The eastern cut-off is a variant of the "
scissors" 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,
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 came to invent the Western roll because the high jump pit at Stanfo ...
" 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 all ...
, 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 Olympics of 1948, and by
Iolanda Balas of Romania to win
the women's high jump in the Olympics of 1960 and 1964. 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 is a very beautiful and complex style involving
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