Over the years, I’ve learned that if you want to jump higher, the most important factor in the equation is actually jumping.
Of course, actually jumping is a bit of a spectrum that deserves some further examination.
There is a big difference between “jumping as high as you can” (say up to a vertec, or a high ceiling), and an outcome goal based jump (such as a slam dunk over a friend).
There is actually a huge difference.
When it comes to training, performance, and competition, we must never get too wrapped up in “training”. We must never get too far from competing.
Along with this, we should always be striving for new ways to frame our competitive movement. When it comes to jumping, one of the most fun (and competitive) ways to improve jumping ability is dunking a basketball.
Dunking has really taken off in the last decade, in fact, there is even a movie coming out about it “Slamma Jamma”, and athletes are actually making professional money on dunking alone.
Regardless of if you are a basketball player, football, or track and field, dunking has some serious advantages on other modes of training, including speed and plyometric work.
I’m going to go in a bit of depth on three of those advantages in today’s article.
Advantage #1: Mental Re-Framing and Challenging the Jump Mechanism
The first big advantage that dunking and dunk training has is that of a different framing of the jumping mechanism. What I mean by this is that dunking is a very outcome goal driven movement that requires the full attention of the sub-conscious mind on finding a way to put the ball through the hoop.
This doesn’t sound like much, but having outcome goals is an extremely important factor in becoming a better athlete. While simply jumping to touch a high object is rewarding, slamming a ball through a hoop is extremely rewarding mentally, and drives more output from the subconscious mind.
Clearly, when athletes practice dunking, they also practice more than one type of dunk. (I’m a big fan of high jumpers learning to jump in different ways also, straight on hurdle, western roll, etc.)
It is the variety present in dunking that builds a more robust motor pattern in the system. The nervous system needs variation in order to determine which motor patterns will be the most effective across a broader range of movements, keeping what will work for various types of jumps, and discarding muscle-recruitment patterns that don’t work so well.
In a nutshell, doing various types of jumps and dunks drives an athlete towards the ultimate jumping pattern, that could not be accomplished if an athlete started from the exact same spot each time, took the same steps, and took off the exact same way. Variation is KEY to the motor learning processes that build the best possible jump.
This idea is also referred to as building more “robust” movement patterns.
It is also an important part of dunking and dunk training, in my opinion, that there is a strong rotational component in many dunks. Lateral stability in the ankle is key to the brain being willing to wire the power of the body to push hard, and jump to one’s maximal ability.
One of my absolute favorite variations in jumping that I believe gives dunk artists with enough ability to do it, a nice advantage in squeaking out a few extra inches of vertical is the ability to jump over people.
Jumping over another athlete, a motorcycle, a mascot, or even a car is absolutely huge for getting an athlete’s subconscious to its maximal output. I believe in many cases, athletes will actually jump higher off the ground when there is also a demand to clear someone or something also associated. Below is a nice dunk competition with athletes forced to make a big-time clearance and put the ball through the hoop (without using a push-off, of course):
I’ve also taken this concept to a more basic level in my recent training, jumping over less intimidating objects, such as a punching bag, and combining this into a high-touch jump. Using this method, I’ve found that I will gain 1-2” immediately on my jump in the training session, as I’ve re-framed the jump in a way that gives more output to my nervous system.
Jump and touch
Depth jump
I’ve also used these training means, in a scaled down system, to break the previous vertical jump touch barriers of those I train with. It is particularly good for those who don’t convert their horizontal energy to vertical well.
I also think that in the realm of things like track and field jumps, it can be helpful to introduce re-framings of high jumping, such as tandem jumping, or using two bars, and other obstacles. Here is a photo from my division 3 coaching days with two of my high jumpers. These guys ended up being NCAA runner up’s and champions respectively. It’s definitely OK to have fun once in a while around the high jump pit.
Advantage #2: Harnessing of Competitive Energies
According to elite track coaches experience, sprint athletes can only be at their best by using the power of competition. Athletes will only run at 93-96% of their maximal velocity in practice vs. a big competition. Jumping is the same way, and therefore athletes must engage in a particular amount of competitions to reach their genetic limit.
This is yet another reason that dunking is such an excellent training piece: that it is often performed in the presence of a crowd, such as after pickup basketball games, or better yet, in the midst of a dunk competition, where the competitive juices are flowing, and an athlete can get an extra several inches of jump that is continually pushing their nervous system to a higher output.
Bottom line is that the environment in which athletes commonly dunk is that which helps them get that extra 5% on their jump.
As dunking increases in popularity, both on social media, and in the regularity of contests and dunk shows, so will the jump height of the best performers.
Even if your sport isn’t dunking, realize that getting enough high-pressure performance is key in reaching your potential. Those who never compete will never come close to doing what they can truly do.
Advantage #3: Psychological Easiness of Training and Adaptation
It has been said that the nervous system takes many times longer to recover then the muscle tissue itself after a workout. Looking at things like jumping and plyometrics, these activities don’t make athletes “sore”, but they often leave them “sluggish” and heavy with a dis-coordinated nervous system for a few days after a heavy workout.
The brain impacts not only performance, but also recovery from training, and the readiness of the nervous system for further sessions.
With this in mind, it is hugely important to look at the role of the mind, and its link to the nervous system in training. The nervous system can recover quickly if you allow it to.
The last advantage that dunk training has is that it is psychologically easier on the mind-body connection (usually) vs. training that involves quantitative feedback alone.
Basically, an athlete who does 100 dunks in a day will be fresher in the days afterwards then an athlete who did 100 high jumps, or 100 high box jumps.
I do understand that dunking and dunk training is based on “did you make the dunk” or not, but this isn’t so much regarding the absolute height jumped, but often there are other determining factors, such as takeoff angle, and action of the ball in the air. Many times the types of takeoffs for particular dunks are much different then the takeoffs for other dunks, or just for jumping for absolute maximal height.
There is more going on then simply jumping, so the body doesn’t process the difficulty of the jump itself as a stress response.
Through working with some high level coaches in a variety of sports, I’ve discovered the same thing. Swim coaches will, at times, have practices based on quicker, gear (paddle, fins, socks) based efforts, to take the athletes to a different mental place of training vs. just training with no gear. This helps the athletes recover faster for the next workout.
Track and field athletes who are worn out can often find that a game of ultimate Frisbee or basketball can often re-charge many of their batteries just through a different processing of the workout stimulus.
The bottom line is that the variability of dunk training is key to leaving the nervous system in a fresher place.
Conclusion
Whether you are a basketball player, or are in the dunking crowd, or not (such as a track and field jumper), there is still a lot to be gained from the ideals of dunk training and competition. Regardless, training should be fun, fresh, and competitive, and this leads to bigger jumps and more explosive athleticism.
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