when i do depth jumps i can jump higher if i allow my heels to hit the ground and bend like im doing a squat. it lets me feel the stretch better in my glutes and hamstrings to jump.
i can not let my heels hit the ground and its a quicker jump but i dont get as high. it feels like im only using my achilies to jump and not getting any glut/ham stretch.
is that a problem or are both acceptable ways of doing a depth jump?
sorry for taking so long to state the actual question
The idea is to have minimal sinking at knee and hip apon impact.
Perhaps you could try a slightly larger pre-fixed angle at hip and knee before the feet land on ground, so that they are allready slightly pre-stretched. Then, when u land there coupling time should be more rapid. You could also try jumping off a very slightly lower box.
i figured thats what it was. like the more i was bending the more i was using muscle str as opposed to tendon strength.
you lose the true effects of a depth jump if the amortisation phase of your jump is too long.
is that the quick down movement or the upwards movement before toeoff?
“You can never go faster than you can stop.”
It is how fast you can do the eccentric contraction (deceleration) and switch to the concentric contraction (Upward movement, in your terms). You have to have good brakes if you want to go fast (or high).
TNT
TNT so what your saying is maybe the reason i get higher the other way is because i cant stabalize the force? so maybe you’d perscribe depth drops?
I dont feel that is the problem. to me it feels like when i try to land on the balls of my feet and jump as quick as possible it doesnt allow me to bend low enough to get my glut or my hams involved in the jump.
if i allow myself to land the balls of my feet then letting my heels hit the ground as im in my eccentric phase and bend to about the depth of a full squat, then jump i can get about 2" higher
by bending to a full squat depth if feels like instead of my achilies absorbing the drop its my glut and hams.
I can jump higher doing that than doing a regular vertical jump and its still alot faster then a regular vertical jump, eccentric and cocentric.
Have the bend angle before you land in the first place. After you step off the box, flex at hip and knee before you land so that they’re at the angle you wish for them to be, before you land. Simple.
Anybody would get a few inches higher by jumping your way, but the point of depth jumps is to see how quickly you can switch from eccentric to concentric contraction against a high ressistive pressure (the weight of your body apon the first few split seconds on landing is much heavier than after say 3 tenths of a second.) It is during the first two tenths of a second that you want the complete switch.
You are jumping the way a basketball player tests his vertical leap, but in the on-field real world you haven’t got time to spend bending down before you jump up. Not unless you pull down super quick an inch from an allready low c.o.g flexed position on b-ball court.
Sprinters spend about 0.10sec on the ground per stride. The single greatest differance biomechanically for Ben Johnson compared to his opponents was that he did not seem to sink apon foot strike.
Have your legs IN THE FLEXED position before you land in your depth jumps. Flex them in mid-air as your body drops down from box, and not a huge flex at that.
Goose thanx for layin it all out there for me like that. i will do them that way for now on.
Thanx everyone else who gave me answers also
That’s it, though your achilles will still lengthen notice-ably enough during landing but that’s ok, the heels have to move toward floor anyway,- even with the stiffness & strength of achilles) as you know by feeling. Kind of un-avoidable from depth jumps and max speed onwards phase of a sprint.
It is more the knees and hips to avoid the sinking as much as is possible.
Love the clip.
Personally, I do very few depth jumps or any kind of jumping plyo’s. But I do include no more than 1 type in a session, no more than 1 x 6 reps if a heavy type of plyometric jump, such as depth jumps. No more than twice per weak.
Sometimes I’ll use a few light and medium easy plyo’s here and there, as differant things to address at differant times.