the contest start when the jockey position his or her frog and then yells screams jumps up and down puffs blows whistles or does whatever else is necessary to incite the frog to jump the one thing that is not allowed is any kind of physical contact with the frog each frog is given 15 seconds to jump three times once a frog has made its three jumps an official measures the distance from the center of the pad to the spot where the frog landed on its third jump Naturally the winning frog is usually the one that jumped in the straightest line rather than zigzag around some frogs frustrate their jockeys by jumping back toward the launching pad after a spectacular frist or second jump.