Whats some big box jumps you guys have seen? An athlete I work with can do 59’’ and he’s only 5’7’’.
id love to see proof of that!
I consider a single-step box jump of the height of the individual’s nipple to be good. Some bigger jumps are seen when peoples take a longer take-off. I personally like to keep it to one step (or no steps at all).
I’ll try and get a picture of that to post on here. We use about a 3 step walk up and then jump.
i am 5’7 and i do box jumps with a 2-3 step runup at 52".
what do you guys use for boxes? I’m having troubles with safety just incase he misses his jump. Like right now we have a cushioned mat that is wrapped around the top box incase he doesnt quite make it, but on thr Ato Boldon video where he is doing box jumps, they have it set up so that the top box slides back if he doesnt quite make it. Any suggestions?
Pillows, lots of pillows!! 
Set up the boxes in front of the high jump pit.
how would that work?
If you miss the box horse, you fall forward into the pit. If you miss going back, it’s easier on the legs.
The boxes we use tho are over 20 inches wide also tho, so there is no risk of him jumping over the box. It is when he doesnt quite make it, and he slides his shines down the front edge of the top box which is the problem. Like I said we have drapped a mat over that edge which helps, but I was wondering if anyone knew any other ways to protect from sliding down the egde?
sounds like you need to lower the box height. why risk injury?? use a box that he makes every attempt for reps and you’ll be fine.
thats great advice ESPN3. However those jumps need to be near maximal efforts every attempt. In the rare case that he misses his jump, for whatevers reason I’d just like a way to make that as pain free as possible.
You can forget the boxes and have him jump over a high-jump bar and land into the pit (maybe butt first to remove the chance of spraining the ankle or knee). I am guessing if you can jump on a 59" box you can jump over a 59" bar. This also allows you to raise the bar as high as you want to get those max efforts without the risk of taking all the skin off you shins of face.
thats a great idea, thanks for the help
Hmm I never see the point in doing boxjumps. Risk vs benefits?
Why not just high jump over a stick/string or something 
its because we dont have access to a big high jump mat at the gym we work out at, but we do have boxes
A piece of string and some grass will suffice, just jump over the string like you would doing a boxjump
anyway what does boxjumping do that a max effort jump does not do?
And if your worried about impact forces, then something is wrong
I’ve missed on box jumps before, ouch, never again :o
Louie Simmons said he’s gotten excellent results with sitting back on a 10" box and springing up and landing on a 20" box.
If you go to www.westside-barbell.com, he’s revamped his site. He’s put all his archives into 3 adobe documents.
The details about his jumping experiences are in the “new articles” pdf, in his article about Explosive Leg Training, or something like that.
Shaf
thats a cool site Shaf, although that specific exercise would not use the stretch-shortening cycle as there is no pre-stretch?