We all “know” that great one leg jumpers (with a few exceptions) are pretty skinny and light. We all talk about how a low bodyweight, even regardless of strength and relative strength is important in a one-leg jump. Yet nobody identifies why that is? Why is a low bodyweight that important to jumping high off one leg.
Well, for one, jumping off one leg is more about structure and levers than strength. And to gain strength you will, from a point on, need to gain muscle and muscle = weight that needs to be thrown up in a one leg jump. OK, we get that. But anything else?
What I personally think is the answer to the question is actually our mistaken focus on relating strength to squat strength. When we say “how strong is Athlete A” we usually list a number of squat strength and compare that to his bodyweight, thus obtaining his squat to bodyweight ratio:
Athlete A squats 400 lbs at 200 lbs bodyweight, hence his squat ratio to bodyweight is 2.0x. 2 times his bodyweight. We just take that and ignore everything else. So what would “everything else” be?
Well let’s take this: same athlete, yet with different bodyweights and squat numbers, but same ratios:
Same athlete, 150 lbs bodyweight, 300 lbs squat
Same athlete, 200 lbs bodyweight, 400 lbs squat
Considering these variables, he has the same exact squat ratio, and the same exact structure (since we’re talking about the same individual here) – so what “version” of himself will jump more off one leg? From a mathematical standpoint, he’ll jump the same in each scenario. But from a real world perspective, he won’t. Unless he has other numbers the same as well.
Where I’m trying to get with this? Well, it’s the calves. The calves have been so neglected lately it’s not even funny. I’m talking about athletic improvement articles – they all reffer to upperleg/hip muscles as far as strength training/importance in athleticism is concerned. Which is correct – they are of major importance. But let’s take our example:
Version 1: 150 lbs bodyweight and 300 lbs squat. Yeah, but how about his calf strength? How much can he calf raise with perfect form and full ankle extension? Let’s say he’s good for 300 lbs x 10 reps perfect form.
Then take Version 2 of the same guy: 200 lbs bodyweight and 400 lbs squat. Cool, but has he developed his calves to the point where he can do 400 lbs x 10 reps perfect form as far as calf raises are concerned (or better yet – as far as calf strength is concerned)?
You see, the one leg jump is a very “shocking” jump for the joints and muscles, that actually contract explosively-isometric in the amortization phase to lock the jumping leg and create a pole out of it for good leverage purposes. The forces that appear in the plant are up to 8-10x bodyweight. The injury risk also increases a lot with an increased bodyweight if a firing fail occurs in a muscle (which happens from time to time).
So if we take the 150 lbs guy with 300 lbs squat and 300×10 calf raise strength and establish that as “good calf strength”, what happens with this same guy that weighs 200 lbs and squats 400 lbs but can’t do 400×10 calf raises (hasn’t enough calf strength)? Well, a break in the chain will happen. The ankle will collapse, allowing the tibia to go forward in the plant. When the happens the knee gets under tension and the quad gets under tension. The knee goes forward and the hamstring LOSES tension (both because the knee goes forward (so the hamstring is shortened) AND because the quad gets tension, and since the hamstring is the quad’s antagonist, it needs to relax as the protagonist (the quad) contracts). The hamstring, losing tension, will also produce less help for hip extension purposes which will overload the glutes.
So – just because the calves failed, you have: no calf strength to propell the ankle, quad overload, hamstring loss in tension, glute overload (assuming the glutes work well in the first place).
Try this – get with your back against a wall. Then put your feet in front of you, legs completely straight. Your legs to your hips should be at a 45 degree angle. Like this /. Then really really push with your calves like trying to raise on your toes. Try to relax your quads completely and just focus on pushing with your calves, trying to “rise” on the toes (although you won’t since the feet are in front of you, feet also flat on the ground but at an angle). You’ll notice that even though you don’t really tense the quads you’re able to maintain a straight leg/extended knee. So not a lot of knee/quad load. This is when the calves work. If you relax the calves (as in they are not strong enough for the task of keeping the ankle extended (plantar flexed)) you’re going to find yourself in a ton of quad overload/knee overload.
THIS ^^^ is why you need great calves. But the problem is – they can only get so big. You can increase your squat a lot and the calves won’t be able to keep up. You might get them a bit bigger/stronger but they won’t keep up with the squat increase since the squat depends on many muscles and they all develop at the same time, so the squat will increase easier and faster.
So you’ll end up with maybe an even bigger squat ratio than before and you still won’t jump higher off one leg. Was it the squat’s fault? Or the fact that you’re stronger? No, absolutely not. It’s the problem that the calves haven’t adapted yet. Or maybe they’ll never will, who knows?
But for lower bodyweights, the calf strength is less of a problem. This is what is really going on.
Also, like I said, being heavier means a much “better” chance of injury if you have a firing issue. If the plant shock is 8-10 times your bodyweight, and a muscle doesn’t fire when you plant, the overload occuring on the joints is 1500 lbs for a 150 lbs person vs 2000 lbs for a 200 lbs person in the case of a high speed, 10x shock. That’s 500 lbs of additional force being casted into the joints, which translates into a higher chance of injuy.
So the next time you squat, don’t neglect your calves!
When talking about the one leg jump the “general consensus” is that this way of jumping is to be named a “reactive jump” because it relies heavily on the reactive ability of that particular athlete.
While this is a general name for the one leg jump, “reactive”, the reality is that the one-leg jump has two ways of occurring. The first way to jump off one leg is using your strength to provide the force/upward momentum. The second way of jumping off one leg is using the deformation of the jumping leg tendons to provide the force/upward momentum.
These two technique, because we’re talking about technique in here, are pretty different from one another. Yes, of course both the reactive and strength qualities combine for either of the technique, but at different levels of involvement.
Let me explain:
1) The strength jump
In my experience, most people that haven’t trained in track and field and have developed a good one-leg running jump with basketball or other sports just by playing, and not by dissecting the technique behind the jump – are into this category. How can this be characterized? Well, a strength jump off one leg has these characteristics:
a) The run up is usually short – this means at most 5 steps;
b) The hips drop a lot, the center of gravity is lower than for the reactive jump;
c) Longer last stride;
d) Less linear (more rotation occurs at the hip);
e) Longer GCT in the amortization phase (for more strength to be applied);
f) Non-jumping leg pendulation (if the athlete jumps off the left leg, the right, non-jumping leg will “pendulate” (or the non-jumping foot will scrape the running surface);
g) The last step (takeoff) is at approximately the same length, and has approximately the same hip height as the penultimate step;
h) The jump occurs during acceleration.
Let’s work on the reasons behind all this:
a) The run up is short because you need a slow, controllable speed to apply force properly. At least, at lower levels of athleticism. You can have a longer run-up and still be a strength jumper if you have the necessary strength. If you’re strong and use a longer run-up but still do the next “strength jumping” points then you’re probably still a strength jumper.
b) The hips drop a lot because, in order to produce a lot of force, the more ROM you have the more force you can produce and this also elongates the GCT (ground contact time) which, in turn, gives you more time to apply force voluntarily.
c) The longer last stride occurs, again, because of the need to produce force over a longer ROM (range of motion). This also elongates the GCT and allows for more force to be produced (since there’s more time available to produce it).
d) Less linearity – this is a personal observation and it might or might not be a reality. In my experience, people that are strength jumpers also rotate more at the hip when they take off than reactive jumpers. We’re talking about jumping towards the rim in basketball and not in the high jump.
e) Longer GCT – As I said above, a longer GCT is needed for more strength to be applied.
f) The pendulation of the non-jumping leg occurs because the last step is longer and the hips are lower. This means the blocking effect occurs as well (the jumping leg acts as a “pole”) – but at a different angle that what happens for a reactive jumper. The non-jumping leg usually has less ROM to “attack” or “strike” vertically into the jump itself because of this.
g) The difference between the last step and the penultimate step is little in terms of stride length. This is because of the reasons above.
h) The jump occurs during an acceleration phase because the muscles can work to produce voluntary force during an acceleration phase. During a stable/top speed phase, the muscles will work as stabilizers and contract isometrically. For example, in a top speed sprint the calves don’t contract concentrically to extend the ankle. The ankle is extended ONLY by the effect of the recoil that occurs in the Achilles tendon.
Now, if improvement wants to be made for this category (say you have a strength jumper that wants to increase his strength and maintain his jumping style, and therefore jump higher because of the strength increase “only”) – then you need to emphasize a training plan meant to increase the qualities, technique-wise, as mentioned above.
Examples of this include acceleration jumps (where the athlete constantly accelerates towards the take off point), long ROM jumps (like deep lunge jumps, deep split squat jumps), strength work (long lunges for strength) and probably deeper depth jumps to provide more “load”. I’m not going to get into the depth jump contact time argument now so please bear with me.
Also, you’ll probably want to work on increasing posterior chain strength the vast majority of time, with the quadriceps and calf part being important, but not “that” important.
2) The reactive jump
In my experience, most people that have been training in track and field have this kind of jumping technique. In the track and field people are told to have a short last step (takeoff phase) and a pretty long/lowering the hips for a just a bit penultimate (for example, the “accepted” norm in the long jump is just 10% hip lowering, anything beyond being considered “more than optimal” (although the average is ~14%)). How can this be characterized? Well, a reactive jump off one leg has these characteristics:
a) The run up is usually long – this means more than 5 steps;
b) The hips drop a just a little, the center of gravity is higher than for the strength jump;
c) Shorter last stride;
d) More linear (less rotation occurs at the hip);
e) Shorter GCT in the amortization phase;
f) Non-jumping leg has a heel to the butt into extension forward dynamic;
g) The last step (takeoff) is shorter and has a taller hip height than the penultimate step;
h) The jump occurs in at a constant speed.
Let’s work on the reasons behind all this:
a) The run up is usually long to prevent/will prevent the jump from becoming a strength oriented jump. If you take a long run up then the muscles will contract isometrically in the plant just to stabilize the tendons. The tendons will deform and this deformation will then release kinetic energy that will be used to propel the body upwards. It is longer also because you’ll be able to get a faster plant speed with a longer run-up in order to use more kinetic energy that will, in turn, make your bodyweight less important (since you’re going to have initial speed that will negate the bodyweight).
b) The hips drop less than in the strength jump – in fact, the hips will lower in the penultimate step phase and will start to rise a bit from that point on. This shortens the GCT and allows for more tendon recoil to occur.
c) A shorter last stride is used because that’s going to put the body in it’s optimum position to jump vertically, using the jumping leg as a “pole” or lever. A shorter last step also allows for a quicker jump off the floor, or a shorter GCT (yes, I know, these things are somewhat redundant in nature).
d) I have personally observed a more linear approach for the longer run-up kind of athletes towards the take off point. Like I said, this is just my impression. If you compare guys like James White (reactive jumper) and LeBron James (strength jumper) you’ll see that James White has a much more linear approach towards his jumping point, whereas LeBron has a much curved approach towards his jumping point. Again, just an observation that’s not limited to just these two players/athletes.
e) Redundancy – a shorter GCT. We’ve talked about this already.
f) The non jumping leg has that movement (heel to butt to extension) because of the track and field background as well (this technique is used at both long and high jumping, and in athletics in general). It occurs because the hips are not as lowered as in the strength jumping example, and the last stride is shorter as well, which means the body is more vertical and more compact than for a strength jump. This means that in order to transform the horizontal momentum to a vertical momentum, and “load” the pole properly (the left leg, or jumping leg) in a compact, “non-leaking” way, the right leg has to move in a certain way as well. Whenever a limb is too far from the body that limb is hard to stabilize/control (unless great strength is available) and that’s when the “compactness” is lost, if you get the idea.
g) The last step is shorter in order for all the above things to occur. Again, redundancy.
f) The jump occurs at a constant speed. This is because the jump is tendon-deformation oriented, or reactive, whereas in the strength jump, the basic tenet was strength and range of motion. At a constant speed the muscles act isometrically allowing the tendons to provide the kinetic energy.
Now, if improvement wants to be made for this category, then you need to emphasize a training plan meant to increase the qualities, technique-wise, as mentioned above. You can make a strength guy go with this technique and also increase his performance because he has the strength. A reactive guy trying to emulate a strength jump will probably have a hard time.
Examples of this include constant speed jumps (where the athlete establishes a constant speed towards the take off point), short ROM jumps (like short step, high center of gravity lunge jumps, high knee angle split squat jumps), strength work (short ROM lunges for strength) and depth jumps with minimum knee bend.
Also, you’ll probably want to work on increasing posterior chain strength but also work on the stabilizers more, meaning the quad work with partial ROM squats (think – 1/4 and 1/2 squats) is advisable in this situation. Calf work is more important here as well because the calf will aid in stabilizing the lower leg and also increase the positive proprioceptive feedback that will allow for more speed to be used in the plant which will allow for more tendon deformation to occur.
To put things into perspective, here’s an example of a training exercise according to what you want to obtain for it:
Ok guys, I have “finished” my 8-7-6-5 cycle BUT I haven’t even reached my stagnation step. I had to stop it because of injury (my right leg is all injured, with pain in the Achilles’ tendon, ankle, knee and hip). It’s not because of squatting but because of some awkward jumps I did a few weeks back when it all started.
Anyway, even in this situation, I managed to improve my all time squat 8RM by 5 kg. Meaning, the best I could ever squat for 8 reps was 110 kg (242 lbs) and I managed to squat 115 kg (253 lbs) for 8-7-6-5 a week ago when I decided to stop the cycle because of the injuries. I have no idea if I would’ve been able to increase even further, as I haven’t reached my stagnation in this cycle, but decided to stop because the knee was bothering me and I was training for way too long for strength and neglecting the fat levels and reactive ability.
Now that it’s warm outside, just perfect for track training, I decided to switch strength to maintenance and work on lowering my body fat levels (which are at about 16-17% by the way) and when I’m done with them (I want to lose about 6-7 kg of fat if possible) I will train for reactive ability and jumping skill more.
Anyway, the point was that the 8-7-6-5 works and works good, at least for me. And it always seems like nothing ever works for me so that should tell how efficient this has been. It is very demanding though, and you need good nutrition and good recovery, also being offseason so you can only focus on strength, for it to work.
The 8-7-6-5 is a training method I’m currently using to improve my squat. This method is made up of five phases and steps:
1) The build-up phase;
2) The stagnation step;
3) The intensification phase;
4) The peak step;
5) The deload phase.
What are all these? Just fancy names to make this program look professional and marketable. In reality, they are just natural occurences that will happen if you do this program. But first, lets talk about “how to do” the 8-7-6-5:
Well, it’s just a matter of 4 sets that each have -1 rep vs. the previous set, with the first set having 8 reps.
So if you’re scheduled for a 90 set of squats, it will look like this:
20×8 / 50×5 / 70×3 / 100×3 / 150×0 (unrack the bar and keep it on your back for 5-10s for potentiation) (optional) / 90×8 – 90×7 – 90×6 – 90×5 WORK SETS
Obviously, the warm-up weights etc are there just as general guidelines.
OK, so why 8-7-6-5? Well first off, because of volume. 8+7+6+5=26 total work reps. That’s a very good volume for “functional” hypertrophy. It’s close to a 5×5 but it’s a rep more than a 5×5 and it’s geared more towards hypertrophy from a set duration/fatigue induceness point of view. Secondly, the 8 rep set makes you use a weight not that big as you would in a 5 rep range set. That means less load on the spine and less chance of a bad technique because of it. Thirdly, because the format is -1 rep per each consequent set, the program is geared more towards a conservative approach for your CNS breakdown, in the way that it somehow protects you from overexerting and makes you let “some in the tank”. If you made 8 reps in your first set, you’ll need just to hit 7 on the next set which maintains a better attitude towards the goal and helps keep focus.
Now I realize this third point might make people think “man, you’re such a pussy, just squat 8 reps again with the same weight and stop worrying” etc. This might be a valid point, but regardless, these things do cross people’s mind “oh… another 8 reps…” which does take away some focus and intensity from that work set. With the -1 rep approach, you can maintain a positive, intensity-oriented approach towards each set.
How to judge the 8-7-6-5 progression?
Here’s the idea:
Sets of 8 and 7:
If you fail more than one rep (say you got 6 and 5 instead of 8 and 7) then you need to decrease the weight the next time. If you fail just one rep on one or each of them (say you got only 7 and 6 instead of 8 and 7 like scheduled) then you need to use the same weight the next workout. If you get 8 and 7 reps then you increase the weight the next workout;
Once you get through these first two sets, the next two sets come in:
Sets of 6 and 5:
If you fail ANY rep in these last two sets then you need to use the same weight the next workout.
What I’ve layed out here is the proper judgment of weight progression for the 8-7-6-5.
Now about the steps:
1) The build-up phase.
This is the first step and it’s the start of the training cycle. Start with about 80% of your 8RM. So if your 8RM is 100 kg, then start with 80 kg your training cycle. The recommended frequency of training is 2 times per week, for the time when you’re in the offseason of whatever sport you’re doing (by the way, this program is NOT what you want to do if you’re currently practicing your sport even at medium levels. Instead, it’s made as a preparation for the dynamic work that will follow this program when you start training for your sport at higher intensities, so obviously this program is recommended for the off-season).
The build-up step is the phase of the program where everything works as planned. You nail all the reps in all the sets and advance in the weight used every workout.
At 102.5 you missed one rep on the 2nd set and one rep on the 3rd set. As stated before, this means you’re going to use the same weight for the next workout in the hope that you’re going to go over the hump. If you get 102.5×8-7-6-5 the next workout then continue on adding weight. If you fail on doing that and get an identical workout as this failed one, then try again the next workout. If you miss even more than those 2 reps then you reached step number 2 (the stagnation). If you miss the third workout the same as this one, then, again, you reached the stagnation step.
2) The stagnation step
The stagnation step is the moment when you can’t get all the reps you planned for. There are two ways out: the intensity way and the volume way.
3) The intensification phase
This is the phase where the volume starts being limited.
The intensity way calls for you leaving the first set out. So from now on, you’re only going to do a 7-6-5 workout, consisting of only 3 sets.
It would look like this: 102.5×7-6-5 and advance from here. Once you again miss reps, eliminate the first set and you’re going to have a 6-5, and then once you can’t do the 6-5 you’re going to go with just one top set of 5 reps for your workout. Once you start missing reps on this top set, you have reached the peak step.
The volume way calls for you leaving the last set out. So from now on, you’re only going to do a 8-7-6 workout, consisting of only 3 sets.
It would look like this: 102x5x8-7-6 and advance from here. Once you again miss reps, eliminate the last set and you’re going to have a 8-7, and then once you can’t do the 8-7 you’re going to go with just one top set of 8 reps for your workout. Once you start missing reps on this top set, you have reached the peak step.
Now it depends on how you work in terms of strength training, individually. Some people will have problems in the top sets, as they can’t generate much intensity but they are able to maintain intensity, and others can generate intensity but can’t maintain intensity. For the first case kind of people, they should choose the volume way to the peak step (8-7-6), unless improved intensity is the desired result from this program, for which they would go with the intensity approach (try to get 7-6-5). For the second case kind of people, they should choose the intensity way to the peak step (try to get 7-6-5), unless improved work capacity is the desired result from this program, for which they would go with the volume approach (try to get 8-7-6).
So basically, depending on what the goals are, the approach towards the peak step is different.
4) The peak step.
Once the peak step has been reached (missing reps in the top set of 5 for the intensity way, or missing reps in the top set of 8 in the volume way), then the cycle is complete and a deload is warranted.
5) The deload phase
For the deload I would recommend only one work set, with -2 reps for the work set vs. the program work set, and -10% load.
So if the peak has been for the volume way a 100×8 (you tried 102.5 but you got only 6 reps for three consecutive workouts – peak occured), then a deload week would be a week where you would do two workouts of 90×6 as the only work set for each workout.
If the peak has been for the intensity way a 100×5 (you tried 102.5 but you got only 4 reps for three consecutive workouts – peak occured), then a deload week would be a week where you would do two workouts of 90×3 as the only work set for each workout.
After the deload has been completed, focus can and should be moved towards a more dynamic/specific approach for your sport (plyometric training, dynamic work, med ball work, speed/jump squats etc).
Example of an intensity-oriented 8-7-6-5 cycle:
Workout1: 80×8-7-6-5
WO2: 82.5×8-7-6-5
WO3: 85×8-7-6-5
WO4: 87.5×8-7-6-5
WO5: 90×8-7-6-5
WO6: 92.5×8-7-6-5
WO7: 95×8-7-6-5
WO8: 97.5×8-7-6-5
WO9: 100×8-7-6-5
WO10: 102.5×7-7-6-5 (missed one rep, will try again with the same weight next time)
WO11: 102.5×8-7-6-5 (made it, increasing the weight the next workout)
WO12: 105×7-7-5-4 (missed reps in the first two sets (strike one), try again the next workout)
WO13: 105×8-6-5-4 (missed reps in the first two sets (strike two), try again the next workout) WO14: 105×6-6-5-4 (missed reps in first two sets(strike three), the stagnation has been reached)
WO14: 105×7-6-5 (made all the reps, advancing in weight)
WO15: 107.5×6-6-5 (missed one rep in the first set, try again the next workout, strike one)
WO16: 107.5×7-6-5 (made all the reps, advancing in weight)
WO17: 110×6-6-5 (missed one rep in the first set, try again the next workout, strike one)
WO18: 110×6-6-5 (missed one rep in the first set, try again the next workout, strike two)
WO19: 110×6-6-5 (missed one rep in the first set, eliminate first set, strike three)
WO20: 110×6-5 (made all the reps, advancing in weight)
WO21: 112.5×5-5 (missed a rep in the first set, try again the next workout, strike one)
WO22: 112.5×5-5 (missed a rep in the first set, try again the next workout, strike two)
WO23: 112.5×5-5 (missed a rep in the first set, eliminate first set, strike three)
WO24: 115×5 (made all the reps, advance in weight)
WO25: 117.5×4 (missed a rep in the work set, try again next workout, strike one)
WO26: 117.5×4 (missed a rep in the work set, try again next workout, strike two)
WO27: 117.5×5 (made all the reps, advance in weight)
WO28: 120×4 (missed a rep in the work set, try again next workout, strike one) WO29: 120×3 (missed two reps in the work set, the peak has been reached) WO30: 105 (~90% of 117.5) x 3 (5-2 reps) – deload
WO31: 105×3 deload 2
END OF CYCLE
Example of a volume-oriented 8-7-6-5 cycle:
Workout1: 80×8-7-6-5
WO2: 82.5×8-7-6-5
WO3: 85×8-7-6-5
WO4: 87.5×8-7-6-5
WO5: 90×8-7-6-5
WO6: 92.5×8-7-6-5
WO7: 95×8-7-6-5
WO8: 97.5×8-7-6-5
WO9: 100×8-7-6-5
WO10: 102.5×7-7-6-5 (missed one rep, will try again with the same weight next time)
WO11: 102.5×8-7-6-5 (made it, increasing the weight the next workout)
WO12: 105×8-7-5-4 (missed reps in the last two sets (strike one), try again the next workout)
WO13: 105×8-7-4-4 (missed reps in the last two sets (strike two), try again the next workout) WO14: 105×8-7-5-4 (missed reps in last two sets(strike three), the stagnation has been reached);
WO14: 105×8-7-6 (made all the reps, advancing in weight)
WO15: 107.5×8-7-5 (missed one rep in the last set, strike one)
WO16: 107.5×8-7-4 (missed two reps in the last set, eliminate last set)
WO17: 110×8-5 (missed two reps in the last set, eliminate last set)
WO18: 112.5×7 (missed one rep in the work set, try again the next workout)
WO19: 112.5×8 (advance in weight)
WO20: 115×7 (missed one rep in the work set, try again the next workout) WO21: 115×5 (missed three reps in the work set,peak has been reached) WO22: 102.5 (~90% of 115) x 6 (8-2 reps) – deload
WO23: 102.5×6 deload 2
END OF CYCLE
Good luck!
EDIT: One additional note. If you chose the volume way of intensification, then I suggest to try to see how much weight you can get for 8 reps after the deload phase. Hopefully, your 8RM will be superior to your last 8RM test. The same applies for the intensity way of intensification, where you should test your 5RM.
A good way to test this is chose the weight from which you calculated the start of the squat cycle from as your previous 8RM. In this example, we said that 100 kg was the 8RM, and we started our cycle with 80% of that, thus starting our cycle with 80 kg.
For the people that chose the volume way, get the 100 kg bar and after warming up see how many reps you get with it. If you get more than 8 then you’ve improved your squat. For those that went with the intensity way, then they should take their former 5RM bar and see how many reps they get with it. If they get more than 5, then they’ve increased their squat.
When we talk about relative strength we always take it for granted in terms of performance. Afterall, it’s an easy way to make an idea about how powerful/athletic somebody likely is without even testing him in that field of expertise.
Basically, if you take a guy with a 2x squat (and a decently-low bodyfat level) you would naturally expect that guy to have good sprinting speed (at least good acceleration, if not top speed)and have a high vertical jump (at least standing vertical, if not running vertical) and most often than not you’d be right. There are a myriad of other factors influencing the expression of strength, with the most important being:
1) Body structure;
2) Nervous system capabilities that compose of:
2a) Recruitment ability (influenced by the person’s mood (laid back/nervous) and tension intensity);
2b) Movement efficiency (as in how well the CNS can replicate a movement with as little effort as possible actively using as much power as possible);
3) Inhibitory signals in the eccentric phase (or eccentric strength overload acceptance), such as the GTO threshold;
These are three things off the top of my head, because there are obviously even more that influence the expression of strength.
So what does this have to do with the relative strength component?
Well, here it gets a little tricky.
Say you have two athletes with no training background whatsoever, who never squatted. They have the same height and weight, identical structures, neural efficiency in the standing vertical jump and GTOs threshold. You put them both on training with squats. Athlete A starts a program that calls him to squat 1 time per week. Athlete B starts doing a program of squatting 4 times per week.
After 6 weeks they both have the same squat, say 2x their bodyweight. Whom would you pick to get a higher vertical jump in between the two? Athlete A or Athlete B? At the first glance you would probably say “it doesn’t matter, they have the same stats and the same relative strength, so they obviously jump the same”. And although it’s a bit counter-intuitive, the most probable result is that Athlete A will jump higher.
Why? Well, let’s analyze the situation for a moment:
Athlete A started doing squats 1 time per week. While that’s a good stimulus for increasing the squatting poundages, it’s not nearly as good as a stimulus for learning how to squat and increasing the squat movement efficiency as the 4 times per week squatting routine would do for Athlete B. So Athlete B will be much more squatting efficient after the 6 weeks of training than Athlete A.
Then after those 6 weeks you will compare two guys with the same apparent relative strength and different squatting efficiency. And like we talked about a few articles back, movement efficiency is movement specific. In other words, being good at squatting doesn’t mean you’re going to be good at jumping or other movements (especially of other dynamics).
So you can argue that Athlete A is actually much more stronger if with a worse squatting efficiency is able to be at the level of Athlete B who squats 4 times per week (obviously, here we ignore fatigue accumulation, work capacity and so on, but this example is chosen to make a point). If we were to take these two guys A and B and continue with another 6 weeks of training, with Athlete A doing this time a 4 times per week squatting routine and Athlete B doing a one time per week squatting routine, we’d probably end up with Athlete A being superior in terms of relative strength than Athlete B.
That’s because Athlete A increased his squatting frequency and therefore increased his squatting efficiency. Athlete B, who already had very good squatting efficiency due to his previous 6 weeks of high frequency squatting didn’t gained too much from his 1 time per week squatting (he could’ve gained in supercompensation from all the accumulated fatigue from the previous 6 weeks, but like I said – this is not the object of this article). The only way Athlete B would really gain more strength would be muscle gain.
Again, and I must make these notes – 6 weeks is a totally arbitrary number, don’t expect to be “100%” squat efficient in real life after only 6 weeks of high frequency squatting.
Anyway, since we reached the point of muscle gain: some people just don’t get it (and I know some of them personally) – you can gain only so much by neural efficiency. You can’t go “yo man, I’ll just stay at this bodyweight and reach a 2.5x squat in some time”. That’s just not right.
And it doesn’t even have to be such a serious number like 2.5x. 1.5x, 1.0x, whatever. You need muscle to generate tension. If you squat and don’t gain any muscle and increase your squat from 1.0x to 1.5x, then the gains come from neural efficiency gain in the squatting movement. This can have a transferrable effect into jumps, sprints and other dynamic movements, but only for uncoordinated/untrained people. Once you’re good at your sport and increase your squat without muscle gain you’re most likely not going to see results.
Let’s take a concrete example:
Say you get a guy named Jumpy to train. He’s very good at jumping but sucks at squatting. He jumps 34 inches for the standing vert but only squats 1x his bodyweight. He obviously thinks “man, I’m such a good jumper but I suck at squatting, man… I guess you can jump high without squatting that much”.
You take him and put him into squatting (whatever frequency because that’s not important for this example) and he gets his squat from 1x to 2x but jumps the same 34 inches! You can expect him to say “you got me squatting so much, I doubled my squat and my jump is the same! Obviously squatting doesn’t work and it’s just a wrong approach”.
What is wrong in that quote is the fact that he probably would’ve been able to squat 2x from the moment of him squatting 1x, just that he didn’t know it. All the gains he made in his squat were from improving squatting movement efficiency and closing the gap between his real strength and his squat-displayed strength!
The only chance for Jumpy increasing his vertical jump would be increasing his strength over 2x with gains in muscle, since muscle can generate additional non-squat-specific tension.
What I mean by that is the fact that if you build muscle through squatting, that muscle can be used to generate tension in other movements as well and not only in squatting (as opposed to the scenario where you’d only gain in neural efficiency of that movement only).
And since this post has become quite a mouthful (but trust me, it was necessary), if you start squatting – focus on improving your neural efficiency in squatting first (higher frequency squatting, higher volume, lower intensity), learn the movement properly, then increase the intensity and lower the frequency and start building muscle for athletic gains. The reason people are afraid of gaining muscle is the addition of body fat, but that can be shedded off later.
The true relative strength gain for superior athleticism is through muscle gain and not squatting efficiency!
I want to establish through this post the “proper equation of jumping”. Yes, I know, I’m starting to sound more and more like a marketing guru but bare with me on this one.
The problem I have found with whatever there is in this strength&speed “industry” (although I have hardly understood where the word “industry” should fit – oh wait – marketing gurus just reminded me) is that simplicity is the worst enemy of any quality idea. Whenever you go simple about a thing the guy you’re trying to train is like “hey man, cut me this bull, I want real training”. Because, like the industry word suggests, “real training” is “complicated training”.
Now for those that think that know me, they’ll be like “yeah man but you’re the first to overanalyze stuff”. That’s true. But am I the first to overcomplicate training? I don’t think so. My training journal should be pretty obvious about my training and it’s simplicity. The overanalyzing comes just from the pure curiosity of understanding. I can’t just say “yeah man, it just works like that and that’s it”. That’s like saying “yeah man, I’m just stupid and can’t understand things, I’ll just leave it at that”. Doesn’t work that way for me.
But enough with this chit-chat. What’s up with this “equation thing”? Nothing else than a fancy name for simple stuff.
Before we get to it, I want to make a geek analogy, like I sometimes do.
Let’s suppose you work into computer graphics. Nothing to do with athleticism, right? (I actually work in the domain, by the way).
Say I’m a Photoshop beginner. But I want to become the best photoshopper I can possibly be. What are my possibilities for improvement?
Well, for one it would be just working in Photoshop. You know, working in it, playing with tools, see what they do, what the menus do etc. Read the help. Whatever.
Another possiblity would be to watch tutorials, read advanced books etc.
Once I get decent at it, I could go out with deadlines on my projects. I have to finish this stuff in 2 hours or ELSE. Etc.
1) What would happen if I only read books/watch tutorials but never actually practice working in Photoshop itself? My POTENTIAL of being very good would increase a lot, but I wouldn’t be good. I could become very good in a very short time though, working in Photoshop.
2) What would happen if I would only work in photoshop and not read anything/watch any tutorial? I could become good, but probably never great because my potential of greatness would be limited/it would demand too much time to discover stuff on my own out of hazard.
3) What would happen if I would do deadline work without knowing the program well/having the background to do quality work? Well, for one I’d probably be very slow and for another – I’d probably be very limited.
So how the heck does this correlate with jumping/athleticism?
Well, the same thing happens in this field. The muscle is your potential. Practicing your movement is a SKILL. Overload exercises are your “deadlines” (think depth jumps).
To make a comparison:
1)What would happen if I only strength train but never actually practice jumping itself? My POTENTIAL of being very good at jumping would increase a lot, but I wouldn’t be good at jumping (especially running jumps, regardless of them being unilateral or bilateral). I could become very good in a very short time though, practicing jumping.
2) What would happen if I would only jump and not do any strength training? I could become a very good jumper, but probably never great because my potential of greatness would be limited/building strength would demand too much time using only jumping (because the time under tension is too low to optimally help build muscle).
3) What would happen if I would do depth jump work without jumping/having strength? I’d probably be very bad and my depth jumping advancement would be very limited.
The equation is build muscle + train movement + overload ever now and then with supramaximal exercises like depth jumps to increase the tension threshold that the CNS is/is not accepting in the eccentric phase.
So, again: build muscle to increase your potential of tension, train your movement to learn to apply/access your potential of tension in your jumps, do depth jumps to increase the amount of tension the CNS accepts.
It’s really that simple. Once this is settled, the only downside is bodyfat. If that is in check (say around 10% maximum) then you can’t help but jump high. Really. Notice I haven’t mentioned the relative strength factor in here because I’ll talk about it in the next article. You really have to be aware of what relative strength tells you/what can mean for you/how to read it.
It’s funny how western guys take things for granted. In all domains. But since we’re talking athletic things in here, let’s keep it at that.
Whenever I look over youtube, say, searching for squats, plyos, or whatever training “events”, I see all kinds of fancy gyms, apparatus, machines, bossu-balls, tens of squat racks, power racks, Gatorades, stability balls, med balls, kettlebells, GHR machines, plyo boxes, aerobic boxes, pink dumbbells and stupid instructors. This – in the USA.
Whenever I look around me here in Romania, when I go to train either in gyms or on the track, I see trellises, old tracks, mud, dirt, spounges, broken bars, rusty plates, rusty bars, wooden boxes with spikes in them if you’re “lucky” to have some in the first place, rusty pink dumbbells and stupid instructors.
The point is – if the western guy would change place with an eastern guy for one week… oh man!
It’s harder when the stupid coach gets crazy ideas though.
A friend of mine that I was training with got into high jump and bobsled training. One day when he was training for the high jump he was doing jumps in the sandpit over a metallic, NON-COLLAPSABLE hurdle. Sure, a small 40 cm or 16 inch hurdle. But he was doing technique jumping where he was told “how to jump”. Needless to say – his jumping was different than what the coach was trying to make him do. So he blowed up the jump and blown his leg up in the hurdle.
Truth is, stupidity + lack of conditions are the mother and father of the injury. What can be said about the water “dive-bomb” Olympic team? They don’t have a dive-pool to train in the WHOLE COUNTRY and, to still train, they dive into spounges. Can you imagine that? They don’t jump into water until they’re in the competition itself! One guy still got 10th place in the World Championship. Can you compare that with the US conditions?
Really, even doing depth jumps is a real problem here because you don’t have any boxes (yes, those square wooden things) to do depth jumps off! But when I look over youtube in the USA everybody has nice all sizes boxes to do them from. Oh, and GHR machine? I never ever seen one here. Never. I don’t think anybody knows what a GHR machine is to be frank.
Never seen a power rack where you take the pins and put them to suit your height/squat depth. Never. I know only one gym that has kettlebells, and they have only 2. As for plyo boxes that I was talking about? They have only like 2 in the Olympic athletic training facility in which I trained for a short period. That’s the only place I’ve seen them.
Oh, not to mention that the only Olympic high jumper (2.30 m personal best / 7’7) has a salary of about 175 euros or 200 $ per month. Yup, you heard right. A good way to be performant, I guess. He borrowed 15 euros about 4 months ago from me and hasn’t given them back yet. No money to do it.
Check out how I do my depth jumps (what I use to do them):
Think about that when you’re complain about the training conditions!
When people talk about isometrics in the training world, they don’t really associate isometric stuff with dynamic efforts for athleticism. Truth is, the isometric concepts/benefits/volume/intensities etc are barely known in the training world.
One could go on and think “why the hell should I train isometrically when the aim is doing dynamic movements?” and, well, he’d be right from a specificity standpoint. That’s not the issue though.
Let’s take a quick example for a more “specific” approach in terms of jumping and dynamic movements. The “athlete” in cause would be, you guessed it – your favorite athlete – me.
Whenever I take a running jump or do any kind of change in direction or whatever dynamic effort, I always am “ready” for the shock of that particular event. I don’t know if you’ve figured it out already, but a lot of people talk about “be ready!” for these kinds of things yet nobody ever defines what “ready” means. Besides of the usual “be aware” definition, “ready” also means “tensed”. So you basically get “tensed” before a dynamic event occurs. According to Yuri Verkhoshansky, this can lead up to a 20% increase in performance in the dynamic movement.
Really, the next time you jump at high speeds be aware of your “preparedness” before the jump. I bet you’ll find out that you’re already tensed up (pre-tensed), just that you haven’t thought about it before.
If not, try to isometrically tense your BODY muscles and see the difference. Notice I haven’t said “leg muscles”, and that’s because it’s a whole body tensing that’s the important thing. The reason for that is the muscle irradiation effect the other muscles have on your stability and power output. This has been bought to my attention by Pavel Tsatsouline but I have found out that I have already been doing all the things he talks about in his book “The Naked Warrior”.
So basically, tensing isometrically before an athletic feat (or a power/strength lift etc) is very important. That’s why the isometric training can/must have some emphasis in training for overall athleticism.
One of my favorite isometric holds is the split squat iso hold using a barbell. Here’s me doing it:
You should aim for sets of 10-20 seconds for strength gains. You want to bring real intensity and LEARN to tense up good so the next time you tense for jumping it will happen quickly and provide you with good stability for the leg muscles to exert power against the ground, but also (and more importantly) for the leg muscles to properly and effectively absorb the ground shock in the amortization phase.
Ok, let’s say you have a 30 inch vert. Now I come and tell you : jump 34 inches. You listen and go try it: you begin your approach, you plant, you bend, you jump, and I measure 30 inches. Ok, fine, but why can’t you jump 34?
Yeap, I know, pretty hard to tell, ain’t it? We certainly don’t know what is the weak point in your body. But we can figure it out quickly, to a certain extent.
Now don’t get me wrong: I ain’t telling this is a sure thing, but we can speculate around it, in a logic manner I suppose. But enough with this, let’s get started. First, let’s review what you did to jump 30 inches.
You began your approach… this means you used an “X” amount of speed. Could be fast, moderate, or slow. Then you plant. You could jump off one or two legs. Then you bend. You could’ve bent more or less, depending of the plant (1 or 2 legs) and your specific technique. Then you jump…
That X amount of speed is very important. I believe that the “Eccentric Strength” i’s the most important thing in a running jump.
1) Coming up with a high speed and jumping high means you are having (or probably having) a very good technique and having (for sure) a very good eccentric strength.
2) Coming up with a high speed and jumping low means you are either having a a) bad technique (or wrong movement patterns) or b) you have bad eccentric strength, or c) both.
3) Coming up slow and jumping “relatively” high would mean you have good technique and strength and bad eccentric strength.
4) Coming up slow and jumping low would mean you have both bad technique and bad eccentric strength, period.
Now we need to correct these scenarious, one by one. The correct approach, in my oppinion (remember, these are not proven facts) would be the following:
1) Increase strength to jump higher;
2) a) Go into plyometrics, low intensity, focusing on the correct movement patterns; b) Get into strength training, then go into drop jumps to improve eccentric strength; c) both;
3) Get into strength training, then train with drop jumps.
4) The same as 2) c), training first low intensity plyometrics, then strength, then high intensity plyometrics.
By saying “training first”, I don’t mean to do that type of training first in your session; what I mean is to prepare yourself focusing on that kind of training, without mixing them up. This means you must do (or focus almost entirely) on that kind of training (either low intensity plyometrics (LIP), strength training (ST) or high-intensity training (HIT)).
Ok, we are done with the approach part, let’s move on.
Now this is another important part. You jumped 30 inches right? Now what muscle, or movement stopped you from getting higher?
Well, other than regular strength, sometimes there are certain muscles that collapse before the others do. For example, when I approach my jumping spot with a very high speed, I lose eccentric strength in the vastus medialis and jump a mere 8 inches or somewhere around. This happened because the proprioceptors kicked in, in the absorbtion phase. I felt quite confident in my other muscles that they can handle that speed, but the vastus medialis in my quads didn’t. What I am saying is that, for my case, strengthening the vastus medialis would provide a very good boost for increasing my vert. But this is just my case.
You could lack strength in the calves, so if you feel you collapse at the calf point, you need to train the calves for more eccentric strength.
If, however, you can get a lot of power in (move trough the absorbtion and stabilisation phase) then it becomes just a matter of lowering the coupling phase time (where the switch from eccentric to concentric happens) and increase overall strength. Taking a lot of power in without collapsing is the definition of an efficient nervous system, as the proprioceptors don’t kick in to shut down the muscle. However, it is also dependent of muscular strength, so you gotta have a combination of both strength and an efficient nervous system. We hear a lot about “combinations” and how you can’t separate the muscle from the mind, and that’s because it’s true.
There is another thing I must add: from my experience I have found out that the eccentric strength is also specific. What I mean by that is that eccentric strength can exist in a movement but can lack in another, even if the load on the muscles is similar.
The reason for that is movement efficiency. Say you train to jump off two feet. You go out and practice that for 2 hours everyday. What happens over time is the body (CNS) starts to accept the forces of the amortization phase and starts to get better in that movement, accepting higher and higher levels of speed (becoming efficient and “trustful” that the movement can safely be performed). You can therefore conclude that your eccentric strength has improved and you would be right (although you have to first define what EXACTLY does eccentric strength means). If it means that you’re able to use more speed in the jump without collapsing then yes, you have increased it. If it means you’re going to be able to lower a heavier bar in the squat than before… I’m not so sure. If it means the “newly found” eccentric strength is going to be properly used in change of directions, cuts, decelerations while playing basketball… I’m not sure about this either.
What I have found out on my own self is that you can be great at jumping and still suck when it comes to decelerating, cutting, changing directions etc, even though it feels like the same loading of the muscles is being applied during these movements. Even more, when you think about it, in high speed jumps there are forces that are highly superior vs. some low speed changes of directions.
So, in my mind at least, the eccentric strength also carries a specific “value”. Here in Romania the high jump coaches are really obsessed with specificity by the way, in whatever they put their athletes do. Everything has to be specific. There are little things not specific to every parameter of a one-leg jump.
What this means is that you’re most likely see the high jumpers do a lot of plyos, 1/4 squats, few full squats (because they are not specific when it comes to the knee/hip angles of a one-leg jump), low ROM step-ups (for the same reasons) and bounce squats (where you drop down and use the plyometric effect to get up, a killer for the knees by the way).
Well, this is it about the collapse points and eccentric strength and it’s specificity. Watch out for new articles soon!
Hey guys, this is my first post here so I hope you enjoy it. I’ll talk about the basics of jump training and the two “major types” of individuals I have ran into during my training journey. Have fun reading!
Since you’re reading this, I bet you love to jump. Do you? Most people think they do, but they actually find out they’re not that passionate of jumping after all.
Why am I saying all these? Because jumping is the most important thing to, well, jumping.
We all know that a high vertical jump is an expression of power. Power is composed of the force you can generate and the time it takes to generate that force. It is, thus, directly influence by the strength of your muscles (they generate the force) and governed by your CNS (which takes care of the speed of the force application).
In all these years of reading endless pages of VJ-related subjects/logs/information/articles/advices/books etc, I have found out two “kinds of people”: the western guy and the eastern guy.
The western guy is the guy obsessed with strength training. It seems that in the USA is this recurrent thing of strength training and strength sports. American guys seem to love contact sports and power (as a culture in itself). Take a look at the American Football and athletes in general in the USA and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Take a look at “muscle cars” and you’ll see the same.
The western guy seems to miss a point in training for his actual goal and over-complicating stuff strength-wise. Strength strength and then more strength is his call. Makes you wonder why, since he doesn’t always get to his goal this way – to have a higher VJ.
It also has to be set what a vertical jump really is. In general terms, people talking about “increasing vertical jump” in reality talk about the standing vertical jump. This is not really “important” (it is, but this is not what athletes and players think about when they read the word “VJ”) because what is important for people training for a higher VJ is the RUNNING jump.
When you think about having a higher VJ you think dunking for basketball or you think spiking for volleyball, and these all are dynamic jumps, and not standing jumps.
Sure, you can dunk from a standing position and you can spike from a standing position, but that is un-optimal and it’s not what’s going to happen in basketball or volleyball games.
The problem with the western guy is that he’s a guy that loves strength but usually very rarely (or rare than “optimal”) is he actually training for the goal itself : he rarely goes out there on the field to jump at the rim or at the net.
Let me give you a concrete example:
Western Athlete: I’m training my legs three times per week, squatting, deadlifting, strength training. I’m so drained… I go out for 1 hour to dunk but it’s no good, I don’t know what to do!
How about this: lower the frequency of strength training and GO OUT THERE and dunk. There’s nothing more specific than dunking (considering that dunking is the goal for this particular guy). There is so much to miss when you’re not going out and dunk/train to dunk. The movement efficiency, the specific CNS shock management, stabilization, center-of-gravity understanding/positioning, coordination and automatization that govern a high running jump will all be missed and lost if the jumping isn’t done at a high enough frequency.
The question is, how much is enough? It really does depend on the subject, but I’d recommend jumping maximally everyday, in low volumes. It would appear that frequency is the most important thing in a high running vertical jump. The strength training is just AN ASSISTANCE for your jumping. Treat it as that.
To illustrate what this means I’m going to give you my example:
When I was 17-18 years old, I started dreaming and day-dreaming about dunking. My best friend and high school colleague started teasing me that I won’t ever dunk in this life, especially considering my running vertical jump off one leg was about 60 cm or 24 inches. My standing vert was very low, about 40 cm I think, and running VJ off two feet I didn’t even know it was possible (until I saw NBA player jump off two feet running).
So obviously he was teasing me I won’t ever be able to dunk. That fueled my desire to dunk and made it an obsessive goal of my life (in fact, it is my life-long obsession since then). Back then I have no idea of training whatsoever, so I was going out and trying to touch the rim, grab the rim, dunk small balls etc everyday. I was reading some programs I ran into over the internet like Air Alert or Sky’s the limit, but I was like “hey, how can jumping countless times at low intensity is going to help me?”. So I didn’t really chose to do them, I felt like they were useless.
Instead, I was jumping everyday and A LOT. Meaning, for hours. Now right now I’d tell you that jumping for hours is going to develop resistance and conditioning, and not give you the optimal POWER to get high. Back then I didn’t knew about all this.
And STILL, after 1 year of doing stuff like that, and SOME bodyweight strength training, I was jumping close to 1 meter off one leg, or 40 inches. Probably about 38 inches or so. Without any strength training whatsoever, but with high frequency jumping.
You can safely conclude, I think, from this story that the frequency of training a “special” capacity like maximal jumping, even with the lack of proper strength training, is so important. The same can be said about proper strength training though, but it would apply for standing vertical jumps.
If at that point I would’ve chose to strength train instead of going out and dunk, I would’ve probably increased my two-feet standing vertical a lot. But the running vertical is where it’s at when it comes to dunking, because, in all honesty, nobody really likes to do standing dunks and these rarely occur in basketball games. Instead, dunking happens usually on fast breaks or cuts to the basket, and you need a high running vertical for that.
Speaking of my experience leads me to the “eastern guy”.
I ran into the eastern guy whenever I go to the track in my city Bucuresti ( Bucharest ). There I meet mostly high jumpers, some sprinters and some bobsled athletes. The high jumpers are all very thin and they train almost exclusively with plyometrics. That’s not to say they are weak strength-wise, but some of them are weaker than what you might expect from an athlete, especially at the world class level (going to the Olympics).
I was fortunate enough to speak to our national champion in the high jump with a personal best of 2.30m (or 7’6 ½”) and see what kind of training he does. He does a balanced training approach using both strength training and plyometric training. The same cannot be said about the rest of the athletes that use a much higher plyometric training frequency than strength training, and they are at lower levels in terms of performance.
The vast majority of athletes here in Romania are under the coaching of old coaches that have the old Russian metodology of training in their approaches, or bad imitation of one. Sometimes I stand on the track doing my workout and listen to what they’re saying/preaching and I either get infuriated or crack a laugh. Some of the principles are just wrong and it’s not a matter of different opinions, but a matter of downright stupidity, I dare say.
Here’s an example of a high jumper training, from my observations:
Day 1: Hurdle drills/jumps/sprints high volume
Day 2: Strength training with the likes of half squats and stuff like leg extensions or calf raises and step-ups
Day 3: Sprints 6x30m 3x50m
Day 4: Technique Approach drills and some sprints;
Day 5: Some badly executed strength training.
The volume is damn high and there is a lackadisical approach towards training in all I the athletes I have seen training. The volume of the plyometric work is horrendous. There is also an inclination towards high volumes of anything, sometimes extreme volumes, totally detrimental when it comes to power production.
The coaches preach “feeling the burn” and training tired and with high levels of lactic acid in the body, and this translates into half-effort for countless reps. Not the best thing in the world when it comes to increasing your vertical jump and power for that matter.
Now where the heck should I, you ask, start in gaining some inches on my stubborn vertical?
Well, the first thing you need to ask yourself is “am I jumping frequently enough?”. This is, like I said, so important. You should jump daily but with low volumes. In fact, even when it comes to strength training (and this is intensely preached by Pavel Tsatsouline) – high frequency, high intesity, very low volume training can be used to increase your strength (Pavel calls this “greasing the groove”).
The same can be said about jumping, so jump everyday.
The next thing you need to ask yourself is “how passionate am I about this?”. If you want your vert to increase by 10 inches in 1 month, then you might be passionate about dunking but you’re not discilplined and dedicated enough to train, and you seek quick gains because you’re too lazy to understand what proper training is and how much work there is to be put in training for a goal such as the one you just set. A real passionate guy daydreams about dunking and daydreams about training to dunk, which is both a good and a bad thing. It can be a bad thing because he might get overtrained quickly if he’s too passionate about his training, not see results although he “trained hard” and quit.
It really is all a matter of balance, intelligence, awareness, discipline (this is so important), listening to your body (or auto-regulation) and consistence. These are all mental aspects of training. The other more fiziological and physical aspects are composed of proper training, nutrition and rest. These three factors are the main pillars of increasing your vertical jump.
From this point on the discussion turns to a complex set of variables determined by the individualities of the subject in cause. The idea is to take general principles of training and smooth them around the weaknesses of the subject so that he can advance in his ability to jump. This is done through testing the qualities of the athlete and, based on that, designing a training program.
This is just one step though, as the real work will come from the athlete himself.
I have a few guys that always tell me that they are lucky they met me and they have gone so far, and I always answer back that THEY are the ones who worked for what they have, they were the ones intelligent enough to choose to train like that (and determine if what I’m “prescribing” in their training is good or not) and thus they are the ones who should be proud of their achievements. These are not big words on my part, or being politically correct, but it is the reality.
Some people are being offered the best training program, individualization, nutritional plans in the world and they still don’t gain anything because they either aren’t disciplined enough (and this is probably the most important attribute of VJ training and training and learning in general, in any domain), aren’t smart enough, are too passionate (and overtrain) or they just are training and not resting and eating well.
There is so much that can be said about this subject that it’s actually overwhelming when you enter into detail. But when you look at the whole picture, it’s all basic, simple stuff. Put into antithesis with the human nature, the concept “simple” is such a hard concept to grasp because people will always look for the complicated stuff because it makes more sense that a thing as hard as jumping high MUST be complex. This is a difficult obstacle to overcome but once you jump over it – it all makes sense.
Hopefully I can help you with your goals and make you see beyond training principles and actually getting the gains you desire and the gains you worked for.
