Increase Jumping Ability: Improve Your Form And Increase The Power Of Your Vertical Jump

Recently we’ve been talking about how you can increase and improve your form and increase the power of your vertical jump.Today we’re going to be talking specifically about rapid and synchronized counter movements.When we’re talking about counter movements we’re talking about the movement that happens right before you explode.And so, before you’re going to explode into the air, most of your muscles are going to eccentrically contract.Eccentric contraction is when your muscle stretches.We’ve talked about in other videos about how your muscles have elastic qualities and when they’re stretched and then allowed to get smaller concentrically contract there’s going to be added power from the elasticity of the muscle.What is important to realize, though, is that elasticity of the muscle is only going to be good for about .2 seconds, about a quarter of a second.Anything longer than that, that potential energy is going to dissipate.So if you eccentrically contract your muscle and explode it as soon as possible after that eccentric contraction, it’s going to explode with greater force. It’s going to contract with greater power than otherwise could.So what the take-home lesson is, is that eccentric action before the concentric contraction needs to be as quick as possible in order to take the greatest advantage of that elastic energy.Now how can you apply this to your vertical jumping form?Well, think about when you jump in place or whether you’re jumping standing up or whether you take a couple steps and then jump into place, what’s happening.Well, as you land on two feet in preparation to explode upwards, your calves are going to be stretched, and your quads are going to be stretching and you’re going to lean over, your stomach muscles are going to tighten, you’re going to lean forward and your lower back is going to be stretching.Your arms are going to move back and so there are going to be arm muscles that are going to be stretching, all in preparation to contract upwards.So basically the faster that movement can be executed the more power you’re going to be able to generate.So that means as you’re jumping into place you want to allow gravity to coil you like a spring, so to speak, as quickly as possible.Now with no time in between you want to be exploding back upwards.It’s going to take some feeling out to get really used to executing all your counter movements very quickly so that you can take advantage of all the stored elasticity in the muscles and send it upward. The concept should make sense so that if you have that in mind and you’re watching other very efficient jumpers you’re going to get the picture and as you practice it you are eventually going to get the feel of making that counter movement very quickly.Now if you watch really good jumpers you’re going to notice that as they jump into position they are immediately exploding. Their legs are going to contract very quickly and they are going to explode back up almost immediately.So that’s what you want to think about now.

I said that we were going to talk about two things, so that was rapid and synchronized counter movements because you also want to synchronize how all these movements take place, especially the upper body and the arms.If you’re going to take maybe a two step vertical, you know, take two steps and jump off two feet from a vertical, think about your arms.A lot of people are going to place their arms behind them a little too late or a little too earlier, because you want that to be perfect. As soon as you land you want your arms to be already swinging upward so that they can all orchestrate an upward propulsion.So think about that as you jump into place to explode.When are your arms going to be perfectly timed so they can be coming forward and that counter movement can be quick and they can all explode forward.Now if you’re not using your arms in your jump very much yet, you want to learn how to do that because you can generate a lot of additional force whether you have a ball in your hand or not, you can generate a lot more upward propulsion if you have your arms involved in the movement.One way to do that is with a medicine ball.A great exercise is to throw a medicine ball off the wall or up in the air and you catch it so that’s going to create the eccentric contraction or the stretching.As you catch it you’re going to go down and explode immediately upwards and throw the ball as high as you can into the air because that’s going to help you get your whole torso and your arms involved in the movement in a ply metric action.And then I would recommend practicing your vertical jumping form directly after that or in between sets so that your body is recognizing that that strength needs to be used for that specific action.

So basically to sum up, you want to make sure that your counter movements happen rapidly and happen in perfect synchronization so that the elastic energy can be correctly and timely used to create upward propulsion.That’s what needs to happen.You know, one way you can go and test this right now just with your standing vertical, your no step, two foot standing vertical.You can go and watch how other people do the standing vertical.People are going to slowly get into a crouching position and try and explode up.Now what you want to do is allow gravity to press you down as quickly as possible so it can even be helpful to get on your tippy toes and then allow the gravity to push you to the ground and as soon as you get into that jumping position get right back up.So there’s no going slowly into the jumping position and then exploding, you’re dropping into position as quickly as possible with your arms correctly timed back and your torso correctly in position to explode upwards and it’s all happening at once.You’re like a coil or a spring that’s quickly pressed down and then quickly allowed to explode upwards.So anyway, I hope this made sense and this stuff really works.You can go outside and you can practice it, you can watch how other people are jumping.The way you are able to execute your counter movements, how quickly you are able to do it and how synchronized that entire movement is is going to make a large difference in your overall power output.And the stronger you get and the more flexible you are the better advantage you are going to be able to take of your entire vertical jump by improving your form.I have another video coming, hopefully this week, about another tip that you can do with your form to gain extra power and really how to start developing this form as quickly as possible.So I hope this helped out and I’ll talk to you soon.Bye bye.