Learn the straddle pike jump: build-up from the straight jump via lying on your back to the hands-free jump, with the judges' 135° rule and typical mistakes.
The straddle pike jump is a jump in which you bring your straddled, straight legs forward and up above horizontal in mid-air and tip your upper body slightly forward — you show a clean straight jump first and land upright afterwards. The pike angle takes hip flexibility [1].
The honest answer to "How hard is it?": The sequence is simple, leg height is not. Your abs have to pull the legs up, not your back. The Swiss trampoline material describes exactly that: the straddled legs reach horizontal by pulling in the belly (pelvic tilt), you bend the upper body slightly forward and touch your knees with your hands before straightening up for the landing [2].
And when does the jump count? In the women's competition rules (FIG Code of Points 2025–2028) both legs must be above horizontal. If the hip angle is larger than 135°, the jump is not credited as a straddle pike jump [3]. For comparison: 180° would be upright and straight, 90° a right angle. Above 135° that is merely a nod.
Navel to spine, pelvis tilted slightly back, arms forward-up [1]. Milestone: ten straight jumps in a row, quiet landing.
Lie on your back and perform the straddle movement [4]. The straight legs go up, the belly is hard, the lower back stays on the floor (practice). Milestone: ten repetitions, legs stay straight.
After the third straight jump you lift the straddled legs to horizontal, bend the upper body slightly and touch your knees with your hands. Straighten up at once for the landing on your feet [2]. Milestone: three jumps in a row.
Increase the range: first to the shins, then to the feet. After that with an arm swing [2]. Milestone: three jumps in a row, hands at the shins, legs roughly equally high.
Now the legs come above horizontal without hand contact. The side-on video shows you: are both legs up [3]? Land on both feet, in control [4]. Milestone: five jumps, all with legs above hip height.
Stretch an elastic band or string at about hip height between two stands and jump so that your feet touch it on the way up. You get hard feedback on whether your legs really are above horizontal. This is a practice trick, not a study finding.
Second trick: film yourself from the side and freeze the frame at the highest point. There you measure with your finger on the screen whether the feet are above hip height and whether the back stays straight. A video shows you more than your feeling, because in the air you have only a few tenths of a second to feel anything. That too is practice experience, not a study figure.
In the straddle jump you spread the legs wide and the upper body stays upright [4]. In the straddle pike jump the legs also come forward above horizontal and the upper body tips slightly forward [1][3]. The angle at the hip is the difference.
In the women's rules both legs must be above horizontal; legs at horizontal bring a small deduction, below it a medium one [3].
You need good hip flexion [1]. Test it: in a straddle sit, reach your feet without a rounded back. If that does not work, work on flexibility first and jump with hands at the knees.
Yes, but under supervision. The Swiss trampoline material uses the straddle jump as a progression after the straight jump and lets the hands touch the knees [2]. The trampoline safety rules apply.
That is a question of experience: short, clean series (five to ten jumps) beat long, tired ones. There is no study figure for this.
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