# Fosbury flop was discovered out of trial and errors
Fosbury won the Olympic gold medal in high jump at 1968. No one has expected to see him win with a technique like that which looked quite peculiar back then, which is now called the Fosbury flop.
Use of innovations often precedes understanding. The Fosbury flop was not designed or came out of an analysis. Today, there are many explanation of why the Fosbury flop works such as how it allows our body to lower our centre of mass when our body is bent backwards.
# References
How Innovation Works (p. 254).
He later described how he had used trial and error over many months to get the technique right. 'It was not based on science or analysis or thought or design. [...]
An athlete uses physics to shatter world records - Asaf Bar-Yosef | TED-Ed (opens new window)
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.