i'm guessing you're a teacher that got roped into coaching?

The best thing you can do is to first teach the jumpers how to sprint. The proper pattern will help them be consistent with their approach and reach the board in proper posture. For middle school long jumpers it helps to teach the penultimate step and take off. That rhythm is key. The triple jump is much more complicated. The athletes that take to that event at that early an age have a background in gymnastics. Teach them how to bound and watch who has that natural elastic energy and you have the athlete that may be able to get the rhythm of the triple jump. Lastly, practice landing drills. If you can get them used to not be afraid of the pit then they will be able to get more out of their jumps by not landing flat footed and standing up. For all of these drill there are plenty of YouTube videos available. Good luck. And patience.

Agree. There is no such thing as a successful jumper who is slow. Speed mechanics and explosive training is a great foundation.

Been a long time, but I did the TJ and LJ (secondary to my specialty of the HJ) in college. Look up plyometrics. Basically bounding drills on/off of boxes, over hurdles, etc. Key is to load the muscle eccentrically (by landing after jumping off a box, for instance) then explode off the surface. 30yd single leg hops, double leg jumps over a series of low hurdles, stuff like that. While sprint speed is key to being good, you have to have the strength to change the direction of that velocity vector. It's possible to outrun your ability to get off the ground.

Learn how to hit the board consistently, without looking down at it. Jumpers need to know the distance to their starting point (always have a good tape measure on hand), which you can get by starting on the board and running the opposite direction and having someone mark your expected footfall. Practice this a lot.

LJ is basically running in the air (or hanging, depending on your preference). TJ involves using the arms to a much greater degree, obviously, so getting the timing correct (swinging the arms at the appropriate moment before landing/takeoff) is paramount. Both landings involve throwing the arms forward and down, thereby lifting the legs up just prior to landing in the pit.

Make sure everyone is well warmed up (run a mile or so), then some easy stretching, before doing any jumping or drills. There is a lot of force involved here.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

My daughter jumped 11.95 m in grade 10. She had some health issues so in the next two years she was a low 11m jumper. She is just getting back into it in a serious way at university now. For the first few years she did sprinting as well which I think helped.

What Klehner said is correct. I would not have them doing all out triple jump alot at each practice due to the force involved. You could accomplish alot if they can consistently hit the take off point confidently and have the sequence down. You will have to vary the take off point alot for middle schoolers so they land in sand. Sucks to come up short on the runway. Make sure your pit is soft and fairly deep sand.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot