You can usually tell a decent amount about a persons athleticism just by watching them walk down the street. Very often good jumpers, and good single leg jumpers in particular, will walk heavily on the ball of their foot and typically have some “bounce” to their step. Athletes who have exceptional power off of their forefoot will often have a lot of “stiffness” in the lower leg as a result. Watch a slow motion clip of the ankle in any athlete planting in a single leg jump and you will realize the incredible force that is driven into the ankle and lower leg of an athlete jumping. During my own research on depth jumping, I found that jumps where the leg had a smaller degree of bend resulted in increased forces in the hips and the ankles. Jumps with greater knee bends demanded greater forces in the knee joint. Bottom line, for running jumps, and especially single leg running jumps, a lot is demanded of the ankle, and having more ankle and Achilles tendon stiffness is always a plus. Being forefoot dominant will help you out tremendously here. Before I discuss one great way to improve stiffness, check out this video of the forces placed on the ankle in track and field high jumping.
Those are some pretty insane forces! Below is a video that I made a few months ago showing a simple exercise circuit that can be used to promote stiffness in the ankle joint (as well as build hip strength). This particular circuit is even better if you do it barefoot (or with Vibrams if you have them).
I am writing this entry also to let you know that I’ll have a GREAT report coming out on single leg jump development; look for it in the next couple of weeks!Joel
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