If you want to increase your 2-leg vertical jump, you need to train differently than training to get up off one leg.
One leg jumping is all about speed, elasticity and hitting perfect takeoff positions. Jumping off two feet is more about putting force into the ground through an extended period of time. Although, at the high end of performance, it’s still all about rate of force development.
Doing squats, and particularly front squats, will help beginner athletes get a better motor pattern that lends to a two leg jump. Past this level of basic squatting, there are other exercises that have better transfer.
If you want to learn more about the differences between one and two leg jumping, and how to train for them, check out Vertical Foundations.
With that said, let’s get to the exercises.
Pistol Squats and Vertical Jump
What the squat does for two leg jumping, the pistol squat does it better. Why? Because the movement forces the hip and ankle to do more work, and the force of the movement limits what these two joints can stabilize.
Here is a version of pistol squats where the free leg hangs off a box, which can help with better posture during the exercise.
In regular squatting, athletes can move more weight than what they can put through these critical joints for jump power. This is because they can dig into some accessory movers, such as the low back, and power the bar up. This doesn’t mean that it will transfer to jumping automatically.
On top of this, the pistol squat has good biomechanical similarity to how the “strength leg” operates in a running two leg jump. Increasing strength here has a nice immediate transfer in many athletes to improving rear leg function in a two leg jump.
When doing pistol squats, be sure to have perfect posture of the torso to maximize results.
Full Catch Cleans
There is a big reason that Olympic lifters have a better vertical jump than most powerlifters. Enter the effects of the “full catch clean”.
Squat catch Olympic lifts have greater RFD in the bottom of the squat, as well as more degrees of freedom vs. traditional squatting. Use both in your program for best results.
When an athlete catches a clean “in the bucket”, they are subjecting their muscles to instant, high rate of force development. That force has good transfer to jumping from “lower seat” positions that tend to make for nice vertical leaps.
Most athletes are too weak, and don’t have the joint stability factors to drop down very far when loading up a two leg jump. The squat clean allows an athlete to perform squat style work while minimizing the “muscle slack” downsides. Muscle slack refers to the instantaneous level of tension in the muscles.
In sporting movements, such as running and jumping, muscles go from “zero to one hundred” very fast. In traditional up and down lifting, this process is much more gradual. The higher presence of muscle slack in traditional lifting can dig into athletic gains over time if done in enough volume.
Although I wouldn’t drop standard barbell squats from the training, I would take a look at whether you feel they are helping the training program. Many athletes make great gains off of traditional squats early, and then stagnate later. So, bleeding more of your squat work into this type of lift can be helpful for many athletes.
Depth Jump to Target
The depth jump to a target is one of the most effective, if not the most effective plyometric for improving two leg vertical jumping ability. It is also great because the specificity of the target stimulates the visual and subconscious goal systems of the athlete.
The target depth jump is an incredible tool in a coaches arsenal.
To get the most out of this type of training, make the outcome specific to something that motivates an athlete. An easy option would be dunking a basketball. You could also make outcomes specific to volleyball, football, or anything other sport you could imagine.
In reality, performing jump training where there are many outcome options, such as the addition of team sport elements, can add a huge boost to your training results.
Single Leg Depth Jumps
As funny as it seems, the single leg depth jump actually has more training transfer to jumping off of two legs than it does one. The reason?
Time spent producing force on the ground.
In a single leg depth jump, athletes will spend almost double the time on the ground vs. a double leg jump.
With this in mind, athletes will have more time to produce force doing a depth jump off one leg. In the process, the body will adapt in a way that provides loads of stability to the hip and ankle.
I show single leg depth jumps to an overhead outcome, in one of my oldest videos.
In my own training, I found that I would be jumping very high off two feet a few days after a training session where I went hard on single leg depth jumps.
Conversely, I would often find I could jump very high off one leg a few days after training sessions that were heavier on two leg depth jumps.
You can make a single leg depth jump more applicable to one leg jumping by introducing “low contact” variables into the movement by having athletes drop off one leg and jump over a hurdle. Yet, the ground contact will be longer than the two leg version in most cases. A variety of takeoff types are useful here.
Variable 2 Leg Jumps
In one of my newer developments over the last few years, I’ve realized the importance of various types of actual specific two leg jumps.
If you want to jump higher off two feet, you need to practice jumping off two feet. What is important to realize is that many of those jumps need to be of a subtly different type to enhance the motor learning effect on the nervous system.
Jumping in a maximal manner time after time, and doing it in the exact same way will limit motor learning. This limits the ability of the brain to consider a variety of factors, such as how much power to wire to each muscle in the course of the jump.
Different types of jumps allow the brain to make more considerations, and leads to a better jump over time. It is also a lot more fun, and engages a broader spectrum of muscle-tendon development, as well as stabilizers.
Doing different types of dunks, high jump takeoffs, long jump takeoffs, etc. are an easy way to do this. Another fun method is jumping over things, or people. The best slam dunkers do this all the time. Most likely without knowing that it is one of the things that helps them to jump as high as they do! The video below shows one of my takes of this training philosophy that helped me gain a few inches on my stagnating jump in a very short period of time.
Conclusion
If the two leg jumping ability of you, or your athletes has stagnated, you can spark training to life by integrating several of the exercises above.
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