The eastern cut-off is a variant of the "
scissors
Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting var ...
" high jump style
involving a layout. This enables the jumper to clear a higher bar
than with the traditional scissors style while still landing on
the feet. The technique is generally credited to
Michael Sweeney of the
New York Athletic Club
The New York Athletic Club is a Gentlemen's club, private social club and athletic club in New York (state), New York state. Founded in 1868, the club has approximately 8,600 members and two facilities: the City House, located at 180 Central Pa ...
,
who used it in 1895 to set a world record of 6 ft 5 5/8 inches (1.97 m).
The style came to be called "eastern" because of its origin on the US
east coast, after the invention of the rival "
western roll
The Western roll was a high jump technique invented by George Horine of Stanford University. This technique was succeeded by the straddle.
History
It is said that George Horine invented the Western roll because the high jump pit at Stanford coul ...
" style by
George Horine
George Leslie Horine (February 3, 1890 – November 28, 1948) was an American athlete who mainly competed in the high jump. He is credited with developing a technique called a forerunner to the western roll, a technique he developed due to the ...
on the west coast (Stanford). Horine was in fact the first to
improve on Sweeney's record, when he cleared 6 ft 7 inches (2.01 m) in 1912.
Although succeeded by the more efficient layout techniques of
the western roll and (in the 1930s) by the
straddle
In finance, a straddle strategy involves two transactions in options on the same underlying, with opposite positions. One holds long risk, the other short. As a result, it involves the purchase or sale of particular option derivatives that al ...
, the eastern
cut-off continued to be competitive at an international level until
the 1940s in the men's high jump, and until the 1960s in the women's
high jump. It was used by
John Winter of Australia to win the high
jump in the
1948 Olympics, and by
Iolanda Balas of Romania to win
the women's high jump in the
1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events January
* Janu ...
and
1964 Olympics. Even today,
the eastern cut-off is used by high school jumpers in Kenya, where the
lack of foam landing mats necessitates a style where jumpers land on
their feet.
The eastern cut-off involves contrary rotations of the body and legs. A jumper taking off from the left foot crosses the bar with the right leg first, left leg roughly
parallel to the bar, with the body still on the takeoff side and twisted
(opposite to the rotation of the left leg) to face downwards. After crossing
the bar the legs are rapidly "scissored": this undoes the twist and
the jumper lands gracefully on the takeoff foot, facing the bar.
References
{{High jump techniques
High jump
Sport of athletics terminology