Usually, it’s: Get stronger, get your squat up, and do some plyometrics. This usually helps improve one’s leap quickly at first, but a flat-line will eventually hit in many.
Perhaps then, some training methods can get switched up, a re-organization of a weekly training structure to reflect your strengths and weaknesses, as well as general adaptation pattern in training.
At some point, however, just looking at power training and outputs will not continue to help athletes maximize their vertical if the right technical elements don’t exist.
This isn’t to say that a simple cue or set of cues is the answer. Too many coaches would have you believe that just pushing harder into the jump or snapping your hips down faster are all you need to push past the technical barriers keeping you or your athletes from maximal height.
But the human body doesn’t work like that. It’s smart. It takes what it has, and uses it all quite well to escape the pull of the earth as best it can.
When there is a technical roadblock, we have to be intelligent with how we approach it. Often times, a “constraint-based approach”, coupled with an awareness of proper technical elements, is a key factor in the road to an ultimate jump.
Eventually inter-muscular coordination becomes more important than intra-muscular coordination, so to speak. In other words, raw power can only get one so far. The technical nuances of elites should be woven into our entire training regime.
So with that, what are some of these key elements of elite jumping? I’ll list a few that I find very important, that I learned from coach Adarian Barr.
- Shin drop
- Winding elbows and working “far to close”
- Access to the inside edge of the foot
Great jumpers can really lower their center of mass (hips) well, getting into a jump. This isn’t just the result of being told to do so, but it happens when the shin can fall forward in a manner, as the athlete moves, that allows them to lower the hips while easily getting into the next step. This is the essence of the “squatty run” exercise I learned from Adarian Barr. It’s about learning to move forward in a good posture while dropping the shins and timing the movement.
The second element is being able to have elbows and arms work from being wide outside the body, to “colliding” back in with the torso at the instant of takeoff. It’s working from out-to-in. This wind of the fascial system is something you don’t get from lifting weights, but rather a purposeful attention in plyometrics. Check out this video from elite trainer, Marv Marinovich, and check the arm action by the best jumper of those in the session.
Finally, great jumpers can get to the inside edge of their foot quickly and effectively. Athletes who have big weight room numbers, but can’t jump are often heel-heavy and tend to really lean on the outer edge of their foot. They don’t have a lot of power potential that runs to the inside edge, and they also tend to lack the hip internal rotation that comes with it. See 1:10 in this video for an awesome example of inside edge access in the lead leg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeQMmt7BBPc
About Joel Smith
Joel Smith is an NCAA Division I Strength Coach working in the PAC12 conference. A track coach of 11 years, Joel is also a coach for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level.
Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance in Rio in 2016.
In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential. The first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released in 2016, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field.
Before working in the PAC12 conference, Joel spent 6 years in the realms of coaching, college lecturing, personal training, and thesis research. Joel’s certifications include Neurological and Physical Typing from BATI, CSCS, MAT Jumpstart, and NKT level 1, as well as USA Track and Field credentials. Joel is also well-versed in the Be-Activated protocols as taught by Douglas Heel, and has been extensively mentored by sprint and sport movement coach Adarian Barr.
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