Some vertical jump tips from the book "Science of Sports Training" by Thomas Kurz

[SportScience]

?To decide where to start work, this question has to be answered: Is the athlete?s maximal strength much lower than that of leading athletes who display adequate explosive strength in the given sport and in the athlete?s weight class? If yes, then the athlete may have to first increase his or her maximal strength?

?Poor results in a reach jump done from standing still indicate low explosive strength, especially if the athlete?s maximal strength in a squat is high. Short sets of squats and half squats performed very fast develop explosive strength of the legs.?

?If the athlete has good results in a reach jump done from standing still but exhibits a long support phase during takeoff in the sports technique, this call for plyometrics.?

?Practicing jumps from a landing increases the height of a jump from standing much more than the other way around.?

?Fast squats and half squats are less intensive efforts and put less stress on the body than full force jumps and depth jumps and therefore should constitute the bulk of an athlete?s work on developing explosive strength. The exception to this is when his or her explosive strength as measured by the reach jump is fine but the takeoffs are too long.?

?The amount and intensity of plyometrics should be gradually increased at the expense of other resistance exercises as the competitive season approaches.?

?Plyometrics should be introduced into training gradually, starting with such low-intensity exercises as jumping rope, hops-in-place and clap push-ups, and then progressing through more intensive bounds, jumps and medicine ball catches to high-intensity plyometric exercises such as depth jumps, reactive jumps, and swinging suspending heavy weights with the arms.?

Source:

http://www.athletic-preparation.com/?p=38

[IGF-WON]

?Fast squats and half squats are less intensive efforts and put less stress on the body than full force jumps and depth jumps and therefore should constitute the bulk of an athlete?s work on developing explosive strength. The exception to this is when his or her explosive strength as measured by the reach jump is fine but the takeoffs are too long.?

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half squats can be done with more weight than full squats, and also put incredible pressure on the knees, making them an easier way to injure yourself.

[SportScience]

half squats can be done with more weight than full squats, and also put incredible pressure on the knees, making them an easier way to injure yourself.

I agree to some extent about that, but it's also important to consider how exactly they are used (in terms of the intensities used, in which phases (GPP? SPP?), purpose, and so on and for which type of athletes. This is also something even the experts can't agree with. I think it's a complicated topic that has already been discussed on this board.

I agree the most with Professor Verkhoshansky's opinion about full vs. half squats. His points really make sense:

I put it on my blog so you can read about it here: http://www.athletic-preparation.com/?p=52

On the other hand you have coaches (including really successful ones) who seem to use it all year round without any injuries happen. But they sure don't do maximal intensities all year (85-100% of 1RM)

[IGF-WON]

I agree to some extent about that, but it's also important to consider how exactly they are used (in terms of the intensities used, in which phases (GPP? SPP?), purpose, and so on and for which type of athletes. This is also something even the experts can't agree with. I think it's a complicated topic that has already been discussed on this board.

I agree the most with Professor Verkhoshansky's opinion about full vs. half squats. His points really make sense:

I put it on my blog so you can read about it here: http://www.athletic-preparation.com/?p=52

On the other hand you have coaches (including really successful ones) who seem to use it all year round without any injuries happen. But they sure don't do maximal intensities all year (85-100% of 1RM)

I agree, when you use them correctly, they can be great, but im sure many people would see that and combine it with the "more is better" mentality and start maxing and doing 3RM with half squats, and loose their knees/back.

Im not disagreeing, just making a cautionary point.

[SportScience]

Hey, an update on the full and half squat discussion. I found something written by Charles Poliquin on this topic. He is a huge advocate on full squats and I agree with alot of his points.

http://www.athletic-preparation.com/?p=101

Tell me what you think.

I personally think some of his points are questionable.

[IGF-WON]

theres also a large body of evidence that says the closer you can mimic the actual movement and ROM of a sport, the better. no one does a full squat before jumping in a game.

[PowerBuilder08]

theres also a large body of evidence that says the closer you can mimic the actual movement and ROM of a sport, the better. no one does a full squat before jumping in a game.

Box Squats ftw

[bbbball]

I went to that blog and watched a vid about plyo's which I used to do...and something he said made sense to me. When you first start working out you get great gains in strength, then as you get stronger and lift heavier and heavier weight you life a lot slower because it's hard and thus you get slower....i was sold. I'm lifting explosively at all times now, with EVERY exercise...but should I be super slow on the negative?

[PowerBuilder08]

I went to that blog and watched a vid about plyo's which I used to do...and something he said made sense to me. When you first start working out you get great gains in strength, then as you get stronger and lift heavier and heavier weight you life a lot slower because it's hard and thus you get slower....i was sold. I'm lifting explosively at all times now, with EVERY exercise...but should I be super slow on the negative?

Lifting light weight, even fast, is just your muscles doing a submaximal contraction repeatedly. This is the same that jogging is, a submaximal contraction repeatedly. Lifting heavy is a maximal contraction over a short period of time. Sprinting is a maximal contraction over a short period of time. You figure it out.

[Shawdowfox]

Lifting light weight, even fast, is just your muscles doing a submaximal contraction repeatedly. This is the same that jogging is, a submaximal contraction repeatedly. Lifting heavy is a maximal contraction over a short period of time. Sprinting is a maximal contraction over a short period of time. You figure it out.

i think you are on to something but please explain further lol im too dumb

[roid_monkey]

theres also a large body of evidence that says the closer you can mimic the actual movement and ROM of a sport, the better. no one does a full squat before jumping in a game.

theres also a large body with larger vertical leaps than your said large body that say full range of motion is better due to the exercise recruiting more muscle fiber.

[bbbball]

Lifting light weight, even fast, is just your muscles doing a submaximal contraction repeatedly. This is the same that jogging is, a submaximal contraction repeatedly. Lifting heavy is a maximal contraction over a short period of time. Sprinting is a maximal contraction over a short period of time. You figure it out.

explain further bro

[roid_monkey]

explain further bro

you heard him, figure it out. No matter how fast you can squat the bar, you will be doing more for your vertical by doing HEAVY squats.

[bballvertical]

explain further bro

Ok dude. Let me explain this to you. If you want to get stronger in the legs, do heavy powerful squats (3-8 rep range). Engaging in slow, endurance type movements will prevent you from reaching your maximum potential in limit strength, explosive strength, and starting strength. If all you have been doing is slow, continuous tension movements you should take careful look at the research. Remember, it's the white fibers, the ones that contract fast that will give you the greatest returns in speed-strength as well as in limit strength.

[bballvertical]

I went to that blog and watched a vid about plyo's which I used to do...and something he said made sense to me. When you first start working out you get great gains in strength, then as you get stronger and lift heavier and heavier weight you life a lot slower because it's hard and thus you get slower....i was sold. I'm lifting explosively at all times now, with EVERY exercise...but should I be super slow on the negative?

Until you have a really good base of strength in place you will get faster with light weights by increasing the poundage on your max lifts. Let me explain:
Just for the sake of argument let's say that the guy who can throw around 100 pounds the fastest will have a superior vertical jump. Who's gonna throw around 100 pounds faster - The guy with a max squat of 135 pounds, or the guy with a max squat of 300 pounds. Definitely the guy with the 300 pound squat. But if we were to compare a 600 pound squatter to an 800 pound squatter in the same task the answer may not be so clear cut.
The main point is, unless you're already stronger than an ox, the fastest way to improve your ability to lift light weights is to increase your maxes, and the best way to do that is to lift fairly heavy with reps between 3 and 8 with weights between 70 and 100% of your 1 rep max. Lifting light loads will not improve max strength. When lifting heav weights the load may not move that fast but it doesn't need to move that fast.
As for heavy weights making you slow, this is only true of people who carry strength training to the extreme. Even then, it's not the strength or heavy weight that creates slowness, it is the excessive muscular bodyweight that can develop. To verify this all you have to do is look at olympic weightlifters. Their entire sport is based on lifting heavy weights, yet they have the best vertical jumps of all athletes and are as fast as sprinters out to 30 meters.
Some people are sometimes under the misguided assumption that strength training with heavy weights makes one slow because it can create a temporary state of fatigue and soreness in the muscles. That fatigue will sometime temporarily "mask" explosiveness. The solution to that is very simple: Take some occassional downtime and let that fatigue dissipate.

[lukeridnour08]

Until you have a really good base of strength in place you will get faster with light weights by increasing the poundage on your max lifts. Let me explain:
Just for the sake of argument let's say that the guy who can throw around 100 pounds the fastest will have a superior vertical jump. Who's gonna throw around 100 pounds faster - The guy with a max squat of 135 pounds, or the guy with a max squat of 300 pounds. Definitely the guy with the 300 pound squat. But if we were to compare a 600 pound squatter to an 800 pound squatter in the same task the answer may not be so clear cut.
The main point is, unless you're already stronger than an ox, the fastest way to improve your ability to lift light weights is to increase your maxes, and the best way to do that is to lift fairly heavy with reps between 3 and 8 with weights between 70 and 100% of your 1 rep max. Lifting light loads will not improve max strength. When lifting heav weights the load may not move that fast but it doesn't need to move that fast.
As for heavy weights making you slow, this is only true of people who carry strength training to the extreme. Even then, it's not the strength or heavy weight that creates slowness, it is the excessive muscular bodyweight that can develop. To verify this all you have to do is look at olympic weightlifters. Their entire sport is based on lifting heavy weights, yet they have the best vertical jumps of all athletes and are as fast as sprinters out to 30 meters.
Some people are sometimes under the misguided assumption that strength training with heavy weights makes one slow because it can create a temporary state of fatigue and soreness in the muscles. That fatigue will sometime temporarily "mask" explosiveness. The solution to that is very simple: Take some occassional downtime and let that fatigue dissipate.

Damn. Good ****. How are you in the red??

[mpls28allday]

Damn. Good ****. How are you in the red??

Because that's straight out of Kelly Baggett's book.