Vertical Leap training thread

[coolcolj]

http://www.intensitymagazine.com/11-27-01/the_foundation.html

THE FOUNDATION
by Chris Korfist

"Always be careful of what you jump into." I am not referring to the warning that your mother says to you as you writhe in pain after having jumped into something. I am referring to everyone's "missing link" in athletic development—plyometrics, or to others, shock training. As I read forums, talk to coaches and athletes this seemingly simple concept always comes up in conversation. If you are strong but you can't run good 40s or get good starts, there is of course an easy solution—start doing Plyometrics. If a team has speed and they don't look as though they should possess it, there is again an easy explanation—they have trained using Plyometrics. However, I think this easy solution is not so easy. In fact, I believe it is one of the most misunderstood aspects of training here in America.

I believe Plyometrics were introduced to the United States back in the 70s. Soviet sprinters were dominating the Olympic fields and U.S. coaches wanted to know why. So in the mid-1960s a bunch of U.S. coaches traveled to the USSR to observe their workouts with hope of finding the "missing link" in their training. One of the activities they observed was an athlete stepping off a box, hitting the ground and jumping up. This of course was the visual interpretation of Verkhoshansky's "shock training." And according to a story I believe I heard from Mel Siff, the Soviets thought they would have some fun with the Americans and convince them that their athletes do this exercise from a 10-foot height. The American coaches returned to the U.S. and started spreading the word about their new discovery. Of course, nobody pays any attention to the other aspects of their training and the tremendous base level training that was performed. Word spreads, Don Chu writes some books, and suddlenly American athletes in search of speed are dropping out of the sky everywhere and trying to rebound into a jump; most limp away with broken ankles or struggle to understand why they didn't achieve the same level of success as the great Soviet sprinter Valeri Borzov. If you talk to a Russian or a South African, they laugh and tell you this is the American way because we have taken a small part of a enormous Soviet training system and created a giant monster.

I think the first problem comes from general misunderstanding of where we borrowed the system. The USSR had a complicated system of developing athletes. They started when the athletes were young and placed the hopefuls in a multi-year program that built volume and technique over time. They were patient. So when their athletes were 18 years of age, they already had 6 years of solid training that was scientifically planned. Once these athletes reached a certain level, somewhere between the age of 18-20 depending on their strength deficit, they might have started shock training. All aspects of the depth jump, such has breath control and footwear are closely monitored. Rest periods ranged as high as 4 minutes between a single rep to 15 minutes between sets. There was a plan. The Soviets did not randomly open a book and declare, "Comrades, today, we will begin plyometrics, whether you need them or not!" To confuse things further, American coaches have simplified the original complex system to fit into American training programs.

The second problem comes from the American application of the training. True plyometrics or shock training is the simple box jump. Time needs to be spent learning the step off the box. It is a relaxed fall and not a jump off the box. The focus of training is on quality and not quantity. In America, more is always better, so instead of doing 20 good jumps every 5-14 days depending on the cycle, an excited coach may do 100 jumps every other day. This is a sure recipe for injury. Also, if the research says that they are good and can make you faster, why not make every athlete in the program do them, even though they can't squat properly or broad jump without falling. Again, athletes need to be prepared to do these exercises in order for them to be effective.

So, am I advocating the abolition of plyometrics from your athletic training? Of course not—we utilize a precise and delicate solution to get the results we do. It depends on the program, the athletes and the coach. If you have a well-planned multi-year, multi-cycle program, I would recommend them at the end of your program; for example, at the end of the pre-competition phase in their Junior and senior year. If you have a multi-year program and your athletes have mastered various Olympic lifts and have a strong torso, then your athletes will probably benefit from the exercises. And if you are a coach that is willing to take the time to teach proper jumping form and have the patience to go through a proper workout, then I would recommend plyometrics. If you do not feel that you can address these issues in a positive manner, then stick to hopping and chain or band box squats but above and beyond all else, a long-term plan of attack will realize the results you yearn for.

 

[coolcolj]

INCREASING YOUR VERTICAL by JohnSmith182


Jump, Run, especially Jump not quite all correct info, hardcharger. the fact is, how much AAS will help your vertical is in large part determined by your strength deficit during a vertical jump, by this i mean the difference between the maximal force possible for you to exert isometrically in a jumping position, and the maximum amount of force you can exert at the speed of movement neccessary to actually execute a jump. steroids exert more influence on the muscular system than the neural system... so if your strength deficit is large, then the added weight of extra muscle will likely give you little or no extra jumping ability!!!

now, having said that, no matter what your strength deficit in a jump is, drugs can help you jump higher, but it is even more important to train correctly for athletic events when useing drugs than when not using drugs. this is because when speed of movement is the property desired, you need to be specific because extra muscle added in areas where it is not needed will not help, it will slow you down and we all know that drugs help add muscle fast.

now the first thing you must analyze when training to jump, is whether you need more maximal strength or not. if you can squat 500lbs and have a 20inch vertical, i would suggest you do not. you have plenty of strength, you are just unable to use it when jumping. if you have a 200lb squat and skinny legs and can jump 30 inches, you are probably able to use a high percentage of your available strength during a jump. and therefore, more maximal strength will be of use to you.

now, no matter which catagory you fall into, you want to use the training enhancement effects of AAS to build as much jumping power as possible. this means training more for maximal strength if needed, and more for explosive power if needed. but in either case, you need to be specific. train with movements that allow quick conraction, dont heavily involve the anaerobic energy systems, and mimik the jumping motion.

squats are the cornerstone of most programs... of course you want to use heavier weight if you need to build maximal strength and lighter weight done more explosively if you dont. but either way, squat. plyos... these DO NOT burn a lot of calories done correctly. they are hard on the system... they primarily work by enhancing the stretch reflex, and dont need to be done all the time.
two weeks every couple of months is sufficient. bounding and agility drills... these should be done every day. all types of hopping, one leg hopping, bounding, etc. these are like low intensity plyos, and exert a positive influence on both the muscular and neural system.

when i train volleyball players to jump higher, i use a 8-10 week cycle, where basic strength is emphasised first... since most young female volleybell players dont have a surplus of it, and we use a couple of weeks of sets of 5 in the squat done 3 times a week with light weight just for conditioning... during this time we also do a lot of low intensity drills such as two legg jumps over hurdles... basically the first two weeks we are conditioning the body for wha twill come.

weeks 3 through 5 are the primary strength weeks, squats 3 times a week for multiple sets of 2 or 3 reps. during this time we increase the intensity of the drills, going from two leg jumps and hops to one leg jumps and hops, and adding in frog jumps, but i keep the volume really low on this to allow for strength gain from the squats.

weeks 6 and 7 are the high intensity plyo weeks, we do depth jumps primarily, jumping off a box onto the floor with an immediete rebound and jump. we do quite a bit of this and all other training is reduced to minimal levels.
we squat once each week for low intensity, just to maintain conditioning.

weeks 8 and 9 and 10 are taper weeks, the plyos are real hard and require rest to recover from. we include a few sessions of low intensity squatting, and some low intensity drills of two legged hopping. we do just enough squats and drills to maintain strength and conditioning, were not really pushing very hard at all these weeks.
at the end of week 10 we test for improvements and then do it all again, as long as there is time in the off season. as you can see, increasing vertical is more complicated than upping your squat, at least if you are already at a high level or if you want the biggest bang for your buck.

you need to increase strength, teach your body to apply it at high speed, increase the strength of the stretch reflex, and then allow your body to rest from the difficult training needed to accomplish all these things. throughout all this, you need to maintain strength and conditioning even while concentrating on only one specific quality, or while resting. if you dont do this you will NOT be as successfull in subsequent cycles.

through coaching many camps for several different types of athletes, at all levels, i have maintained an average increase in vertical of a bit over 6 inches the first time through my program, which is usually 10 weeks. i do not think this is equalled by any others in my field. i think even Vermiel who is the strength coach for the chicago bulls only gets a 3 or 4 inch increase on average in the camps he runs, so i know my approach works. i wont take the credit for it, as i largely copied it from Mr Verkoshansky, who used it with much success in the 70's and 80's in Eastern Europe. the main difference between the method i use and the method others use today is that i work harder on each individual quality needed for jumping, but i seperate them into blocks, making the work on each specific quality short and intense. most others work each quality concurently for the whole program, working everything less intensly but for a longer time.

 

[fortifiediron]

Im pretty good friends with Josh Henkin. He is a good strength coach. I just got done with my latest article about olympic lifting and my main target was the vertical leap.

http://67.85.14.142:27015/Articles/coleman/olympic.html

Olympic Lifting- Kc

It saddens me that these great movements do not hardly exist anymore in training programs of us Westerners. For those who are using the Olympic lifts still have a clear cut advantage over those who are not using these great lifts to improve performance. How many times you walk into a gym and you see somebody snatching or clean and jerking a barbell? Not often ,if ever.

Many people are dragged into fearing these lifts because of the words of few. Over time these lifts have been credited as being the most dangerous methods. What people don’t understand is exercises don’t injure people, people injure people. It’s the worthless and uneducated acts of the lifter that results into the injuries. There is a very small set of exceptions. It has been documented of the safety of Olympic lifting in several studies. One study has shown that Olympic Lifting has the lowest amount of injuries per 100hrs trained then that of both bodybuilding and power lifting(1). If you knew anything about the sport of Olympic lifting you should know of the numerous hrs they are trained day in and day out. The Bulgarian’s train 4-6hrs a day in the gym working Olympic lifts for 6 days a wk.(2). The Chinese are in the same boat like those of the Bulgarian lifts. Its easy to see that in the Eastern countries how much more the athlete’s practice the Olympic lifting over that of bodybuilding, so one can not conclude that the reason there are more injuries in bodybuilding then Olympic lifting is of the simple fact that its trained more often, which is not the case. Traditional bodybuilding methods can be very hazardous to athlete’s in speed and strength sports such as American Football or Footie (Soccer). The reason for this is in Olympic lifts there is a much greater ROM which exposes the connective tissues and soft tissues to various angels and degrees of resistance which helps them adapt to this. In bodybuilding you do not have the extra ROM so you cannot apply and expose the connective tissues and soft tissues to the controlled state of movement to where they are not used to be going. This can be dangerous and can lead to injuries on the on the field.

If you look at the best Athletes in the Olympic Games 90% of them will have one thing in common, even if it ranges from the pole volter to the shot putter, is that they will all have some form of Olympic weightlifting in their program. Even if that ranges from the traditional power clean to the much more complex snatch. These athlete’s understand the importance and benefits of these movements and the carry over to their sport. Olympic lifts train the athlete to explode and use force forcefully. They develop a great amount of Rate of Force (RF) which is a very key point in sports training. Olympic lifters train the FT muscle fibers which are your explosive fibers which are key which greatly develop RF. It has been show that the portion and percentage of FT fiber’s directly contribute to the vertical jump(3), which has been shown to be the best indicator for athletic ability in American football athlete’s(4). The jumping and running abilities of these men where documented in the Mexico City Olympic Games where they out ran and out jumped the jumpers and sprinters in the vertical and 25m sprint! This is an amazing feat considering these men do not train specificly for jumping or running. Here is an a list of jumping feats from Olympic weightlifters done in combine test from Chad Ikei's "Pulling to Jump Higher" article:

"Nicu Vlad of Romania, World Record holder and Two time Olympic Medallist, came to the United States back in 1990, with now current U.S. National and Olympic Team Coach Dragomir Cioroslan, for a training camp. It was here at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, that this 100-kg (220 lbs) weightlifter recorded a 42" vertical jump. Not to mention he was in weightlifting shoes, which weighs a lot more than tennis shoes and no formal warm-up. (Snatch 200 kg, Clean and Jerk 232.5 kg)

Wesley Barnett of Team USA, 3-time Olympian and Silver Medallist @ 1997 World Championships, have legs (especially hamstrings) and ass like a thoroughbred on him that most body builders would like to have. He has recorded vertical jumps of over 39" @ a height of 6'1" and 105 kg (231 lbs). I've even witnessed him dunking a basketball while jumping over my head, and I do mean literally jumping over my head which of course only stands a mere 5'2" but he straddle jumped directly over my head and dunked. (Snatch 175 kg, Clean and Jerk 220 kg)

Mark Henry, 1996 Olympic Team Member, now known as "Sexual Chocolate" on the WWF scene, had quite a vertical jump. At 6'3" tall he could dunk a basketball, not to mention that he could squat over 1000 lbs and dead lift over 900 lbs. Now dunking a basketball at 6'3" doesn't sound that hard, but take in to account that he weighed at that time 175 kg (385 lbs). Now that's impressive for a big guy. (Snatch 180 kg, Clean and Jerk 220 kg)

Shane Hamman, 2000 Olympic Team Member and current National Super heavyweight Champion, another big man weighing in @ 163 kg (358 lbs) but only at a height of 5'9" tall, can jump onto boxes @ a height over 42" high. Of course Shane was also known for his squatting ability of over 1000 lbs. (Snatch 195 kg, Clean and Jerk 230 kg).” (can do a sanding back flip and dunk a basketball)


There are also many other great benefits of Olympic lifts that help with athlete’s. They develop great amounts of flexibility which is a key factor in sports. They teach an athlete to undergo different movements to study them and master them which can ultimately carry over to their everyday life. They have also been used for helping recover athlete’s from older injuries. In a study done by Stone, Wilson, Blessing and Rozenek (5) had athlete’s Olympic lift for 8 straight wks. In this study they found that the athlete’s decreased resting heart rate by 8%, decreased systolic blood pressure by 4%, their lean body weight increased by 4% and their bodyfat dropped by 6%!

It is a very sad thing that there is only around 1500 competing Olympic lifters in America today. If I could I would change that but there is very little one man can do but to open up people’s minds and help them realize the benefits of certain things. Many one such day we will walk into a gym and we will not see dumbbells or bench press machines, but we will see men on platforms moving the great amount of weight from the ground to above their head like it was nothing. Hopefully I have shown you the benefits of the lifts and cleared out some of the negative factors they people argue about with the movements.


• (1)Source: Brian P. Hamill, "Relative Safety of Weightlifting and Weight Training," _Journal of Strength Conditioning Research, Vol. 8, No. 1(1994): 53-57
• (2)Zatsisorsky, VM “Science and Practice of Strength Training” Human Kinetics, 1995
• (3)Bosco C & Komi (1979b) Mechanical characteristics and fiber composition of human leg extensor muscles Eur Jo Appl Pysicol 41:275-284
• (4)Sawyer D, Ostarello J, Suess E, Dempsey M. (2002). Relationship Between Football Playing Ability and Selected Performance Measures. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: 16(4), pp. 611 - 616.
• (5)Stone, M.H., et al. Cardiovascular Responses to Short-Term Olympic Style Weight-Training in Young Men. Can. J. Appl. Sport Sci. 8(3): 134-9.

 

[coolcolj]

Another good article - pretty much covers everything you need to know

http://www.gssiweb.com/reflib/refs/26/d0000000200000067.cfm?btid=1

 

[coolcolj]

more stuff

http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/archive/article_fab15.htm


THE FABULOUS 15
“Top 15 Exercises for Higher Vertical Jumps”
by Joe DeFranco, Owner, Performance Enhancement Specialist
DeFranco’s Training Systems

(The following article is an excerpt from Joe’s best-selling training manual,
“The Vertical Jump – Advanced Speed & Strength Methods”.)

You now hopefully realize that there is a lot more to the vertical jump then you originally thought. This should also help you to understand that there’s a lot more to the training then you maybe originally thought. It’s not just about wearing some funny-looking shoes that claim to work magic on your vertical jump. There is definitely a science to this type of training. There is also a reason and purpose why every single exercise in this section was chosen. It’s now time for the fun stuff! After learning and understanding the following 15 exercises, it will soon be time to go to our favorite place in the world. . . The Gym!

In this section we will give you our Fab 15 list of the exercises we’ve found give the best “bang for your buck” with regards to improving your vertical jump. Remember that there are many exercises out there that will work, but in the training economy you want to pick the exercises that will give you the greatest results in the least amount of time. This list of exercises accomplishes that goal. These are the main exercises we have used to get our athletes to jump high… in minimal time! An added benefit of this list of exercises is that you’ll notice your sprint times will also improve. Any time you train to improve your vertical, you’ll notice you also get faster. Not a bad side effect, is it?

Anyway, let’s check out the Fab 15! (They are in no particular order.)

#1) Box Squats with bands – We love box squats in that we feel they teach the athlete to “sit back” while squatting, which further recruits the all-important hamstrings. Your hamstrings must be super-powerful if you want to run fast or jump high. We also like the fact that we can set the depth of the squat without any error. This prevents cheating, especially when athletes start to fatigue and the squats tend to get higher and higher. We squat anywhere from 6” off of the floor to 1” above parallel, depending on our goal. We also like the fact that box squatting builds “static overcome by dynamic strength”. This type of strength is important in many athletic movements (sprinter coming out of the blocks, lineman coming off of the ball in football, etc.).

Some say box squats are dangerous. That is complete crap! Box squats done incorrectly are dangerous. We’ve never had an athlete get injured box squatting. Open your mind and learn how to do them the right way! It will pay huge dividends. To learn how to box squat correctly, go to Dave Tate’s website at www.eliteFTS.com. He has numerous articles written on how to box squat correctly and does a great job of teaching it.

One of the main reasons we chose the bands for box squatting is their ability to accelerate the eccentric portion of the lift. You see, the athlete’s we train that have the best verticals are also the one’s who descend the fastest during their jumps. Newton’s 3rd Law states that “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. What this means is that the faster an athlete can descend, the faster he will explode upward and the higher he will jump. The bands train this often-overlooked component of the vertical jump.

We also like the fact that as the athlete approaches the top of the squat the bands stretch out, thus increasing the tension. This teaches the athlete to accelerate through the entire rep. Basically, as the athlete’s leverage increases, so does the tension of the bands. In order to complete the rep, the athlete must apply more force at the top then he would if there were no bands attached to the bar. After this type of training an athlete will be much more likely to explode downward, make a quick reversal, and then accelerate upward rapidly during his jumps. Put all of these qualities together and you have a huge vertical. We usually perform multiple sets of low-rep box squats, focusing on speed (on the way down as well as on the way up). We like our advanced athletes to be able to perform 2 reps in less than 2 seconds.

#2 Static Hip Flexor Stretch – In general, we’re not big fans of static stretching, especially before performing explosive activities. This stretch is a major exception. Try this. Perform a vertical jump and record the height. Then, static stretch your hip flexors – 2 sets of 30 seconds each leg. Really stretch the sh** out of them! Stretch as if you’re trying to tear that hip flexor off the bone, baby! Don’t just go through the motions! Now jump again. Chances are you’ll jump ½” – 2” higher, just by static stretching the hip flexors. Why is this, you say? We’ll tell you. You see, most athletes have super-tight hip flexors. When you jump, tight hip flexors cause a lot of friction, preventing you from fully extending at the hip, as well as reaching as high as you can. By static stretching them immediately before you jump, you not only stretch them out, but also “put them to sleep” do to the long, slow stretch. This causes less friction at the hip when you jump. This results in higher jumps. You will be amazed at how well this works. (By the way, the hip flexors are the only muscles you would ever want to static stretch before jumping.) It is also a good idea for athletes to get in the habit of stretching their hip flexors everyday, not just before jumping. This will help to increase your stride length when you run, as well as prevent hamstring pulls and low-back pain.

Any hip-flexor stretch will do but we will describe the one we use the most. Get in a lunge position with your left knee on the ground and your right foot as far forward as possible. Drive your hips as far forward as you can, while keeping your chest up. Try to get your left thigh 45 degrees to the floor. Raise your left hand as high as you can and twist slightly to your right, looking over your right shoulder and reaching over your head. You should feel a stretch in the left hip flexor as well as your abs. Perform 2 sets of 30 seconds and then switch sides.

#3) 50-Rep “Rhythm” Squats – This is a little-known exercise we usually bust out about 3 weeks before one of our athlete’s would be getting tested in the vertical. You would always start your workout with this exercise and you will only perform one all-out work set after a good warm-up. Try to go as heavy as possible for your one set. A good goal is 90 - 100% of what your max full squat is. Basically, you will perform 50 quarter-squats as fast as possible. Due the first 10 reps exploding onto your toes, then on reps 11-20 keep your heels down on the way up, then, explode onto your toes again while performing reps 21-30, keep your heels down for reps 31-40 and then finish the final 10 reps by exploding onto your toes again. It helps to have a partner count out loud so you can perform all 50 reps as fast as possible without breaking momentum. This is a great exercise for athletes with a poor elastic component. It is also a bitch!

WARNING: You may not be able to feel your legs when you’re done. TOUGH SH*T! Do them anyway! They work.

Note: You can also do this exercise with bands attached to the bar. This will help in the same way we explained with the box squats (by accelerating the eccentric portion of the lift). The bands also help in this exercise because they hold the bar down on your neck. Anyone who has done this exercise knows one of the drawbacks is that the bar has a tendency to bounce up and down on your neck once you get the “rhythm” of the set going. The downward pull of the bands helps to prevent the slightly uncomfortable feeling of a heavy barbell exploding up and down on your cervical spine!

#4 Snatch Grip Deadlifts – This exercise is basically a regular deadlift, yet you use a “snatch” grip. By taking this wider grip, you must get deeper “in the hole” when lowering the weight to the floor, thus further recruiting the posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes and low back). Snatch grip deads are ungodly in their ability to strengthen the posterior chain and is a great foundation exercise to be used when training for the vertical. This exercise will put slabs of muscle on your glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors, forearms and upper back. The only problem with this exercise is it makes sitting on the toilet very challenging the day after performing it.

#5) Depth Jumps – A depth jump or shock jump is performed by stepping off a box and then exploding upward immediately upon landing on the ground. We use boxes of varying heights, depending on the level of athlete we’re training. By stepping off a box, the muscles are rapidly stretched upon landing, which enables them to contract harder and faster when exploding upward (similar to what we were talking about with the box squats and the bands). The goal of this exercise is to spend the least amount of time on the ground as possible. We like to use .15 seconds as a guide. If the athlete spends any longer on the ground, it is no longer a true plyometric exercise because the amortization phase is too long. If performed properly, we have found this exercise to be very effective. The problem is that most athletes and coaches that perform this exercise don’t follow these rules. If an athlete crumbles like a deck of cards upon hitting the ground and then takes 5 minutes to jump back into the air; the box is either too high or the athlete isn’t advanced enough to be performing the exercise.

We usually start with a 6” box and work up to a 24” box with our more advanced athletes. Again, don’t get too crazy with the height of the box. Time and time again we hear of some super athlete who does depth jumps off of the roof of his house or some other BS. We’re not impressed. Remember that choosing a box that is too high can end up defeating the point of the exercise by increasing ground contact time.

#6) Reverse Hyperextensions – The reverse hyperextension machine was made popular in this country by powerlifting guru Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio. He has a patent on the original reverse hyper model. This is the one we have at our facility and it’s probably the most frequently used machine in our gym. Why is this, you ask? Because the friggin’ thing works! We don’t know of any other machine that works pure hip extension in such a synchronized manner – hitting the hamstrings, glutes, and spinal erectors all during the course of one rep. It also works as traction for the low back during the lowering of the weight. The bottom line is that if you want to run fast and jump high, then you should have one of these in your gym. We can’t say enough about this machine. All of our athletes use it – no matter what their sport, age, or training goal. It can be ordered through Elite Fitness Systems at www.eliteFTS.com.

#7) Dumbell Swings – This is one of those “old school” exercises you don’t see too often anymore. To perform this exercise, first grab a dumbell with both of your hands (use a hand over hand grip or interlock your fingers of both hands). Set your feet as if you were about to perform a squat, while holding the dumbell in front of you. Squat down and let the dumbell drop between your legs. Keep your back arched as you descend down and look straight ahead. Once you reach the full squat position, immediately explode up by extending at the hips, while simultaneously flexing at the shoulders and raising the dumbell above your head. Keep your elbows straight. This exercise “kills 2 birds with 1 stone” as it works pure hip extension as well as your front delts in a synchronized, explosive manner. This is exactly what happens when you perform a vertical jump. You can perform this exercise with a box under each foot for added range of motion.
Note: As you swing the dumbell upward, DO NOT leave go of it! Throwing the dumbell forward would not be a bad exercise, but we think it may piss the owner of your gym off.

#8) Bulgarian Split Squats – This is basically a single leg squat, with the non-working leg elevated on a bench behind you. Perform this exercise by holding a dumbell in each hand, descend until the back knee touches the floor and then explode back up to the start position. This exercise will crush the glutes and VMO (the quadriceps muscle on the inside of your knee) of the front leg, while stretching the hip flexor of the back leg. Remember what we said about the importance of flexible hip flexors with regards to your jumping ability? Well, this exercise makes our “Fab 15” list of exercises due to the fact it promotes strength AND flexibility in the specific muscles used in jumping. Also, because it is a unilateral movement, it helps to correct muscular imbalances that may exist in the athlete’s legs.

#9 “Pogo Jump” Warm-up – This is a warm-up we use before many of our lower body strength workouts, plyo workouts and speed workouts. It is not only a great warm- up, but we believe this “warm-up” may actually increase your vertical jump in and of itself! But first, let us describe exactly what a pogo jump is, anyway. A pogo jump is performed by jumping off of the ground by just springing off your ankles. While you’re in the air you want to dorsiflex your ankles, a.k.a. “pull your toes up”. You also must prevent your heels from ever touching the ground. The key to this exercise lies in your ability to keep your knees locked while jumping and landing on and off the ground, as well as spending the least amount of time on the ground as possible. Be sure not to flex at the hips, either. Many times when athletes perform this exercise their feet kick uncontrollably out in front of themselves. Don’t let this happen! Your whole body should remain in a perfectly straight line, with the exception of your ankles dorsiflexing while you’re in the air. We do both low and high pogo jumps in our warm-up. The technique remains exactly the same except for the height differences, of course. Low pogo jumps should be performed for speed. You only want to jump about 1” – 2” off the ground, but try to perform as many reps as possible in the required time. The goal of the high pogo jumps is to get as much height as possible by just springing off of your ankles during each jump. Pogo jumps are an incredible exercise that trains the Achilles tendon for elasticity. This will help to prevent ankle injuries as well as increase explosiveness. Here’s the warm-up we use…
A. Low Pogo Jumps – 3 sets of 20 seconds, rest 30 seconds between each set
B. High Pogo Jumps – 3 sets of 20 seconds, rest 30 seconds between each set

10) Trap Bar Deadlifts, off a 4” box – Trap bars are diamond-shaped bars that allow you to perform deadlifts and shrugs by standing inside the bar, as opposed to having the bar in front of you. This puts less stress on the low back/spine. Many athletes feel much more comfortable using these bars as opposed to straight bars while deadlifting. Because of this, we feel that they are a great tool for all athletes - young and old. We have gotten many athletes who swore they would never deadlift again, to start deadlifting because of the trap bar. One thing we like to due is have our athletes trap bar deadlift while standing on a 4” box. Once again, by increasing the range of motion, the hamstrings are further activated. This will greatly help your running and jumping ability. You can use various box heights, yet we’ve found 4 inches to be great for increasing the range of motion while not causing a breakdown in the athlete’s form.

11) Standing Backward Medicine Ball Throw – This exercise is similar in nature to the dumbell swing, but by using a medicine ball you can actually release the object you’re holding, thus producing more explosive power. (This is because you don’t have to worry about decelerating the weight.) To perform this exercise, hold a med ball in front of you, bend forward, and then toss it up and over your head, behind you, to a partner. This is another exercise that links the lower and upper body in a synchronized, explosive manner. This is vertical jump specific.
Don’t use a med ball that’s so heavy you can barely get it over your head. But don’t use something that’s so light you toss it into another zip code, either. Use common sense, huh. Our athletes usually use med balls they can toss anywhere from 10 – 20 yards. Once all of your throws start going beyond 20 yards, you’re ready to graduate to a heavier ball.

12) Power Clean/Power Snatch – We like the Olympic lifts in that we feel they teach the athlete to maximally “turn on” the higher threshold (type IIB) motor units. This is due to the fact that you cannot perform a max power clean or power snatch slowly. If you move too slow you will miss the lift. We do feel there is somewhat of a learning curve involved in being explosive and if an athlete never learned to “turn on” maximally, they would be much less likely to do so during their vertical jump – or any other athletic movement. Besides being explosive by nature, both of these exercises require a strong posterior chain (which you should now be sick of hearing about), with the power snatch involving the entire extensor chain. You should now know this is one of the major requirements for an exercise to make our Fab15 list.

13) Weighted Ab Work – Your “core” (abs & low back) is the link from your lower to upper body. It is also responsible for the transference of force from your lower to upper body. Basically, your arms and legs can be strong as hell but if you have a marshmallow in the middle you will never completely benefit from your limb strength. The vertical jump is one of the ultimate examples of this. So don’t sell yourself short by only training your arms and legs. Hit the abs hard, too. This doesn’t mean 3 sets of 10 cruches at the end of you’re workout, either. We like weighted crunches on a Swiss ball, standing rotational work using high and low cables and medicine ball training. Remember that your abs just may be the missing “link” to that big jump!

14) Push Jerk – This is another great exercise that has been highly correlated with the vertical jump. When doing push jerks, we have our athletes place their feet about hip-width apart. We have them start with the bar resting on the front of their shoulders, with their hands OPEN. By starting with the hands open, they will be more likely to initiate the movement with their legs. Start the movement by dipping down and then explode up onto your toes, while pushing the bar overhead. Finally, bend the knees, bring your heels down and hold the bar overhead for a second. Lower the bar and then repeat the movement. This is another great example of an exercise in which the power is initiated by the lower body and then finished off with the upper body. Once again, this is vertical jump specific.

15) Vertical Jumps – No, this is not a misprint. One of the best ways to improve your vertical jump is to practice vertical jumping! We have had many athletes come to us with great strength, speed and flexibility, yet they had horrible verticals. This is because their jumping technique stunk! We have made as much as a 3” improvement in just minutes of working with some athletes, not by showing them how to cheat, but by correcting their form. Hopefully, after reading through this manual, you will know what proper form is. Then, once you have the form down and start working on the recommended exercises, you will possess eye-popping jumping ability!

 

[spatts]

I'm really surprised by how many of those things I do! Makes me wonder what my vertical is.

 

[Zander1983]

Mega blast of karma for you, CCJ, if I'm recharged. That's awesome stuff

 

[coolcolj]

Well one of the guys that wrote that is linked to EliteFTS - he answers the Q&A section in the sports specific area

He and DeFranco have a few books selling through the site as well - the 40yard dash, vertical jump and another one.

He used to work at the Parissi Speed school as well, preping football players for combines etc.

take a look at the training pics here

http://www.defrancostraining.com/pics/pics.htm


Yeah Spatts you have the strength base to jump high, but unless you practise jumping a lot, it probably won't be that great

 

[spatts]

What's the best way to test it? Jump straight up from a stand still? Do you use your arms?

 

[Tagio]

yeah, you could stand next to a wall, mark your maximum standing reach, then get some chalk on your hand and do a jump with as much dip and arm movement as you want, and mark the highest you can touch (supposedly the 3rd jump is usually highest?). Then measure the distance. I think that's how it works.