1964 study

At least if you have a great VJ in football, you can jump high to catch the ball

Unless you just ran 50 yards and have no elastic response, I imagine.

I believe i saw a study at some point that explored the relation between VJ and success in the NFL, specifically at the linebacker position, and it appeared that there was a fairly proportional relationship to VJ height and success. As far as how success was judged, i think it was based on length of years played and tackles, but im not completely sure.

There would be plenty of opportunities for a good high jump during a game (spread out between all the players) without a run, perhaps just a step or two. At least if you can jump that high, you could have the chance to catch it if the opportunity presents itself.

I agree with whats been said about speed, max strength elastic response etc.

But who says its always about speed when it comes to say, football, basketball etc. SLJ and VJ etc have other roles to play other than speed.

Mind you, it would make for an explosive block clearance

The important distinction to be made is that the single attempt SLJ and VJ are special strength based abilities that do not require an impressive elastic/reactive ability while the sprint, even one as short as the 40yd, demands heavily upon the elastic/reactive ability.

Additionally, because the jumps are more special strength oriented they are much easier to develop, by comparison, and less dependent upon certain genetic material that is absolutely necessary to become very fast.

There was a recent “informal and un-official” jump off at the USOTC in Colorado Springs, between the resident women VB players and the resident women OL. They did both a CMJ and an approach jump. One of the OL scored the highest CMJ and a VB had the highest approach jump.
The team averages were about the same.

TNT

I hate to quote myself, but could someone throw me a bone here, please?

the rowers would be in play, just not to as high a degree as 5strides per sec.

typically, one can jump higher on a vert jump test with a walk in jump than a standing jump - so even relatively slow, its still matters