In the early 1960s, Dick Fosbury tried his hand at almost every sport, but never excelled at anything, until, at the age of 16, he turned to the high jump. But when he couldn't compete against the strong athletes at his college using the standard high jump techniques of the time, Fosbury tried to jump a different way: backwards. Instead of jumping with his face towards the bar, bringing each leg over in the traditional straddle method, he jumped with his back towards the bar. Fosbury improved his record by over half a foot, and left his coaches amazed by this strange new style of high jumping. During the next few years, Fosbury perfected his high jump style, won the U.S. National trials, and assured his place in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. In the Olympic Games, Fosbury amazed the world with his new technique, winning a gold metal with an Olympic record leap of 2.24 meters. By the next Olympic Games, almost all of the competing of high jumpers had adopted what came to be known as the Fosbury Flop. What's the secret behind the technique? It lies in a physics concept called the center of mass. For every object, we can locate the average position of all of its mass by taking into account how the mass is spread around the object. For instance, the center of mass of a flat, rectangular object of uniform density will be in the intersection of both diagonals, in equal distance from each corner. We can find the center of mass for other objects by similar calculations, or by finding the object's balancing point, which lies right underneath its center of mass. Try balancing a broom by holding it and slowly bringing your hands together until they meet. This balancing point lies right underneath the broom's center of mass. We humans also have a center of mass. When most people stand up, their center of mass is around the belly, but what happens to your center of mass when you lift your hands in the air? Your center of mass moves upwards. It moves all the time as you move through the day, based on how your body is positioned. It can even move outside of your body. When you bend forward, your center of mass is located below your bent belly in a place where there is no mass at all. Weird to think about, but that's the average position of all your mass. Many objects' center of mass are outside their bodies. Think of doughnuts or boomerangs. Now look at the Fosbury Flop, and follow the position of the center of mass of the jumper. The jumper runs very fast, so he can divert his horizontal velocity to vertical velocity, and jumps. Wait for it...there. Look at the jumper's center of mass as his body bends backward. It's below the bar. That is the secret behind the jump. With the old, pre-Fosbury techniques, the jumper had to apply enough force to lift his center of mass above the bar by a few inches in order to clear it. The Fosbury Flopper doesn't have to do that. The genius of the Fosbury Flop is that the jumper can apply the same amount of force, but raise his body much higher than before. That means he can raise the bar so high that even when his center of mass can't go any higher, his arching body can. Fosbury's technique brought the high jump to new heights by splitting the jumper's body away from his center of mass, giving it that much more room to clear higher and higher bars. So the Fosbury Flop may be sports history's only great leap forward, that is also a great leap backward.
Pada awal 1960, Dick Fosbury mencoba hampir semua olahraga, tetapi tak pernah menguasai satu pun. Sampai umur 16 tahun, dia beralih ke lompat tinggi. Namun, saat dia tak dapat bersaing dengan para atlet kuat di kampusnya dengan teknik lompat tinggi biasa yang umum digunakan, Fosbury mencoba melompat dengan cara berbeda: ke belakang. Daripada melompat dengan wajah menghadap mistar, sehingga tiap kaki terangkat dalam gaya guling tradisional, dia melompat dengan punggung menghadap mistar. Fosbury menaikkan rekornya sebanyak 15 cm dan pelatihnya kagum oleh gaya lompat tinggi yang asing ini. Selama tahun-tahun berikutnya, Fosbury menyempurnakan gaya lompat tingginya, memenangkan Olimpiade Uji Coba AS, dan memastikan tempatnya di Olimpiade Meksiko 1968. Di olimpiade ini, Fosbury mencengangkan dunia lewat teknik barunya dan memenangkan medali emas dengan rekor lompatan Olimpiade setinggi 2,24 meter. Di Olimpiade selanjutnya, hampir semua pelompat tinggi yang bersaing mengikuti gaya yang dikenal dengan nama Fosbury Flop. Apa rahasia teknik ini? Teknik ini bertumpu pada konsep fisika bernama pusat massa. Pada setiap objek, kita bisa menentukan posisi rerata dari semua massanya dengan mempertimbangkan cara massa disebarkan ke sekitar objek. Misalnya, pusat massa benda persegi rata dengan kepadatan sama punya titik temu di kedua diagonal, dengan jarak seimbang dari tiap sudut. Kita bisa menemukan pusat massa untuk tiap objek dengan penghitungan serupa, atau dengan menemukan titik keseimbangan objek, yang terletak tepat di bawah pusat massanya. Coba seimbangkan sapu dengan memegangnya dan dekatkan kedua tanganmu perlahan sampai mereka bertemu. Titik keseimbangan ini terletak tepat di bawah pusat massa sapu. Manusia juga punya pusat massa. Saat umumnya orang berdiri, pusat massa mereka di sekitar perut. Namun, apa jadinya pusat massamu ketika kau mengangkat tangan ke atas? Pusat massamu bergerak ke atas. Ia terus bergerak saat kau bergerak sepanjang hari, berdasarkan cara tubuhmu diposisikan. Pusat massa bahkan bergerak di luar tubuhmu. Saat kau membungkuk ke depan, pusat massamu terletak di bawah perut bungkukmu di tempat yang tak ada massa sama sekali. Memang terdengar aneh, tetapi itulah rata-rata posisi semua massamu. Ada banyak objek dengan pusat massa di luar fisiknya. Bayangkan donat atau bumerang. Sekarang lihat Fosbury flop dan perhatikan letak pusat massa pelompat ini. Pelompat berlari sangat cepat, agar dia bisa mengalihkan kecepatan horizontalnya ke kecepatan vertikal, dan melompat. Tunggu sejenak. Itu dia. Lihat pusat massa pelompat begitu badannya membungkuk ke belakang. Pusatnya di bawah mistar. Itulah rahasia lompatannya. Pada teknik lama, sebelum Fosbury, pelompat harus memakai cukup tenaga untuk mengangkat pusat massanya ke atas mistar beberapa inci agar bisa melewatinya. Pengguna Fosbury flop tak harus melakukannya. Pintarnya Fosbury flop adalah pelompat bisa memakai jumlah tenaga yang sama, tetapi mengangkat tubuhnya lebih tinggi dari sebelumnya. Berarti, dia bisa menaikkan mistar lebih tinggi. Bahkan meski pusat massanya tak bisa naik lebih tinggi, badan melengkungnya sanggup. Teknik Fosbury membawa lompat tinggi ke ketinggian baru dengan memisah badan pelompat jauh dari pusat massanya, sehingga ada lebih banyak ruang untuk melewati mistar yang lebih tinggi. Fosbury flop mungkin lompatan ke depan terhebat sepanjang sejarah olahraga, yang juga lompatan ke belakang terhebat.