What is the ideal surface for plyometrics. In Donald Chu’s books and videos they are using 5cm thick gym mats, My thought is that the surface should be yielding enough to prevent injury, but not so soft that it takes away the plyometric effect…
Your Thoughts???
Exactly. When doing landing, we use a thin mat (used for ab training). Takes a little of the stress out, but not too much.
I think a gymnastic mat may be a bit too soft. In fact I’d say it’s far from the ideal surface. The ideal surface would probably be immaculate grass or astroturf. The ab mat idea is interesting but don’t you have to do all “in-place” jumps for that to work out?
Some argue that the NS is so specific that the contact time must not be shortened. Therefore they do all contacts in spikes on the track - but in much smaller number than usually prescribed. For beginners who need to learn how to land etc this is probably not the best solution!