Evolutionary Athletics

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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!