[Platform high jump] Adjusting landing surface area
This discussion has an associated proposal. View Proposal Details here.Comments about this discussion:
Started
Hello,
The current rulebook states:
"The structure consists of two parts: a platform and a landing surface. The top surface of the platform must be at least 120 x 120 cm in size, the maximum and recommended size is 120 cm wide by 160 cm long. The sides of the platform must be nearly perpendicular with the ground to ensure its presence does not hamper riders. The landing surface consists of a flat piece of wood of the same dimensions as the platform (120 x 120 cm to 120 x 160 cm) that is firmly affixed to the top of the platform."
I firmly believe we should change the current measurements for platform high jump landing surface as most rider trains, and all competitions use pallets. Most of the times these pallets will be the "EUR" or "EURO" standard pallet which have a size of 80 x 120cm. Using a pallet and a half makes the competition much slower and very complicated to add or remove cm to the current height of the platform.
So I believe we should just change the 120 x 120cm minium to 120 x 80 cm, which is the size of a pallet.
Even at Unicon the platform high jump were not according to rules as only pallets we used for it, nobody said anything because everybody knows that using pallets is totally fine and was most riders use anyway.
Voilà :)
Comment
Yes, I agree.
There could be an argument made that static and pre-hop techniques would then have an advantage over the rolling hop technique because the landing area would be much smaller, and a rider has more momentum with this last technique. But that was already the case previously, and I find it normal: I believe that one of the goals when creating the platform competitions was to offer an alternative to traditional jump events for static and pre-hop techniques. Also, from a technical point of view, when a rolling hopper is comfortable at a certain height, he/she should be able to easily stop on top of the platform. And when he/she is getting closer to his/her limit, usually the rim hits the edge of the platform, stopping the momentum of the run up. So overall, I don't think it should be an issue for a rolling hopper to stand on top of the platform, even if it's considerably smaller.
Just to clarify your suggestion, and correct me if I'm wrong: the dimensions of the platform would then be between 120x80 to 120x160. That would allow for 1 standard EURO pallet, an oversize pallet, or even 2 standard EURO pallets at most.
But that brings the issue of the width, which is currently fixed at 120. Looking at dimension tables for North American pallets (which use the Imperial System), we of course notice that none would be acceptable in an official high jump competition, because the current width requirements are not even slightly flexible.
http://2moveabroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Pallet-dimensions-for-North-America.png
Should the width be variable, allowing for minimal differences in pallet dimensions? For example, 100x80 to 140x160?
Comment
The argument that rolling hops have more horizontal momentum is total bullshit. If you have too much horizontal momentum when you get on top of the pallet stack, then you failed your jump because you were not able convert that "horizontal energy" into "vertical energy". It also happens to static jumpers or pre-hop jumpers.
For dimension, I forgot to edit the discussion text, while I did edit the proposal text. I think to make it more face across competitions we can't have too much of a big difference between minimum and maximum size. To accommodate different pallets types of the world, we could make the minimum 100 x 80cm while recommending 120 x 80cm (EUR standard) with a maximum of 120 x 100cm (oversized EUR pallet). This would allow for a fair landing area size across competitions while also making it easy for the organizer to set up platform high jump.
Comment
I would say the landing plattform must be inbetween 100 to 150cm in widht and 80 to 150 in deep. That should fit for any configurastion then.
I agree that there is no bad impact for rolling hop, if you land it clean you can manage it to stay on the top, if you fail that you often also fail to land the drop. Also the meant of Highjump on pallets is more in the trials direction. It is about jumping on a plattform, not over a plattform.
Comment
I bothers me though that the difference between what will be used most ~120x80cm and the maximum you noted 150x150 is more than double. Anyhow that's already better than what we currently have since it allows usage of pallets ^^
Comment
I really like the idea of have one standard size for the landing platform. This makes all competitions consistent. Because the majority of competitions will be done on EUR pallets, then that standard should be 120 x 80cm. However, as others have pointed out, not every competition will have access to EUR pallets. My proposed solution is that the actual pallet(s) that comprise the landing platform can be larger than 120 x 80cm as needed, but if so, there must be a plywood sheet on the top that measures 120 x 80cm that the riders must land on. I think this is a good compromise because it keeps the landing as one standard size which is very simple to set up in the majority of situations, but in those other situations there is a simple way to bring them to the standard.
Comment
That can be a solution!
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I'm a bit confused here. It sounded like you liked my solution, but then you did not incorporate it into the proposal. I think the idea of having only one standard landing size is good for the consistency of results across competitions. (But my solutions allows for the variations of pallet sizes.)
Comment
Sorry was focused on other stuff. How's this?
OLD:
"The structure consists of two parts: a platform and a landing surface. The top surface of the platform must be at least 120 x 120 cm in size, the maximum and recommended size is 120 cm wide by 160 cm long. The sides of the platform must be nearly perpendicular with the ground to ensure its presence does not hamper riders. The landing surface consists of a flat piece of wood of the same dimensions as the platform (120 x 120 cm to 120 x 160 cm) that is firmly affixed to the top of the platform."
NEW:
"The structure consists of two parts: a platform and a landing surface. The top surface of the platform must be 120 x 80 cm in size. The sides of the platform must be nearly perpendicular with the ground to ensure its presence does not hamper riders. The landing surface consists of a flat piece of wood of the same dimensions as the platform (120 x 80) that is firmly affixed to the top of the platform." If the landing surface is bigger than 120 x 80cm, an additional piece of wood of 120 x 80cm must be added atop.
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It should be "The top surface of the platform must be at least" like in the older version, otherwise it doesn't make any sense. I'm happy to revise the proposal for you if that's okay.
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Go ahead!