Speed Continuum

I felt like posting this because of some things I have heard lately about the Olympic lifters and powerlifters having such great vertical jumps, and how all athletes should use these techniques to increase their athletic ability in their respective sport. Before I explore this further, I would like to point something out…

The number 1 way to improve your sport movement is to practice that movement.

If you want to dunk better, practice dunking.

If you want to throw farther, practice throwing.

If you want to pass a test, study the material on the test.

Have you ever watched And1 streetball and wondered how these guys got their leaping ability? Guess what, 3/4 of these guys probably haven’t even touched a weight in their life. (Although it can be said that genetic freaks will be awesome at what they do, regardless of training method)

Now you can bring up the common argument of the average football player having a 37″ vertical jump, while the average basketball player only has a 30″ vertical jump. Do you know what the big difference here is though? How much higher than their standing jumps, can these football players reach with a running start? The answer is, not a whole lot.

Now if you are a track and field athlete and you compete in the jumping events, what good does it do you if you have a 33″ standing vertical, but can only get up 35″ off of one foot with a full run-up. The fact is, the majority of elite high jumpers have standing verticals in the 26-33″ range. Occasionally you will get a Charles Austin type jumper with a 38″ legit (no combine tricks) standing vertical, but this is not common.

So why is it that an Olympic-level high jumper can have such a poor standing vertical but skyrocket off 1 leg? There are several reasons for that answer that I will list:

Antropometrics, i.e. build. High-jumpers have long legs, and thin builds which rely heavily on elastic elements (tendon spring) rather than frictional elements (muscle contraction).
Bilateral Deficit, It is not uncommon for skill position players in American Football to out-lunge the linemen, even though the linemen have a much better squat than the skill players. Why? Because the linemen don’t have to develop power unilaterally nearly as often as the skill players, their power comes from a 2-foot base. High-jumpers are this way also, in that they primarily express power off 1 leg, and their 2 leg activities will suffer. Of course, jumpers trained in the weightroom will quickly make this deficit up, to a degree.
Energy Accumulation vs. Dissipation; In high jumping, the ground-contact time is less than .2 seconds. In a standing vertical jump, the ground contact time from initiation of the jump is around .45 seconds. Enough said.
Training programs; most high jumpers who include some form of power training in a year round program, will often maintain a lower vertical jump and keep a higher running jump. The only way for someone with a true high jump build to fall behind in their running jump is to exclusively lift weights for an extended period of time. This can be dangerous to a jumper, as it will lengthen their ground contact time and really hurt their ability to effectively display a fast rate of force development off the ground, as well as maintain an effective ratio of frictional to elastic strength.

So, how much should T&F jumpers lift weights in ratio to plyometrics, sprinting, and other activities? Well, the answer will be different for everyone…The jumper who can fly off a 3-step approach, but can’t jump well off of a full approach should probably only really have 1 day a week devoted to devleoping explosive or limit strength, while the jumper who can really get up with a 12 step approach, but has nothing off 3 steps may do better to have 2-3 days of good lifting workouts a week, especially in the preseason. I have found that with a balanced type jumper, such as myself, 1 day a week of explosive lifting and 1 day a week of limit strength lifting is quite effective in the special prep period. The main thing to remember is to always be doing some form of speed or jump training at all times in the season, because that is the basis of your event.

Well that’s all for now, happy training.

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