John R.

I am a Jumps Technical Specialist. I will work with High Schools, Colleges, Youth Programs and Individuals to help build a Core Foundational understanding of the jumping event.

I started my Youtube channel: JumpersJunction as a way to educate those who are out seeking info about the history of track and field, looking for tips, tricks and analysis, and as a way to provide the content I wish was available when I was Starting out. I have been coaching since 2020 and have worked with athletes from 4 years old - Professional Athletes.

I am a Lvl II USATF Certified Coach, SafeSport Certification.

I First Joined a track & field team my sophomore year in high school and was one of the smallest and most uncoordinated kids on the team.

I long jumped 16ft that year.

But I was a late bloomer and grew into my own body. By my senior year I was jumping 22ft which was enough to get me a partial scholarship to a good DII school.

Once in college, I continued to progress and by December of my freshman year was jumping 24ft in practice consistently. I figured that if i kept improving at this rate I would have a chance at the 2012 Olympics!

But there was the problem!

I would just show up to practice, do the workout, and leave. I didn't know what I was doing or why I was doing it. I didn't care much for learning about nutrition or how to recover and instead focused on doing a lot of bench press, bicep curls and partying.

Well all that came back to to me when I got inured at my very first collegiate meet. I then transferred to a D1 School that more aligned with my academic goals and spent 3 more years attempting to get healthy. But while I could jump 24ft in practice, I kept getting injured.

By my senior year, I had given up on my track and field dreams and moved on. I went to grad school, I got a great job and got married, I had kids and moved on with my life.

But something was missing.

About 7 years later, I was at a playground with my Daughter one day and i was staring out at the city track and long jump pit that was right next to it.

I started imagining what would have happened if I had kept with the sport.

I was an really into Crossfit at the time as was about 6'1" - 200lbs.

I figured...why not! So i walked over to the long jump pit with my daughter, did a warmup, got my steps, and after not jumping for 7 years, popped off a 23ft jump.

I had learned a lot about fitness, nutrition, and life just in general and was a much different person that when I was in college so I wandered what would happen if I tried to Long Jump Again?

And that's what I did!

over the next year and a half I studied, reading peer-revied papers, reading books, attending seminars, talking with coaches and professional athletes, and trained harder that I ever had!

By April of 2020:
I was jumping over 8m or over 26ft!

I didn't discover a new technique or a secret!

I just consolidated the info that already exists, and made sure that "I" as the "Athlete" understood WHAT I should do, HOW to do it, and WHY it Matters!

So what now?

Time for me to share what I learned and Coach you to become your Own Coach!

Now, you will always need a coach, and you probably have a great coach.

But to truly become elite, you can't just show up and do the workouts (the WHAT). You need to fully understand HOW to do what you need to do, and WHY!

Now, I don't have time to be everyone's coach, but i can teach you how to think and move like and elite athlete, which will set you up for success at the next level!

I focus on the technical! We learn WHAT to do, HOW to do it, and then learn WHY it done that way.
I do not want them to just do a workout. I want them to know "the how" and "the why" behind it.

I want them to become passionate about the sport, not passive about the sport!
We drill fundamentals. My sessions work on first building a base technical understanding. I then look at what the athletes natural athletic tendencies are - then work to refine those.