance. Several reasons have been proposed for the superiority of this technique, including the reduction of drag force during flight and increased angular momentum at take-off. We show that the air resistance makes a negligible contribution to the horizontal distance covered whereas a larger angular momentum can increase the distance of a jump. We explain why the technique was banned and discuss whether our argument implies that the technique can be deemed to be superior in practice.