Most plyometrics posted these days are the result of a moment of inspiration via a creative coach, or the evolution of a popular jump movement. These are typically the popular items on social media for the novelty factor of the movement.
Today’s plyometric inspiration takes a different route. If I’ve learned anything over the last few years, it’s that the greatest lessons are often learned watching an elite performer in their natural environment. Elite athletes aren’t hammered into a peg by a coach, but rather, they are a product of their environment that allowed their natural machinery to reach its highest potential.
Give an athlete the right sensory information, in the right environment, and they’ll thrive. Tell an athlete to constantly work on internal “over-cues” in a sensory deprived state (cumbersome footwear) and they’ll do what you think looks good for a period of time, but they won’t reach quite as high as what is naturally possible.
Would a cheetah be any faster if it had a biomechanics expert to give it technical feedback, or a strength coach to put a barbell on its back? What about the bobcat and its jumping ability? Does it need a coach to tell it to move a particular way, give them a positive sandwich with a little critique on their jump in the middle?
This isn’t to say coaching ideals can’t help humans; we do have the add-on of our outer brain shell, responsible for all the things that make us able to utilize willpower, discipline and collaboration, and we need to train with its nuances in mind.
That being said, I came across an athletic video the other day with a powerful product of natural athleticism and culture from the Maasai tribe in Tanzania.
The Maasai are a tough group. The ability to kill a lion is par for the course of a warrior who has gone through rite-of-passage. The video above shows a tribal dance, of which the highest jumpers are given high regards, and there are even competitions between tribes. Athletes grow up being around, mimicking, and performing these dances.
How do the Maasai jump so high? I see the takeaways as follows:
- If an athletic movement or skill is part of one’s culture, it is boosted.
- The fascial system drives short contact movements.
- Barefoot is best for fascial training.
- Full foot contacts are best for optimal jump height in context of ground contact.
- Knees in isn’t knee valgus.
- Reflexes are key for short contact work.
Looking into Maasai culture, jumping is in some ways, their “sport”, and the best jumpers are given better positions in society. With this as a driver, athletes will excel, even if they are from a “distance running” part of the continent. There are still fast-twitch and wired athletes that reside in this area. Check out the video below for an in-depth look at the cultural aspect of this dance.
The fascial system drives short contact movements
No doubt about it, when it comes to coordinated, short-contact movements, jumping in particular, the fascial system steers the ship. This is in opposition to the muscular system, an extreme of which would be riding a bike at a steady pace until one’s legs were fried. In the middle, though, is barbell squatting, which requires a balance of muscular and fascial components, depending on the depth and speed.
Clearly, the athlete in the first video hasn’t spent time in a squat rack. This jumping is all the product of nerves and fascia.
Barefoot is best for fascial training
To best engage the fascial system, the feet are the gateway. By giving the feet good sensory information (i.e., the ground), the response of impact forces is better. Pretensioning of the plantar fascial will stiffen the system, and tighten the fascial ropes that lead to upstream muscles. This isn’t to say that you have to walk barefoot absolutely everywhere you go, but there must be dedicated time in the program where barefoot training is happening. My personal favorite is barefoot long jumping (often with a double-bounce as I learned from Adarian Barr), as seen in the video below.
Full foot contacts are best for optimal jump height in context of ground contact
Here is an interesting thought. Most people would think (even Wikipedia thinks this) that the warriors are jumping “on their toes”. This actually isn’t the case, as seen by the freeze frame.
This guy is so fast off the ground, you might not notice, but these are full-foot contacts. The warrior’s Achilles tendon is very long, so if he tried to do the movement completely “on the toe” this would require a long time for the tendon to stretch and shorten. It would slow the movement and over-stress the Achilles.
Rather, the warrior lets himself get into a full-foot contact, to take time away from how long it takes the Achilles to stretch and snap back to preserve energy return (something I learned from Adarian barr in relation to how athletes move, or should move, in real life). This isn’t to say athletes shouldn’t ever do plyometrics without a heel contact, I think that is a great practice to improve “hyperarch”, but I’m more and more liking full contact work. The proportion of which probably depends on your Achilles length.
Also, the warrior has clearly flat feet. Is it the flat feet that are so terrible? If they are working properly, not at all, in fact he probably has an advantage. This guy won’t have to worry about shin splints or need a set of orthotics a day in his life.
“Knees In” isn’t knee valgus
This was an important point in Pat Davidson’s podcast (and articles he has written on Rebel Performance) is that “knees in” doesn’t mean “valgus” when squatting. Coaches often want to turn athletes into robots, so the first thing that indicates some torque or twisting (athletes ARE torque based movers… again something I’ve been inspired from by coach Adarian Barr), we try to coach them out of. See the initial jump of the Maasai warrior below and see an example of internal rotation to initiate the jump.
As long as the feet are engaged, and the tibia isn’t twisting in opposition to the femur, this position means power not injury.
Reflexes are key for short contact work
Last but not least, know that when an athlete is operating reflexively, there is often a “kickback” in movement, as indicated by the feet coming up each time like a mini-tuck jump. This reflexive kickback also primes agonists and antagonists to work in better cooperation, along with the fascia, for each particular jump. Of course this all happened naturally, as I doubt this guy was “coached” by the other tribe members to jump in this manner. 
Summary
I’ll say that this isn’t a “Plyo of the week” that you can necessarily take a single exercise and put it into your repertoire, and post it on your social media. Rather, as with all things in elite performers, it is more of a lifestyle. Go barefoot, be reflexive, don’t be robotic, and motivate yourself.
If you find a way to add these concepts into your own plyometric work, be sure to let me know.
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