USDAA Spread Jumps Made Easy!
14 Apr 2014
USDAA senior judge Dave Hanson kindly shared his technique for using a standard wing jump and a second simply constructed jump to create correct jump heights/spread widths for USDAA Championship spread jumps (aka "double" jumps) while simplifying height changes. Dave took all the photos and I've copied his wording from his very helpful emails to me. Thank you for sharing Dave!As of this writing these are the applicable equipment regulations.
Dave’s technique is to build a pair of jump uprights with four feet on the bottom. The length of the feet are measured so when the jump is butted up against a standard wing jump the correct minimum spread spacing is achieved. As Dave wrote:
“Essentially, I have pre-measured the minimum distance for the small dogs (10 inches) and the large dogs (16 inches) on different colored legs blue and red respectively. On each side of the upright I have 2 color coded plastic jump cups. The blue are set for 8 and 12 inches and the red for 18 and 22 inches.
For the small dogs I can build a jump with bars set 8-12 and 8-14. For medium dogs I can build a jump with bars set 12-16 and 12-18. For large dogs I can build a jump with bars set 18-22 and 22-26.”
Here are his photos clarifying the description:
Large Dog Spacing/Jump Cups
Close Up Large Dog Spacing/Jump Cups
Small/Medium Dog Spacing/Jump Cups
So the front jump is simply rotated on height changes between large dogs and small/medium dogs. Furthermore bar setting confusion is reduced since there are only two jump cups on the front jump for large and small/medium dogs. When switching to Performance dogs the front jump is removed.
Thanks again to Dave for thinking through and creating this clever solution and sharing his photos and descriptions!
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