Okay guys, I want to talk about why people fail to increase their vertical explosion and why you don’t have to. I want to lay down exactly how you can start increasing your vertical in the next two weeks or quicker. The first thing is, why do people not succeed?

The first is a lack of knowledge of correct principles. Second, is a lack of knowledge of correct practices and techniques. It’s basically that’s the difference between what you do versus how you do it. And there’s a big difference and I’m going to go into that a bit later. The third of all is a lack of discipline, or ability to apply proper techniques consistently over a period of time. Last one is simply the lack of proper nutrition. I’m going to go into why here in just a little bit.

So why are these problems so prominent? Now here’s a big problem, some of the most popular programs out there are written by marketing gurus and ghostwriters and not real trainers. So unfortunately most training sites are what are called affiliate sites, and what they’re doing is listing sites that are going to give them the greatest commissions, and touting those programs as the most effective, when really it’s based on commission, and not effectiveness. Be wary of that. I’ve had a lot of people approach me wanting to do affiliate programs, a lot of people approach me wanting me to write them a book, and when I tell them I won’t do it for a certain price, they just go out there and have a ghostwriter who knows very little about jumping write a training manual, and it’s a huge disservice to the community.

Another reason is that correct explosion training is really counterintuitive. Meaning you’re going to train wrong and it’s going to feel like you’re training right. Most coaches and trainers simply are not experts out there. I’ve listened to coaches train me wrong for many years and it wasn’t until I ran into the correct principles that I knew that they just weren’t properly trained for that. One of the other things is that discipline is not and it never was, and it never will be easy to come by. So even if you have the right information, a lot of that hard work will be up to you.

And there’s also a lack of true experts to answer the questions that you need have answered.

Now what’s the effect of this on the athlete? Basically you’re going to waste a lot of time, money and enthusiasm on programs that don’t work. And we all have limited time, money and enthusiasm. Each ineffective program is going to zap your energy and zap your money and your time. And you’re going to get skeptical and a lot of people are going to give up and that’s unfortunate. Now the solution is to find the right information and put it to work.

This is going to take some real mental energy. It’s your responsibility to understand proper training when you hear it, and no one can do it for you, and as long as you entrust that responsibility into someone else’s hands and it’s simply not going to happen. And really uncertainty is going to be caused by your lack of knowledge. So really, once you understand these principles you’re going to be freed as far as you’re going to have the correct knowledge and the power’s going to be in your hands. So failing to do this is really going to result in potential failure again!

So this is going to take commitment. So here’s the golden rule. Do the training principles make sense? If it makes sense than you need to take a step forward. If it doesn’t make sense, then you need to find something that does. Never make a decision based on hype, testimonials, or other things that you’ve seen.

Here’s what is really all about. The first thing you’ve got to understand is that strength plus quickness equals explosion. So when strength and quickness are applied during the same muscle contraction, explosion is the result. So you’ve got to maximize your muscle strength and you’ve got to maximize your muscle quickness and neurological response to create that explosion.

Endurance vs. Explosion

Most of you are training like this. Training your explosion is counterintuitive. You go out there and you train for an hour, you’re training very hard and you’re sweating and you feel the burn and you think you’re training correctly. Most of you are not. You have to train in the improvement zone. So basically improvement zone means this. If you’re maximum zone is 32 inches, and most of your training is done at 12 inch intensity, what are you training yourself to do? You’re training yourself to jump at a 12 inch intensity over a long period of time. You’re training your jumping endurance. Any time you pace yourself, any time you try and incorporate less intensity to accommodate more repetition, you’re training your jumping endurance, and not explosion. That’s going to be really hard for some of you guys to change your paradigm on that. Never pace yourself, and always push for explosion. You’ve got to work smarter and harder. This is all about quality versus the quantity. I’ve known tons of people who trained very very hard with minimal results.

Let me give you another example. If you were a sprinter and you were training for the 100 meter dash, and your coach said you’ve got to run 2 miles every day, and it’s going to train you for your 100 meter dash. And after that you’re going to be tired and sweaty and what are you going to be? You’re going to be training your muscle endurance.