Cycle Leg

Lots of first time triple jumpers are confused by the cycle leg. It's been so long since I did my first triple jump that I can't remember if I was confused by it or if I caught on quickly; but I'm sure it felt strange either way. So don't feel bad if you can't get it. From what I've learned and experienced, the main goal of the cycle leg is to provide a flat footed landing going into your second phase, and to keep your first jump from getting too high.

A good way to practice your cycle leg is to do mini jumps by setting up cones going into the pit. Depending on what level you're at you should set them up 3 to 8 feet apart, starting from the pit. So from the pit, measure 8 feet and place the first cone, measure 8 more feet, and place another cone, and then 8 more feet and one more cone. You shouldn't need to take more than 2 or 3 steps, so stand at the last cone, and take 2 or 3 large steps away from the pit. Turn around, and "run" your 2 or 3 steps, landing your jumping foot at the first cone. Jump off just enough to reach the second cone, and move your foot in a circle (ground, behind, butt, front, ground) before taking off of the same foot again and continuing the rest of the phases.

If you're new to the idea of the cycle leg, then you can just focus on that, but if you want to work on your technique as a whole, there are a couple of other things you can do in this exercise as well.
While you're cycling your leg around, try to first lift your other leg up in the front (this will happen naturally when you take off), but then try to make a conscious effort to kick it back behind you while you're landing. This way, when you take off again for your second phase, you'll be able to gain more momentum by swinging your other leg forwards so that your knee is parallel to the ground. It's hard to do at first, which is why you have to practice it in slow motion and in mini jumps over and over so that it happens naturally in a real jump.

That's all I've got on cycle legs for now. I hope I didn't ramble too much!