Dwight Phillips is a five-time world champion in the long jump and a 2004 Olympic gold medalist. He holds a personal best in the long jump of 28 feet, 8 and one-quarter inches, which ties as the seventh best jumper all time. The below is a transcription from an interview FoTrack conducted with Phillips in 2012.
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"There are a few common mistakes that are often made in the long jump from my perspective, which I see from the high school students all the way up to the professional athletes."
The Two Most Common Mistakes
"1. The approach --- Most athletes, they try to run as fast as they can throughout the whole run; that is incorrect. Obviously, you want to be fast at the board, but it's all about creating a gradual acceleration so that you can run all the way through the board and not to the board. That's one of the most common mistakes that [is] made. It's all about creating that gradual acceleration. I want to stress that because that is probably the most mistaken thing that is done i...
