How often should I be practicing HJ at practices?
Should I be doing/practicing other events in addition to HJ?

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How often should I be practicing HJ at practice?

Here's the thing about practice, many young track athletes feel that they should be practicing their events everyday. In reality they should not be. I believe athletes should practice HJ twice a week during the off-season when meets have not yet begun. Limit it to twice a week because high-jumping is very demanding on the body. Not allowing your body to recover in between sessions of jumping leads to fatigue, injury, and formation of bad habits as you try to hit peak form with a tired body.

Once high school meets begin, scheduling jumping practices becomes more difficult because many times athletes have two or three meets in a week! This is when the athlete and coach need to be creative and stratigic. If you have a meet on Tuesday, using Saturday if possible to practice short approach jumps as well as many isolated high jump drills would be great. This allows as much time as needed (day light and warmth) as well as no pressure to catch a bus allows for better focus. At the meet on tuesday the athlete should really focus on their full approach run while warming up (not the win or the personal record) because this gives them a second day practice. If the team then goes to a Thursday meet, than focus more on putting the whole jump together and going for the PR (personal record).

PLEASE PLEASE stay away from high jumping everyday!!!! This is how injuries occur, and bad habits are developed.

Should I be doing other track and field events in addition to high jump?

As far as the other events....YES!! Athletes should be and need to be focused on sprint work outs and weight lifting work outs in addition to high jumping. It truly is the combination of all these that help provide for better success in the high jump. Too many times the athletes show up to practice just their jumping event, and this is not going to get them stronger, faster or more powerul. I am a strong believer in allowing high jumpers to do sprint work outs with sprinters for speed, power, and strength endurance. I also feel that hurdling or at least practicing the hurdles will assist the athlete in improving the rhythm that is needed in this technical event. Hurdling also isolates the drive needed in becoming a great high jumper. Long jump is also closely related to the high jump because the athlete practices a very similar penultimate
step as in the high jump. In the long jump the athlete is also working on body core
balance and strength, again somthing that will only help in improving the athletes ability in the high jump.

NOW I want to make a distinction between practicing other events and competitively participating in other events during a track meet. I do not believe that every athlete should be in 4-5 events at every meet because that can really wear down and injure an athlete over time. The stress of so many different events also makes focus difficult because the athlete is always worried about the next event. Selecting the appropriate events and knowing the ability (both physically and mentally) of each athlete the coach can really add a great dull meet workout. It about creativity early in the season, knowing who the opponents are, and manipulating the training schedual that will provide for a successful high school track season.