One of the biggest issues in athletic coaching is the problem of bias.
Coaches will look at the things that worked for them as athletes: their favorite exercises, cues, drills, plyometrics, barbell lifts, and ballistics. The problem is that most people in the sports performance world don’t even take the time to assess the most basic distinction between athletic types.
And guess what, this distinction isn’t the typical “quad dominant” and “hip dominant” classification; although this is quite close. To make the path of training more clear, I wanted to give coaches and athletes a better idea of how their primary individual differences can and will influence their training regimens and focus. That’s why I wrote this chapter in Vertical Foundations. Below is a short excerpt from chapter 6 of the book.
Before we dive into the specifics of approach jump technique, we must talk about an important distinction between two primary types of jumping athletes.
• Hip dominant “speed” athletes
• Knee dominant “force” athletes
Without knowing this distinction, we will be tempted to push athletes all into one technique and training mold, rather than considering how they have been wired to move their whole lives. Knowing the movement patterns of an athlete will dictate aspects of training which will help them improve and nurture their instinctual jumping pattern, based on their own strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps more importantly, we will not attempt to impose a jumping technique on an athlete that is not physically able to use that technique based on their strengths and movement history. Let’s talk about the differences between these two athletes and start with the hip dominant, “speed” jumper.
Speed Dominant Jumper Characteristics
A “speed” jumper tends to have the following characteristics:
• Hip dominant with strong ankles.
• Respectively weak in the lower thighs.
• Tends to be taller and lankier.
• Looks more like an 800m type runner than a 100m runner.
• Good at Olympic lifts, deadlifts, and most pulling movements.
• Not as good at deep squatting, particularly deep front squats.
• Good half squatters.
• Many shy away from the weight room completely or tend not to take it seriously.
• Doesn’t bend their legs much in standing and running vertical jumping.
• Tends to use a fairly high-speed approach when jumping for maximal height.
• Has a much better jump off the run compared to their standing jump.
• Uses the ankles and hips well in the second half of a jump, extends the ankles and hips completely and quickly.
• Knees sometimes cave inwards (valgus) during two leg jumps due to weaker legs.
• Sprints and runs with tall hips and good mechanics.
• Are good plyometric/elastic athletes and tend to naturally favor plyometrics or depth jumps in their training.
• Tend to be decent one leg jumpers if they have learned that skill. A one-leg jump is based on a very fast takeoff, so speed jumping style caters well to this type of movement.
• Often power clean more than they can front squat.
• Tend to need a higher volume of jump and sprint exercises, as well as team sport play to maintain or improve their elastic abilities.
• Often make good track and field jumpers and fast-break basketball players.
• Injuries for these athletes tend to be skeletal and connective, such as tendonitis, stress fractures, and sprains.
The speed athlete operates on momentum. They don’t bend their legs much and tend to use their skeletal structure and ability to convert horizontal velocity to jump high. Moving in this manner for the span of their athletic career tends to leave them with strong hips and ankles relative to the rest of their lower body. The dynamic strength gain acquired through this movement also reflects itself in the weight room, making them relatively good at things like half squats, hang cleans and deadlifts due to their hip strength. The full squat is not the strength of a speed jumper. Although they rarely get into much of a low squat when jumping or in general sport movement, speed jumpers who are powerful and explosive can still put up excellent squat numbers if they are trained in the weight room consistently.
Speed Jumper Examples:
James White, LeBron James, John Wall, Michael Jordan, World-class high jumpers
Speed jumpers will naturally take to plyometrics and plyometric type training programs (plyometric work is based on short ground contacts and little bending of the legs) since that is their preferred manner of movement. Plyometrics also feed directly into their motor pattern and general movement style, allowing them instant improvement with relatively little soreness. A case in point: Straddle high jump world record holder Vlad Yaschenko stated that he never felt like weights really helped him jump higher, preferring plyometric depth jumps as his vertical weapon of choice. Since speed jumpers are often poor squatters and lifters in general, they may also shy away from the weight room for ego reasons.
The standing vertical leap of a hip dominant speed jumper can be somewhat poor. Since these athletes don’t bend down into a jump too far, they don’t give their body enough time or distance to generate much vertical speed when no horizontal velocity is present (remember, standing vertical jumps are a function of the length of time an athlete applies force into the ground). A speed jumper who doesn’t bend much at the hips, and doesn’t use their calves well, leaving the heels on the ground for most of the jump phases, will have the poorest standing vertical jump of any athlete. These athletes will do much better with a running start (provided their adequate skill) since working with rigid legs tends to convert horizontal speed to vertical velocity quite well.
Speed jumpers can still jump well off of two legs, but they will tend to use fairly little knee bend when they do so, and their jump will usually pale in comparison to their one leg jump.
Speed jumpers are often at varying levels of skill in their standing jump technique, since they may avoid its regular practice or the strength training that will improve their form. Figure 6.2
indicates the standing vertical techniques of speed oriented athletes of low and high skill levels. The high skill speed jumper will use a pronounced forward bend of the torso and a big arm swing to transfer maximal force down into their legs. A low skill speed jumper will tend to use very little hip bend, which allows for relatively little loading of the legs, as well as little time to put force into the ground. This skill in a standing vertical has almost zero transfer to a running single leg jump, as they are virtually different skill sets.
About Vertical Foundations
Hailed as “The most comprehensive book on vertical jumping available”, and “A must for any fitness professional”, Vertical Foundations is a book born out of nearly two decades of Joel Smith’s journey towards discovering the finer points of vertical jumping in the context of team sport and track & field. The meshing of the two worlds has yielded one of the most in-depth books on athletic movement available.
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