posted
Some one tell me how to jump higher. I'm pretty a pretty good all over athlete except for jumping. I got like a 20in vertical, which is horrible. I'm not fat or anything, I weigh about 130lbs and I work out a lot so most of it should be muscle. I run around a lot, and I'm pretty tall (5'10"), I just can't jump...
It's really annoying, especially when I want to tryout for football next year. Is there anything I should eat? Should I work out more or develop certain muscles? I'm a sophmore in high school and I know for a fact that I could make the team, it's just that I don't want to if I won't get any playing time. I definetly won't if I can't jump. I play soccer and when I try to head the ball it's a joke. Anyone got any hints?
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
My cousin had the same problem. The coach told him to literally practice jumping. He increased his verticle by a few inches and was better at basketball. I dunno if the advice was sound, just thought I'd relate that account to you.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: My cousin had the same problem. The coach told him to literally practice jumping. He increased his verticle by a few inches and was better at basketball. I dunno if the advice was sound, just thought I'd relate that account to you.
That advice makes sense according to the principle of specificity for sports training. In a nutshell, this principle is if your goal is to improve your performance in activity X, then training in activity X is the most efficient way to accomplish this (provided there as already a level of general adaptation present).
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
There was a workout I did that added a couple of inches to my vertical in about two weeks. But then I stopped doing it so intensely, so I don't know the long term results:
Figure out your max squat ability - being very careful about form and to not bend your legs to smaller than a 90 degree angle.
Put 90% of the max on the bar and do as many as you can. If you have a spotter, use him to get the last couple of reps in by helping very little. Go up very fast with a strong, quick push, and take 5 seconds to come down after each rep. Don't pause at the bottom, though.
Do not rest. Cut the total weight in half and repeat. You should get about as many, maybe a couple more. Again, quick up, slow negatives.
Do not rest. Cut the weight in half one more time and repeat.
Do not rest. Move away from the weights
Do not rest. Do vertical jumps from the near squat position with 5 second returns to that position after landing.
Do not rest. When you can't clear the floor anymore, do unweighted squats - quick push up, slow negative - until you can't do any more.
Rest for however long all that took.
Repeat this four times.
Do this twice a week if your legs recover quickly enough.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Principle of specificity: the same type of jumps you are trying to improve. If you're making really big jumps, do those. If it was me, I'd probably get some sort of weighted vest or something and practice jumping with more and more weight. But I'm not a coach, and I'm sure there's people out there that know better. I'd personally try to avoid gimmicks though.
You might also benefit from some basic leg exercises in the gym, especially squats.
Edit: Dag's squat exercises sound good for this goal as well. Be sure to keep jumping though. However, one difference is I would definately go below the parallel for squatting. As long as you use proper form, and don't relax your quads and hamstrings, this actually has the result of placing less stress on the knees.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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My husband plays volleyball and when we played competitively, he would hammer a piece of wood (small piece of 2 by 4)to the under side of an old pair of shoes (under the toe/ball of foot area), he also jumped rope a ton.
Posts: 697 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Dag's exercise seems really good, but my school does weight lifting on Tuesday and Thursdays, and I doubt my legs could recover that quickly. I'll try my best though.
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Your muscles only need 36-48 hours to recover enough to train again, so you should be good, even if you're still a little sore. If you're having trouble recovering in time for Thursday's workout, on Tuesday don't go to failure- stop about 2 reps short.
The reason Dag's program is pretty good for you is that your goal is not muscular size, merely strength. This type of routine isn't optimal for muscular hypertrophy, but will increase your strength, which is a good thing. This works perfectly for you, because if you get bigger, you just have more weight you have to jump up with.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Something you could try that we do in swimming to improve our off the walls and starts are crouch jumps.
I've done two forms of these, form 1: do a push up then jump in a streamline position (hands one on top of the other stretching as far above the head as possible) as high as you can. Then repeat. Usually we do 10 - 20 in a row, rest then do 10 - 20 more.
The other version is basically the same thing with out the pushup. Touch the ground, jump as high as possible in stream line position. Repeat.
Also Dag's looks pretty good. If a little rough.. I dunno if I'd survive through that.
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I haven't read the posts in this thread so I don't know if this was mentioned yet, but here's a really good exercise:
Go to a stair. Put only the toes and a little of the foot on the edge of the step. Bring your heel as close to the next lower step as possible, then push up with your calves so you are on your tippie toes . Keep going up and down as low and high as you can for as long as you can. Builds crazy calve strength.
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I'm a sophmore in high school and I know for a fact that I could make the team, it's just that I don't want to if I won't get any playing time. I definetly won't if I can't jump. I play soccer and when I try to head the ball it's a joke. Anyone got any hints?
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. Keep going up and down as low and high as you can for as long as you can. Builds crazy calve strength.
