Jumping Training
A lot of basketball athletes today share the same two common questions; how do I increase my vertical leap? What will make my vertical leap higher? Well jumping higher is all about how strong and explosive you and your body can be. Higher jumping is determined by how strong your lower body is including your quads, gluts, hamstrings and calf muscles. You can’t forget about your upper body though you got to strengthen your abs, shoulders, arms and back. Even though logically you use your legs (lower body) to walk, run, and jump, your upper body helps with energy, explosiveness and quickness. This energy, strength and explosiveness is achieved through plyometric training and weight training. I’m no weight training expert but I know a few things about plyometric training and what plyometric training does is helps increase you body’s ability to store elastic energy and harness this energy to be able to jump higher and increase your explosiveness.
Here are some plyometric exercises that will help you strengthen your lower body muscles and increase your vertical leap:
1- Squats:
*Stand shoulder width apart
*Squat down until you’re at an approximate 90 degree angle… pretend sitting on a chair
Keys to perfecting this exercise and prevent injuries:
*Always keep your back straight
*Try to stay on your toes. Don’t apply a lot of weight on your heals
*This exercise can be used as a plyometric drill or in the weight room using weights
Start by performing 10 - 15 squats. Perform 3 sets. Increase your reps ONLY IF your body is able to with stand this increase.
2- Death Jumps / Depth Jumps:
*Get up on a box or a platform (approximately knee height)
*Jump off the box or platform onto the ground
*As soon as you touch the ground, explode back up (jump as high as you can)
Alternative:
*Start on the ground facing the box or platform
*Jump onto the platform and then jump back down
*As soon as you jump back down (touch the ground) jump back onto the platform
Keys to perfecting this exercise and prevent injuries:
*Stay on your toes. Land and take off, off your toes
* For Advanced Users ONLY: You can use a medicine ball or a resistant band to increase resistance and maximize results
*These are not depth drops… depth drops are completely different
Perform 10 depth jumps. Do 3 sets of 10. Increase your reps ONLY IF your body is able to with stand this increase.
Explanation of a depth drop and its negative effects:
A depth drop simply determines how well you can land from a jump (can be performed using both legs or one leg). The platform used for this exercise is usually higher than those used in depth jumps. Here are the problems that may be caused from depth drops:
1- They are very hard on the joints. Because of the extreme height you drop from, there is a lot more impact on the joints and ligament. This can lead to injury.
2- The biggest problem when it comes to your vertical jump is that
depth drops teach the body to land but not jump. Now that may
sound a little weird, but hear me out... See, the whole point of plyometrics as I mentioned earlier, is to increase your body's ability to use stored elastic energy. As you may know the ability to use the Stretch Shortening Cycle (SSC) to harness this energy and use it to jump higher. The problem is that Depth Drops cut off the SSC. They cause your body to produce elastic energy (when you land) but then it teaches your body to dissipate this energy by not jumping back up. This is the exact opposite of what you’re a trying to achieve.
3- One Legged Hops:
*Start off by standing on one leg
*Explode or jump as high as you can off that one leg
*As soon as you land jump back up again… Keep jumping like that until you’ve finished the amount of hops you’re doing per repetition.
*Once you are done switch to the other leg and perform this exercise on that leg.
Keys to perfecting this exercise and prevent injuries:
*Once again stay on your toes!
*If you feel any fatigue in your leg STOP IMMEDIATELY TO AVOID INJURY
* For Advanced Users ONLY: You can use a medicine ball or a resistant band to increase resistance and maximize results
Perform 10 jumps per set. Do 3 sets of 10 reps. Increase your reps ONLY IF your body is able to with stand this increase.
4- Squat Jumps:
Like in the regular squats…
*Stand shoulder width apart
*Squat down with your back straight and knees bent (as close to a 90 degree angle as possible)
*Once you are in a sitting position, explode to the air (jump as high as you can)
*When you land return to a squatting position (with your back straight of course)
*As soon as you have landed and in position jump back up
Keys to perfecting this exercise and prevent injuries:
*Always keep your back straight
*Try to stay on your toes. Don’t apply a lot of weight on your heals
*As you land on your toes try to make the landing as smooth as possible… Again this relies on whether you land on your toes or on your heals
* For Advanced Users ONLY: You can use a medicine ball or a resistant band to increase resistance and maximize results
Perform 10 – 15 squat jumps per set. Perform 3 sets. Increase your reps ONLY IF your body is able to with stand this increase.
5- One Legged Thrust Jumps:
*Start off by placing one foot on a box or platform.
*Jump off that leg as high as you can
*While in the air switch legs
*Once you land your other leg should be on the platform ready for you to jump off
*As soon as you land waste no time on the ground. Jump back up using your other leg
Keys to perfecting this exercise and prevent injuries:
*Lets say your right foot is on the platform and your left leg is on the ground, you need to be on your toes with your right leg while your left leg is standing normally (start position)
*As soon as you jump off your right foot and switch to your left, all landings whether it’s on the platform or the ground has to be on your toes to avoid being unbalanced and injuries
*For Advanced Users ONLY: You can use a medicine ball or a resistant band to increase resistance and maximize results
Perform 10 jumps per set. Perform 3 sets. Increase your reps ONLY IF your body is able to with stand this increase.
6- Rim or Backboard Jumps:
*Stand underneath the backboard or rim
*Explode as high as possible and try to touch the backboard or rim (don’t take any extra step just jump from a stand still position (two feet next to each other))
*As you land make sure you land on your toes, waste no time on the ground and explode back up again
Keys to perfecting this exercise and prevent injuries:
*Landing is very important with these jumps as ankle injuries may occur. When landing always land on your toes.
*If you feel fatigue STOP IMMEDIATELY!
*For Advanced Users ONLY: You can use a medicine ball to increase resistance and maximize results
*For Advanced Users ONLY: You might want to try dunking with a medicine ball
Perform 10 – 15 squat jumps per set. Perform 3 sets. Increase your reps ONLY IF your body is able to with stand this increase.
7- Calf Raise:
*Stand on a short step or platform with one leg
*Lift yourself with that one leg
*Come down slowly
Keys to perfecting this exercise and prevent injuries:
*Stand on your toes when performing this exercise
*Use something to hold onto for support of balance
*When coming down don’t go all the way down, only to the point where you started and then raise yourself up again
Do 20 calf raises. Perform 2 - 3 sets. Increase your reps ONLY IF your body is able to with stand this increase.
Very Important Notes:
1- DO NOT STRETCH!!! I know this might sound strange but when you stretch your muscles you're sedating the body’s natural "stretch reflex". This stretch reflex is designed to protect the body from tearing a muscle. Constant static stretching teaches the muscles to become use to being stretched more than usual. Not only can this lead to injury but it actually will decrease your vertical jump. Plyometric training is designed to use your stretch reflex to your advantage. Plyometric training uses the stretch reflex to store elastic energy in a stretched muscle and release it when jumping for an increased vertical jump. But static stretching teaches the opposite. It teaches the body to waste any elastic energy from the muscles. So you may want to make sure that when you stretch that you are doing so because you have a imbalanced tight muscle not just for the sake of it. The best form of warm-up and injury prevention is not stretching but light full range of motion exercises.
2- DO NOT OVER DO IT!!! Do not perform high amounts of continuous repetitions or increase the amount of continuous repetitions / sets when doing plyometrics (at least not too much). Plyometric exercises are not weight lifting exercises they do not focus on the muscle. When you lift weights you do multiple repetitions to fatigue the muscle fibers. The more reps, the more muscle fibers you fatigue. The more muscle fibers you fatigue the more you recruit and the more strength and muscle you build. But plyometrics have nothing to do with fatiguing muscle fibers! So there is simply no point of doing 15, 20 or 30 jumps in a row if you are not ready to perform the extra effort. In other words if you are not physically ready to adapt to the extra effort don’t do it.
Low reps when plyometric exercising allows you to:
*Work out with far higher intensity
*Makes workouts far easier and less boring
*Decreases the risk of injury
*Best of all… increases your vertical jump gains