Our family is spread out across the globe as everyone keeps moving every now and then. My parents are in France, Layla’s in South America. My sister Caroline is the closest to our parents, while my brother Matt lives in Spain now. He is visiting us for a few days here in Seattle, the kids and us are ecstatic to see him. Yesterday we went to the high school track to get some different kind of exercise. My younger son Marc knew there is equipment for high jump and long jump, so we changed from the regular running and cycling to some exercises from track and field.
I had not done high and long jumps in a while, and these movements reminded me of when I first started learning them in middle school and high school. We had physical education (PE) once a week and these two activities were on the list every year.
A lot of sport comes from technique. With high jump it’s not a matter of speed but positioning the legs at the right location right before take off, then laying flat in the air to help with height clearance. There is some amount of automation that needs to take place, just like any sport. Then, with basic automation, how strong legs are make a difference in how high one jumps. The same applies to going long, except that in this case the running speed matters a bit more.
If you have a public school or public equipment near you, it’s a fun way to spend time with kids and friends in general.
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