Date

11-11-2026

Department

School of Health Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Health Sciences (PhD)

Chair

Travis Combest

Keywords

long jump, approach, global visual regulation, accuracy.

Disciplines

Health and Physical Education

Abstract

This investigation is important it provides insight for coaches into what strategy to suggest to their long jump athletes during competition. Knowing what strategy to use with a starting mark for long jumpers can improve the athletes’ instances of foul jumps and help determine what decisions to make between jumps in competition. This investigation recruited male and female long jumpers (n = 14) between the ages of 15 and 18 years of age that self-identify as long jumpers. Using a crossover design, the primary purpose of this study was to determine if a long jump athlete can improve their approach accuracy by adjusting their starting mark between jumps in competition based on the jump prior. A secondary purpose was to determine if moving the starting mark changes the onset of global visual regulation during the long jump approach run. Paired samples t-test and Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance was used on all data to determine significance. Using fair jumps only, adjusting starting marks in long jump did not improve accuracy (p = 0.21) or the assumed onset of global visual regulation. When foul jumps were included, non-adjusted starting marks showed to significantly improve accuracy of approach compared to adjusted marks (p = 0.04) while assumed global visual regulation was not impacted. Adjusting starting mark does not help long jump athletes improve their accuracy when compared to non-adjusted starting marks. Athletes and coaches should consider leaving starting marks alone during competition and analyze run mechanics over starting marks for accuracy improvements.

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