Intro
The vertical jump is an essential skill in a lot of sports. Think soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc….
Interestingly enough, for sports where the vertical jump isn’t necessarily a direct part of play or a direct component in how they participate in their sport, success may still be predicated by a person’s ability to jump vertically.
For our hockey players, we do a lot of jumps and bounds— even though they are not jumping and bounding on skates. Where we see a direct correlation is the transferability of their vertical jump power into everything else that these athletes do.
Interestingly, there seems to be a relationship between one’s vertical jump ability, overall acceleration, and 1RM for squats. And I think this highlights the importance of one’s vertical jump ability overall.
How to improve the vertical jump
Let’s take a step back for a moment.
We have to recognize that the vertical jump is in fact a power movement. So, when we are talking about power optimization, it is necessary for vertical jump performance. Power is defined by force x velocity. Therefore, we need to include specific components in an exercise program that will target both force and velocity outputs to improve one’s overall vertical jump ability.
Increase strength
By simply increasing an athlete’s absolute strength we’ll increase their force capabilities and improve power optimization.
When we are talking about increasing absolute strength, we have to think globally. So exercises involving multiple joints and muscle groups working together, like a squat or trap bar deadlifts, are a great choice for increasing those stats.
We also have to take a step back for a moment and know the demographic that we are working with. If you have the average middle schooler or high schooler coming into your facility and they’ve never trained before, most of them are going to present very weak and not very powerful. So the easiest thing or the lowest hanging fruit approach for us at our facility is just to get them strong, and then worry about programming other specific stuff to help them.
If you have an athlete who has been training for years and years and already has a really good requisite strength level, then you will need other modalities or other means to increase that vertical jump.
Put plyos in your programs
I like to keep things simple. So, if you want to jump higher, you have to practice jumping…end of paragraph…
Just kidding
Plyometrics are exercises that exert maximum forces in a short amount of time. There are different names for everything. You’ll hear plyometrics be referred to as jump training or whatever. I try not to be too pedantic about things, but just know that when the word plyometric comes in, that means you’re jumping and doing bounds and stuff.
Plyometrics are a must-do to improve vertical jump ability, and there is an alarming amount of evidence that shows significant improvements in vertical jump heights when these are programmed.
When we get younger or untrained athletes in the gym, we know that plyometric training tends to be more beneficial for people who have a fairly robust strength base. Weaker individuals tend to benefit less from these. That is why when we bring kids into the gym for the first time, we work on deceleration and proper positioning first. Having good balance and correct technique will eventually be displayed, then we will introduce safe, lower-intensity plyos into their programs.
You have to remember to program the individual for where they are at, not for where you want them to be. In other words, it may look cool for your social media to have kids do a bunch of weird, complicated jumps and bounds, but if they can’t decelerate and they have really poor technique, they are not going to get any better. You are just putting them at a higher risk for injury.
Operate power lifts
Moving down the force-velocity curve, we have lifting variations that are going to help with overall force production. Although plyometrics are going to be an optimum choice for improving power development, it is also important to be able to express weight-based movements to aid your jump training.
Most people will think of the Olympic variants such as snatches or cleans.
Our VBT data at the gym will suggest that our athletes will be able to generate high power outputs using these lifts. Sometimes 3 to 5 times more power than a traditional deadlift or back squat.
Again, it comes down to programming your athletes where they are at. So if you have a 12-year-old who has never trained before, having them do a barbell snatch is not going to be the best choice. They’re going to get more out of just getting stronger and working on good positioning and deceleration techniques.
Now, there are people out there who believe that the Olympic lifts are overrated and their transferability is not very good. I’m old school and still weight train and do snatches and cleans on a regular basis, so my foot is kind of in and out of that perspective. I like using variations of the barbell lifts, such as landmine split jerks or dumbbell snatches, as they are easier to teach and give us pretty much the exact same training benefit as the big boy barbell stuff will.
In Closing
The above is not a one-size-fits-all approach. There’s going to be a lot of variables that go into determining the type of program that you need your athlete to run. But we can all agree that strength training combined with plyometrics and lifting forcefully in a long-term, periodized plan is going to be optimal.
The key word in the above is “long-term,” which means we need to be able to introduce these forces or these regimens to athletes on a regular basis for a long time for these adaptations to occur. This is why development is important for youth athletes. We need to be able to take them from where they are and get them to where they should be or where we want them to be.
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