Staff Sports Performance Sports Medicine Performance Testing Sport Specific Tests Power Profile Identifying Talents Training Tips: "What are you training for?" Article of the Month "Jump Training"		Jumping Higher by Ken Vick There’s no question that being able to jump higher is a big advantage in many sports. In basketball and volleyball its crucial. This means every athlete is trying to find a way to get this edge. Just open any basketball or volleyball magazine and you’ll see a circus of contraptions, shoes, videos, and supplements all claiming to make you jump higher. Do any work? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes they’re just a waste of money. Other times they can cause injuries and be detrimental to performance. So what are you to do? A major problem is that every athlete is unique. Some athletes rely more on strength to jump high, others quickness and elasticity, others need better balance. There are many factors in good jumping ability, the question is which ones do you need the most work on? This is why a good coach evaluates their athletes to start. They find out what needs work. The items being sold to you in magazines know nothing about you, except that you want to jump higher and are willing to pay for it. There are some common elements to good jumping. Some from the past would argue genetics is most important. They say, "If you’re not born with it, forget it." This may be partly true if you want to set a new world record in the high jump or long jump, but not for team sports. Every athlete can improve their jumping ability. I have seen athletes at the highest levels of basketball and volleyball add several inches even after years of training. You can improve. BIOMECHANICS 101 A first step in explaining how to jump higher is explaining the idea of power. In physics they teach that Power = Force x Distance / Time. Another way of saying this is Power = Strength x Speed. Wait a second. Isn’t strength the same as power? NO. Strength is how hard you can push or pull. Power is how hard you can push, and how fast. Lets look at two similar movements a squat and a vertical jump. The lifter squatting can add heavy weight. This adds to the first part of the equation, Power = Strength x Speed. The movement however is slow, taking several seconds. This takes away from the second part. It requires high levels of "strength", but only moderate amounts of power because of slow "speed". On the other hand is a basketball player jumping. This athlete has their bodyweight, a low to moderate requirement for "strength", but the movement is fast taking less than a second. This increases the "speed" part of the power equation. The bottom line is that to be the best jumper you need to develop both strength & speed. Ultimately, it is important to achieve the optimal balance for you. In our SportsLab Testing Program we use in-depth science to test athletes and determine exactly what they need and what will get them there fastest. Even without this kind of testing there is a lot you can do to improve. For young, developing athletes, 12 - 18 yrs, you need to have well rounded training incorporating both. There’s another important element we can’t forget. Balance. This often overlooked ability is critical if your vertical jumping is going to be useful in a sport setting, (the place it counts). So why is balance important? Well lets look at jumping in the sport setting. For one thing, if you’re off balance, you’re out of control. This lack of control means you’re not going to be able to use your full strength & speed to jump your best. Many jumps are followed immediately by another. For example, a basketball player rebounding, or a volleyball player at the net. If the landing causes a loss of balance, even a little, the next jump will be slower and not as high. Functional balance is an important element that is ignored y many. Decreased balance has bee shown to increase the risk of ankle injuries. It makes you slower and less explosive. It lets opponents push you out of position. Yes, you need to train balance to be a better jumper. STRENGTH You agree that you need to develop strength, so now what? There’s so many questions. Machines or Free Weights? What exercises? Slow or fast? Heavy or Light? Lots of reps or only a few? These are all important questions, and can be several more articles. For now, I just want to make some general suggestions. For an athlete it is not muscles that need training, its movements. This is the same way your brain controls you. It doesn’t decide how hard each muscle will pull or how fast it will move. Your brain is programmed for movements, not muscles. So that’s the way you should train. In practical terms this means we want a leg movement (squat, step-up, lunge) instead of a muscle isolation (seated knee extension). With this strategy we involve multiple muscles and joints, coordinating their movements just like when you jump. Doing separate exercise for each muscle alone, like knee extensions, hamstrings curls, and calf raises is not as effective. It separates their control, the opposite of what you are trying to achieve. That’s why we focus on using multiple joint movements while you are standing with feet on the ground. Remember that equation, Power = Strength x Speed, you need to work this strength up to higher levels. That means at some time during the year, higher intensity and fewer reps. The weights and exercises should be progressive. Progressive means you start from general and get more sport specific as you go. It also means weights get heavier. Your plan should also be periodized. Another part of effective progression is focussing on the torso strength before the extremities. Periodization is basically a way of varying the volume (amount) and intensity of training. You can’t go 100% everyday. You need some days, some weeks, and some months harder, others easier. This lets your body recover and improve. I already mentioned using multi-joint, ground based movements. Some lifts that can be very effective for jumping include the Olympic style lifts. When it comes to power, the power clean, power snatch and jerk blow away other lifts. These are high power lifts, very fast, that involve the same basic movement. When these lifts and vertical jumps are analyzed biomechanically, they are very similar movements. These lifts require quickness, explosion, coordination and balance. This helps a jumper. SPEED We need to hit that "speed" part of the equation. We’ve already handled some of the speed along with resistance in the Olympic style lifts, but there’s more to do. Plyometrics and ballistics are the tools of choice here. Like any tools, used incorrectly they don’t work well and can be dangerous. Used properly, on the right job, they can work wonders. This is an area that leads to major confusion for many coaches as well as athletes. I could give a detailed explanation of plyometrics, but basically they are explosive movements that involve a quick, pre-stretch of the active muscles. The example for us is a jumper. Before jumping every jumper crouches at least a little. This bending before the jump, stretches the muscles. Much like a spring, the elastic properties of muscle and tendon store some extra energy. Then when you jump that energy helps you go higher. A requirement though, is that you must jump very quickly after the stretch. Too slow and that extra energy from the stretch disappears as heat. No help at all. There is also a reflex (Myotactic) that actually makes your muscles contract harder. Ballistic drills involve maximally accelerating an object. This is usually your body or a medicine ball. The important point is that you can accelerate maximally through the whole movement. Lets compare a squat and a box jump up. Coming up during the squat, you can’t accelerate the entire way. You have to slow down the movement as you get near the top. In a box jump up, a very similar movement, you can accelerate until the last moment on the ground. That’s ballistic. Something has to go flying. These exercise don’t work the muscles in the same way. They burn out the muscles energy systems or require maximal strength. Instead they will do much more in training the nervous system, reflexes and the motor programs. This is an important point. You’re training movements, and they need to be done right. When your neuromuscular system starts to fatigue, you won’t be moving right any more. You’ll end up training the wrong movement, interfering with performance and putting you at greater risk for injury. If some is good, more is not always better. Medicine balls, boxes, cones, hurdles, bungee cords and more are toys we use in this type of training. We will go into a greater discussion of plyometrics, next month. BALANCE Where does balance fit into this picture. Everywhere. Balance is trained for itself, but also in the strength, plyometric and ballistic training. We can incorporate in many elements, get a greater training effect and more transfer to the game. To maintain balance, your body relies on three systems, the inner ear, the eyes and proprioception - "body awareness". The inner ear is important, but generally works well. The info from the eyes is much slower and has to be processed by the brain to be used. This takes time and working memory space. The proprioception, is much faster and can affect balance and control without even going to the brain. This faster and saves brain space. If you can improve proprioception, you can free up your mind to worry about other things. Its also more automatic in maintaining balance. Faster speeds and processing means your body can react quicker to get the job done and prevent injuries. It lets your eyes and mind, look up and follow the ball better, and watch the game. Basic balance training may just involve standing on one leg and balancing. To take away the vision contribution, close your eyes. You’ll be surprised how much a difference this makes. Basic movements like hops, walking, standing, sitting, skipping, running, etc. are more challenging with the eyes closed. These are only some of the things that can be done. We have many different and specialized balance boards and surfaces for athletes to work on. Balance is also incorporated into the strength training. Step -up and lunges add a small degree of balance into strength movements. Squat can be done with only body weight or medicine balls on various balance boards. One leg squats with body weight, medicine balls, or dumbells are an excellent combination of strength and balance. With very advanced athletes (years of training) we have used Olympic lifts on one leg. For a jumper, simply starting with one leg, eyes closed balance is helpful. This progresses to jumping and "sticking" the landing, with eyes closed or performing "blind" repeat jumps and hops. Changing these to one leg is a bigger challenge. CONCLUSION You and any other athlete can jump higher. This is especially true if you haven’t done any specific training for it before. Jumping requires high power in the legs and hips. Since Power is the combination of Strength & Speed, you need to train both. Strength needs to be developed with similar movements. The Olympic lifts are particularly helpful. Speed of movement can be developed with plyometric and ballistic training. Balance is another key factor in jumping ability showing up in performance. Specific balance training is combined with balance elements in the strength & speed work. With proper training you be soaring higher than ever.