Coach Wants Dale to put in Super ‘Average’ Results

New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder and long jumper, Samantha Dale, is striving to reach the point where an ‘average’ performance is something to celebrate.

Dale’s coach, the triple Olympian Andrew Murphy, wants the 21-year-old to make the impressive 6.71m she recorded to finish first in a hot field in Melbourne last month to become her average.

“We want 6.70m to become Samantha’s new average instead of 6.40m,” said Murphy, an Athletics Australia coach who is based at NSWIS.

“I’m a very science-based coach, however, in competitions it comes down to what Samantha jumps and when she jumps it. We’re now looking at the world championships, and an athlete is guaranteed a place [for that] if they jump 6.70m – but they get only three rounds.

“Our goal is for Samantha to jump as many 6.70s in those three jumps over the next six to eight competitions. If we achieve that, we’re going to Budapest for the world championships. I want Samantha to be at the stage where I can say to her ‘you just have to do your average today and you’re through’.

“It’s the same for [NSWIS scholarship holder] Rohan Browning and all my athletes. I work on ‘average’ because I think it’s unrealistic to say to them: ‘If you do your personal best today, you’ll make the final’ because only five percent of people – it’s probably less – will do that.

“Competition is a pressure cooker, but your average is always possible.”

Murphy said a series of improvements Dale had made since late 2021 – with the assistance of NSWIS staff including senior biomechanist Emma Millett and Alex Natera, manager of Sport Science – had granted her a cutting edge.

“Samantha has had a massive increase over the last 16 months in her speed,” said Murphy, of the athlete who, as an under-14s and 15s athlete that competed in the high jump and triple jump, couldn’t crack a top eight at State.

“That has been our objective because – based on the data we received from the biomechanists – she was off the pace. It was a gap.

“When we looked at all the gaps, we saw that she could jump – she’s extremely talented in that space – but Samantha needed to improve her strength. The plan we formulated was for her to get faster, and while we saw a big increase in her speed last year, we’ve done it again.”

Her defeating the distinguished Australian long jumper and two-time Olympian Brooke Buschkuehl, and America’s Tara Davis-Woodhall, who finished sixth at the Tokyo Games, is further proof of Dale’s ascent on the sporting stage.

“The indicators suggest she’s approaching top of the world,” said Murphy of her progress.

“[Her] velocity is now in the top six-to-eight in the world; Sam’s jumping is good; her steps into the board are on par with the best, so it is now a case of getting her to, psychologically, attain that high level of consistency where 6.70 becomes her new average.”

Daniel Lane, NSWIS