Author Topic: How to improve running vertical jump?  (Read 4204 times)

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Girljordan

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How to improve running vertical jump?
« on: May 01, 2011, 10:57:48 pm »
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Why is it that I jump the same height running from far out and jumping as I do off a slow and short distance run up?  how can I improve that?

LanceSTS

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Re: How to improve running vertical jump?
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2011, 01:18:46 am »
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 Practice jumping from a run more, work on your lower leg strength and reactive ability.  Calf raises, stiff leg ankle hops, pogo jumps, etc.  There is usually a set distance that most people will get optimal height out of regardless, but just practicing from a little further out, being able to absorb more force in your plant and rebound out, and implementing some lower leg specific work will do the trick most of the time.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2011, 01:22:04 am by LanceSTS »
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D4

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Re: How to improve running vertical jump?
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2011, 02:19:55 am »
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Practice jumping from a run more, work on your lower leg strength and reactive ability.  Calf raises, stiff leg ankle hops, pogo jumps, etc.  There is usually a set distance that most people will get optimal height out of regardless, but just practicing from a little further out, being able to absorb more force in your plant and rebound out, and implementing some lower leg specific work will do the trick most of the time.

What do you suggest for reactive ability in these cases?  Depth jumps?

And, I KNOW for a fact, my single leg running jump technique is less than perfect, but my double leg is pretty good.  Since last week, I've been practicing 3x a week, but it still feels awkward.  Do you know any tips or strategies on getting better?

I've been trying to implement the penultimate step and stuff the right way, using only a 4 step jump off 1 foot, hoping to start doing 6 steps this week and stuff. 

Basically I'm asking, got any tips on mastering the technique faster?  Rather than me just going out and "just doing it", cuz that's what I've been doing and I feel like I can use some pointers on practicing it.
Goal is to dunk.

Vertical needed to dunk: 40"

Current vertical : 38.5"

LanceSTS

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Re: How to improve running vertical jump?
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2011, 03:07:53 am »
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the exercise examples in the quote pasted are to improve your reactive ability....  You can do low level depth jumps but you dont need them right now. 

 Youre probably making your single leg jumping form worse by trying to concentrate so much on the penultimate step, instead of just jumping.  Different athletes use waaaaaaaaaaaaay different penultimate steps, structure, leverages, speed, strength, all individual characteristics factor into that.

  Practice the 1-2-3 drill over and over until you feel very comfortable with it, its just basically 3 steps accelerating into a jump on the third, you will naturally develop a "penultimate" step by doing this, just like you will naturally develop a plant by doing it with two legs.  Main thing is ACCELERATE. Each step gets progressively faster, dont worry about the distance. 
Relax.

Raptor

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Re: How to improve running vertical jump?
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2011, 04:07:55 am »
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Why is it that I jump the same height running from far out and jumping as I do off a slow and short distance run up?  how can I improve that?


It's because you don't actually benefit from all those additional steps. Taking myself as an example, when I was very "thin" (weighed 147 lbs) I used to jump very well off 7-10 steps of momentum. Now at 180 lbs I tend to jump well off 3-5 steps and actually jump worse from 7-10 steps because I'm more into accelerating into the jump now, whereas in the past I used a constant speed and jumped pretty much reactively at that speed, without force being an important factor. And obviously, I was weighing less.

It's still a matter of being able to amortizate properly in the last step, to prevent knee collapse and proper horizontal to vertical transformation of momentum, and for that you need strong quads and probably good calves.

D4

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Re: How to improve running vertical jump?
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2011, 01:31:29 pm »
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the exercise examples in the quote pasted are to improve your reactive ability....  You can do low level depth jumps but you dont need them right now. 

 Youre probably making your single leg jumping form worse by trying to concentrate so much on the penultimate step, instead of just jumping.  Different athletes use waaaaaaaaaaaaay different penultimate steps, structure, leverages, speed, strength, all individual characteristics factor into that.

  Practice the 1-2-3 drill over and over until you feel very comfortable with it, its just basically 3 steps accelerating into a jump on the third, you will naturally develop a "penultimate" step by doing this, just like you will naturally develop a plant by doing it with two legs.  Main thing is ACCELERATE. Each step gets progressively faster, dont worry about the distance. 

I see, once I am able to comfortably and smoothly do a 3 step single leg jump, ACCELERATING on each step, should I start adding in more steps?
Goal is to dunk.

Vertical needed to dunk: 40"

Current vertical : 38.5"

LanceSTS

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Re: How to improve running vertical jump?
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2011, 01:45:21 pm »
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the exercise examples in the quote pasted are to improve your reactive ability....  You can do low level depth jumps but you dont need them right now. 

 Youre probably making your single leg jumping form worse by trying to concentrate so much on the penultimate step, instead of just jumping.  Different athletes use waaaaaaaaaaaaay different penultimate steps, structure, leverages, speed, strength, all individual characteristics factor into that.

  Practice the 1-2-3 drill over and over until you feel very comfortable with it, its just basically 3 steps accelerating into a jump on the third, you will naturally develop a "penultimate" step by doing this, just like you will naturally develop a plant by doing it with two legs.  Main thing is ACCELERATE. Each step gets progressively faster, dont worry about the distance. 

I see, once I am able to comfortably and smoothly do a 3 step single leg jump, ACCELERATING on each step, should I start adding in more steps?

yep, thats the ticket, break it down into those last 3 steps, that really helps single leg jumpers a ton.  Once you have that down pat, you can start using a longer run up and you will notice that your last 3 steps will set up your penultimate step as well as your jump very nicely.
Relax.

D4

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Re: How to improve running vertical jump?
« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2011, 02:20:39 pm »
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the exercise examples in the quote pasted are to improve your reactive ability....  You can do low level depth jumps but you dont need them right now. 

 Youre probably making your single leg jumping form worse by trying to concentrate so much on the penultimate step, instead of just jumping.  Different athletes use waaaaaaaaaaaaay different penultimate steps, structure, leverages, speed, strength, all individual characteristics factor into that.

  Practice the 1-2-3 drill over and over until you feel very comfortable with it, its just basically 3 steps accelerating into a jump on the third, you will naturally develop a "penultimate" step by doing this, just like you will naturally develop a plant by doing it with two legs.  Main thing is ACCELERATE. Each step gets progressively faster, dont worry about the distance. 

I see, once I am able to comfortably and smoothly do a 3 step single leg jump, ACCELERATING on each step, should I start adding in more steps?

yep, thats the ticket, break it down into those last 3 steps, that really helps single leg jumpers a ton.  Once you have that down pat, you can start using a longer run up and you will notice that your last 3 steps will set up your penultimate step as well as your jump very nicely.

Nice! thanks Lance.  Hopefully I get a couple inches off mastering the technique.  My brother has about a 38" vert and he's a 2 legged jumper, and he get's that high without proper technique cause he kind of stutter steps on his last 3~4 steps on his jump, so I kinda naturally copied that into my single leg RVJ.  I run up, slow down my acceleration, stutter stepping, and then go into my last 2 steps (penultimate and take off).  Now I see that I'm just losing my momentum that way.
Goal is to dunk.

Vertical needed to dunk: 40"

Current vertical : 38.5"

vag

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Re: How to improve running vertical jump?
« Reply #8 on: May 02, 2011, 03:05:20 pm »
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Practice jumping from a run more, work on your lower leg strength and reactive ability.  Calf raises, stiff leg ankle hops, pogo jumps, etc.  There is usually a set distance that most people will get optimal height out of regardless, but just practicing from a little further out, being able to absorb more force in your plant and rebound out, and implementing some lower leg specific work will do the trick most of the time.

^^^
This!
I tend to jump better off 2 steps , i've tried and improved my runups , then they get screwed again , then i refix them... bottom line is that i end up getting my PRs off the 2-steps all the time.
Don't worry to much , just practice them more and they become more smooth/efficient. FA stuff ( the ones Lance mentioned + depth drops) help tons too! Depth drops are intense though , gotta know how and when to use them...
Hope it helps.
Target training paces (min/km), calculated from 5K PR 22:49 :
Easy run : 5:48
Tempo run : 4:50
VO2-max run :4:21
Speed form run : 4:02

---

it's the biggest trick in the run game.. go slow to go fast. it doesn't make sense until it smacks you in the face and you're like ....... wtf?