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Who jumps the highest?
It looks spectacular, when African Maasai jump high into the air, keeping their arms to their sides. Did they train themselves to jump higher than everybody else?
When Maasai men of Kenya and Tanzania, Africa, perform their traditional jumping dance, they jump about 50 cm into the air. So, their jumping altitude is about the same as an average young man's in other places of the world. However, Maasai men do not move their arms, as they jump – they keep them to their sides. When others try to make high jumps, we often move our arms to optimise the jumping.
Scientists from the University of Copenhagen have measured how high the Maasai jump. The study proved to be more difficult to make than expected, as the Maasai do not want to jump without singing. So, the scientists had to measure the men’s individual jumps, as the other men of the tribe were singing. The jumps of about 50 cm that the scientists recorded are probably a little less than when the Maasai perform their dance.