While flying in a plane is nice and all, it’s a bit expensive and way too temporary. Sprouting feathers and wings ain’t gonna happen! So, unless you’ve got money to burn or you really believe in evolution, you’re stuck with improving your vertical jump. A strong vertical jump is at the core of some of the most beautiful and graceful movements known to man – Kobe Bryant dunking on the fast break, Michelle Kwan hitting a triple axle, and Barishnikov seemingly floating in air during the ballet. But don’t get me wrong, the vertical jump is also a measure of pure raw power that is used widely throughout professional and college athletics as a performance test. An athlete’s vertical jump can effectively determine how explosive they are and how efficiently they utilize their strength in athletic movements. In fact, in the NFL, the single biggest predictor of success isn’t one’s size, speed, or strength, but rather their vertical jump
Vertical Jump I Know – So Tell Me How I Can Improve It!
Vertical Jump I Know – So Tell Me How I Can Improve It!
Of course the reason you bought this manual was because just like everybody else you’re wondering, “What is the best routine to give me the hops?" People pursuing the answer to that question are responsible for millions of dollars of revenue per year for the athletic performance industry. Unfortunately, a lot of those dollars are wasted. If you’re like most athletes you’re probably confused as to what exactly you should do. What program works best? What’s the “magic bullet”? Should I be doing plyometrics, isometrics, jump rope, sprints, calf raises, 1 million jumps per day, wearing special shoes, weight training, weighted-vests, stretching, taking special pills, doing special exercises to increase my height, wearing ankle weights, or meditation? The list goes on and on and on. I’ve been part of the athletic performance industry for a very long time now and I’ve seen it all. With so many programs, products, modes, systems, gimmicks, and so much information (mostly mis-information) floating around out there its no wonder the average athlete is so confused. What’s even worse is every program promises the moon but usually does nothing more then empty your wallet. You may be one of these guys who has a long list of programs, gadgets, and systems that you either have tried or are going to try. You probably know plenty of people who’ve had success using one or more of the many programs out there. You may have had success at some of them yourself. Or maybe you haven’t? You may have tried other programs without getting anywhere or maybe you’ve just stalled out and want more. You may have asked the question, “well how come xxxx programs worked for him but not for me?” Why did xxxxx program put 10 inches on so and so’s vertical but made me lose 3? Why can so and so jump but I can’t? The truth is, I can’t tell you what the best program is out there because every program or gadget I’ve seen neglects solid training principles.
You might wonder what motivated me to write this manual. Well, truthfully, I was originally motivated because I was angry. I get questions everyday from people who have been burned by fast-buck artists selling hype without results. I’ve seen a lot of
programs that seem to do no more then extract dollars from unknowing athletes. These programs are put together without much understanding of how the body works, the science or reasoning behind how the training methods work, and the reasons why a system brings gains if in fact it does. So, I decided to do something about this and help do what I can to spread the knowledge. Vertical Jump Secrets? So what exactly is the secret to a great vertical jump? The truth is, there are no secrets or magical systems. There are, however, solid principles that have been around for ages. The magic lies in the application of established principles. The information you’ll find here comes from a variety of resources compiled over the better part of the last century. The approach I talk about is the same approach used by the best athletes and the best leapers in the world. This includes track and field athletes, jumpers, throwers, olympic weightlifters, football players, volleyball players, as well as a few basketball players. You see, olympic or professional athletes achieve their spectacular leaping ability as a "side effect" of effective training principles and practices. Their approach is multifaceted and their vertical jump improves because of effective training designed to improve various other qualities like strength, speed, and overall explosivness. When these qualities improve the vertical jump just comes along for the ride.
vertical jump and do so in a simplistic manner complete with real-life everyday examples. My goal is not only to tell you what to do but also to help you understand why you’re doing it. There’s a saying that goes, “Feed a man a fish, and feed him for a day.” “Teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” What I’d like to do is give you both. I promise when I’m done you’ll have a newfound understanding of this athletic display and how to improve it. I will explain the various training methods you might be familiar with and show you how you can easily determine which method of training or combination of training will work best for you or anyone else at any given time. Then I’ll give you several complete programs. Along the way, I’ll also answer practically every question you’ve ever heard on vertical jump development including gadgets, programs, and just about anything else you can think of. SHOW ME THE MONEY Years ago it was thought there wasn't a whole lot if anything we could do to improve jumping ability because it relied solely on genetics. More and more we now know this is utter nonsense. The reason why athletes of years past didn't improve is because they: 1. Didn't train at all or 2.Didn't know how to train correctly. Fortunately, those days are coming to a close. I will admit the large majority of athletes and even a lot of coaches still fit into group #2 - They don't know how to train correctly and a lot of the training they do actually detracts from the qualities necessary to jump high. Yet, in the coming years this will completely change and you can count on it. Once a person understands what is needed for spectacular jumping ability as well as understands the correct training methods and their application - improvement is relatively easy. In fact, near never ending improvement is possible. Let me tell you right now, barring injury and old age, permanent plateaus should never occur providing you know how to correctly train. Regardless of how advanced a person is they can always improve. Now you're probably saying, "That all sounds well and good but how about specific improvements - What exactly can you give me that I want and what makes you an authority?!" For one thing, since everybody is an individual and responds differently, I won’t promise specific results. I can, however, show you how to progress from wherever your starting point might be. I also don't necessarily believe that in order to be a great coach that you have to be a great athlete. However, I recently heard a top strongman say “If you're gonna coach someone to an 800 lb. squat than you gotta know what it feels like to bust your butt for years and work up to an 800 lb. squat yourself”- and I do believe in large part that is true. Science and theory is great but unless you have experience implementing that information there remain many lessons to be learned. There are plenty of people who really seem to know their stuff yet have never practiced what they preach. However, there are also plenty of naturally gifted athletes who can “walk the walk” yet would have a difficult time coaching because they don't know what its like to be average and have to struggle for everything. In between those 2 extremes there is an optimal balance between knowledge and personal experience. I don't want to toot my own horn but just so you realize you don't have to be born with spectacular ability I can tell you that for me personally, over several years and using a similar but less refined approach than what I'll show you here, my vertical jump improved from 23 to 42 inches and my forty-yard dash times improved from 5.0 to 4.27 seconds. If you would like to read about my personal story you can read about it later on in the miscellaneous questions section. However, let me say that I don’t consider what “I” did all that important. What is important is how much of that experience and accumulated knowledge I can pass along to develop others like you. Performance coaches are usually limited in the time they have to work with a specific athlete because of all the obligations that athletes have to deal with. Therefore, it’s rare that a performance coach gets to work one on one with an athlete for an extended period of time without outside interference. Even then you can't control what someone does out of the gym. Yet even with that I expect most people that I work with to surpass their previous 2 years performance improvements within 3 months - and that is usually not too difficult. If you’ve already decided that you’d like to skip the science and background portion and would rather get started right away then you can just skip ahead to the INDIVIDUAL TESTING section and you’re only 5 minutes away! With that said, let’s get to it! Welcome to Vertical Jump 101! Vertical Jump 101 To begin, understand that the vertical jump is basically just a measurement of power. WHAT IS POWER? Power is a side effect of explosive strength and is determined by a simple equation: Power = Force x Velocity To break it down just realize that power and explosive strength simply mean the ability to apply a lot of force in minimal time. The more force you can put out and the faster you can apply that force, the higher your power output will be. In order to understand how to improve power, it helps if we to know how to manipulate each component of the equation, force and velocity
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