Adarq.org

Oh I guess that would describe you wouldn't it? LOL  But I was actually referring to another guy. He's about 5'8, built like a pitbull and strong as a bull - definitely gifted in the fiber type department. 

Tis true. What the front squat does is eliminate hamstirng involvement, the glutes are still very involved if not more involved.   Take 2 big groups of people and have one group do back squats and jumps and one do front squats and jumps it wouldn't surprise me if the front squat group made better vert specific gains due to the inherent increased lower body loading involved (you can't lean forward and take stress off the legs) - they do have some advantages (harder to cheat, less lower back involvement, more lower quad involvement etc.). But they're also kinda a pain in the ass.  

Raptor,

Tight hamstrings are the major thing that can push you forward in the squat. As your hips go back your hams have to be "loose" enough to allow that. If they're not you lean forward a bit more to compensate. However, based on some other things you've said in other threads I know for a fact your hip flexors are tighter than piano strings. Particularly up over your belt line. You need to do lots of twisting type hip flexor stretches that strongly stretch your hip flexors up in the outer/lower ab region. Try lying on a basketball sideways. The ball should be just above your belt line and you should be on your side. Reach up and away while simultaneously pushing your hips down in the opposite direction. You will probably hear some crackig and popping in your ab region from the sound of hip flexor adhesions releasing. 

Also I would guess your thoracic area is tight as hell. What happens when you do a front squat? I would guess the bar falls off your shoudlers at the bottom because you don't have the thoracic mobility to keep your shoulders back.  Front squats BY THEMSELVES are the best thing to fix that as they both stretch the tight muscles and strengthen the weak ones. Do a couple of light sets a couple of days per week consistently...they don't have to be heavy.

But anyway - for you in particular I would do a daily dynamic warmup of broomstick overhead squats, step back lunges with a broomstick held behind your back. The hand that is on top of the broomstick should be opposite of the lead leg. So if your right foot is forward your left hand should be on top. Drop back into a lunge while simultaneously keeping your upper body as erect as possible and slightly twisting. Also do straight leg kicks for your hamstrings and some type of dynamic calf stretch. That'll cover most of your problems.

If you do a lot of sitting throughout the day you have to do plenty of stretching to coutneract that or it'll become problematic. 

The average bro from this forum could get on a cycle of test and experience almost nothing in the way of positive results outside some body comp changes and strength increases, but the drugs are very relevant to higher level speed-strength athletes. These athletes already have elite level nervous systems and transfer strength into power extremely effectively. They tend to border on overtraining to begin with, have little time to truly specialize on capacities like strength, and have only so much time to compete as far as their career goes.  What drugs do is enable them to reach a high level strength potential much faster and from lower volumes of work.  They also increase muscular recovery allowing them more sessions per week without interfering with extreme fast twitch characteristics, which tend to decline from large volumes of work.   The difference between say a sprinter on drugs and sprinter not on drugs is relatively minor IMO - maybe 15% (compared to the ~100% difference in something like bodybuilding), but it's still relevant. So, say you have 10 identical twins all with the same genes, same training, etc. That 15% difference becomes extremely relevant on something like a 100 meter final when you're talking about a group of athletes who for the most part are the same physiologically, are mostly the same w.r.t. training etc.

Just a guess but I'd think things known for producing calmness and lethargy like SSRI's and anti-anxiety meds (valium, ativan) would help, but speedier type of mood elevating meds like wellbutrin or ritalin would make things worse long term, although you might feel better short term.  

The internal milieu consistent with this state closely resembles that found in mild mind-body illnesses like chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and post-traumatic stress disorder and those things are sometimes helped by SSRI's and closely resembling compounds, so it might be worth a shot.

Typically what happens though is the stress response is somewhat altered - catecholamines like adrenaline are high, but glucocorticoids like cortisol are low and serotonin activation allows cortisol feedback in the pituitary to somewhat reset itself helping to normalize cortisol levels, so stress is better tolerated.  

One other thing that is ultra-important IMO: You have to consider the impact of fatigue.  IMO for the jump trainee fatigue and fatigue management should be looked upon as qualities just as important as your strength, power, reactivity etc.  Fatigue can mask fitness and you have to be aware of that and know how fatigue impacts you and know how to manipulate it.

A lot of times athletes think they need to do this or that when all they really need to do is manage fatigue better.

Your comments on the other thread and your fascination with Smolof are prime examples of this and it's good you're aware of it. You consistently get your vert higher AFTER doing smolof but during the cycle itself your jumps go down.

When you lift heavy weights with any sort of volume you strongly activate both your nervous and muscular systems. You also create a lot of residual fatiuge in the muscles themselves as the activity is prone to create tissue microtrauma. The junctions between your nervous and muscular system become fatigued so a given amount of charge from your nervous system fails to activate the muscular system to the same degree. Where it's most readily apparent is in high speed activities. When your nervous system is fatigued the symptoms will become apparent in faster activities before they become apparent in slower activities. So your lifts may continue going up even though your jumps go down.  So, how do you fix this? There's really only one thing you can do and that's cut down (not necessarily remove completely) the volume of heavy lifting and let your nervous system and muscles freshen up. It doesn't take long - a few days to a few weeks at most. But once you remove the fatigue then you can fully display your fitness (explosiveness).  The same thing occurs in athletes that do a lot of conditioning or cardio work.  Those activities create a chronic strain on the neuromuscular system that will negatively impact the display of high speed explosiveness.

Tolerance to lifting induced fatigue tends to be variable in my experience.  A guy like Raptor is impacted BIG TIME by heavy or high volume squatting. He doesn't jump well with any sorta squat volume.  On the other hand a guy like Adarq IIRC has repeatedly hit many of his best jumps right during the middle of a concentrated strength block. 

Pure explosive training (plyos, explosive lifts) tend not to be all that fatiguing so you can focus on those and allow your nervous system to freshen up.  You can usually simply just cut back on the high fatigue activities but you can go more extreme then that and pull it all out.  I believe when you made your gains with the band jumps you pulled out all squats didn't you?  You probably wouldn't want to eliminate ALL strength work for long, but one simple way to tell if fatigue is masking your jump related fitness is to temporarily pull out all strength and conditioning work for 7-10 days or so.  That's not enough time to lose much in the way of what you gain from those activities but you can then assess your situation and gradually put it back in.

You should also design your cycles with this in mind. Don't expect to hit jump PRs in the middle of a smolof cycle.  Smolof comes close to killing most people in my experience - if you can jump at all in the middle of it you're way ahead of the fatigue management curve.  

The major confounding variable is most people that train for VJ start at an early enough age where they still do a lot of growing and physical maturity over time and, assuming an active enough lifestyle, just the general maturation process tends to contribute to gains up until about the age of ~26. 

A 26 year old athlete may have very little in common with his own self at 15 yrs of age.

If you were talking about mature adults who initiate training Rips comments are much more likely to be accurate or even on the high end. A 26 year old who begins training doesn't have the same potential for improvement as a 15 yr old because he's already physically developed.  Having said that, I have one 37 year old client who didn't start training until he was in his 30's and still managed to put 10 + inches on his SVJ. The guy has some very unique physical traits though his results would definitely be outlier in nature. 

The sprints are more about efficiency than jumps and short sprints. The longer the distance the more a tendon helps, as it spares energy contribution for a given intensity moreso than contributes to ultimate max energy produciton. In other words, you might outjump a kenyan but they can haul ass across the desert because they don't have to work near as hard to move.  Speed endurance (the last 40-50 meters of a 100 meter sprint) is somewhat like that too.

Longer tendons are also related to a better leveraged bone structure...longer bones in the right places.

But, unfavorable leverages can sometimes be made up for by disproportionate strength.  So if you have short lower legs you can overcome that somewhat by having calves that are powerful as hell.  

The jumps are a combination of knee, hip, and ankle extension.  More recent research is showing people vary considerably in which given extensor(s)  they utilize the most in jumps. Some people are knee and ankle dominant. Others are hip dominant. Some are ankle dominant, and some are more balanced.   In my observations just watching people move around and such it seems ankle dominance usually correlates with quad dominance If you see someone with big ol calves their ass is generally less developed relatively compared to their quads and calves and optimally utilizing their hips doesn't come so natural for them.  Ideally you want to be somewhat balanced and when you have that balance powerful calves can be a benefit.  I know people here don't like him but someone like squat dr. seems very balanced in his extensors - hip, knee, quad.  This is why a given exercise or prescription can somewhat be a blessing for some and curse for others.