Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 242: The jump man (with Jeremy Fischer)

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When it comes to the jumps in track and field, it is hard to beat the track record of coach Jeremy Fischer. Over the last two decades, Fischer has guided numerous world champions and Olympic medalists across the long jump, triple jump, and high jump. On this week’s podcast he breaks down how he puts together a training week, his strength training philosophy for jumping, and much more.

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Notes and quotes

Jeremy Fischer is one of the world’s leading jump coaching. In his current role at as head coach at the Chula Vista training center he has guided a group that has included Olympic champion and seven-time World long jump champion Brittney Reese, three-time Olympic medalist Will Claye, American triple jump record holder Keturah Orji, and many more.

This episode is also brought to you by Swift Performance. Their EZE Jump Mat combines accuracy, usability, and durability. One of many Swift solutions to help improve training assessments.

  • 0:00 – Introduction
  • 2:30 – Fischer’s athletic background and getting from California to Wisconsin and back.
  • 6:30 – Influence of jumpers and Pat Matzdorf on Vern Gambetta’s philosophy.
  • 9:45 – Fischer’s transition to coaching and leaving the US to learn a new perspective.
  • 21:30 – Describing a typical training week and overall training philosophy.
    • 23:45 – Monday: acceleration day. “The warm up is designed for what we will do that day. If it is an acceleration day, why would I want to do large ranges of motion? I want to do shorter ranges with low heel recovery. So our A skips might be low A skips. Send consistent signals to the brain.
    • 29:15 – Tuesday: static day.
    • 30:30 – Wednesday: regeneration day
    • 31:45- Thursday: individual needs.
    • 32:15 – Friday: low impact strength. Saturday: competition
  • 35:00 – Training jumpers in multiple events: “For athletes doing multiple jumping events, I’ve stopped looking at it as a 7-day training week. We use 14 days and try to get each event twice without doing the two events on the same day.”
  • 37:45 – Strength training philosophy: “When you are 26 you can work in the weight room for a 4-week period and get near the strength levels it used to take you a year to reach.” “Our strength training moves towards the event throughout the year. If long jump is 100% and the squat is 30%, I want training to progress to 90% as the year goes on. Maybe that’s a long jump with a weight vest off of a few steps.”
  • 42:15 – Layering strength on top of technique.
  • 43:30 – Training with less space and resources. “I didn’t lift much in high school: we did med balls, hoping up stairs, and I jumped well. When I started lifting in college I got into a big hole. There is so much coaches can do with the bodyweight to gain strength.” “A kid might be able to squat 400 with bad technique, but if they can only squat 200 with good technique, then 200 is their PR.”
  • 46:45 – Transfer vs interference.
  • 49:15 – Will Clay’s comeback from achilles’ injury.
  • 51:00 – The role of bodyweight in strength development for jumpers and throwers.
  • 57:00 – Rethinking rest and recovery: “How can you rest if you are running all the time? You need a day off, even distance runners.”
  • 1:02:30 – Next steps.

To hear more about these topics you can listen to the full episode above. If you like what you hear on the GAINcast, don’t forget to give us a review and subscribe on iTunes.

Further reading

The following links were referenced in the podcast or provide some additional reading material on the topic: