Here’s a question for Nightmare and the other hops experts:
I am a rookie plyometrics trainee (about 4 wks of plyos under my belt) looking for some info. I am 6’0 with about a 28-29" vertical off of two feet from a standing start. While my standing vertical off of two feet continues to increase as I continue with the plyos, I am curious about whether I might be able to get up higher if I can learn to jump off of one foot with a running start (like a basketball player on a breakaway, a wide receiver on a fly pattern leaping for a high pass, or a high jumper approaching the bar).
Does anyone have any advice on developing this skill - it seems to take some additional coordination and/or technique, which I think I could pick up, but I am not sure where to start. Also, any thoughts on whether one can jump higher off of one leg with a running start as opposed to off of two feet from a standstill or a drop step? (I read somewhere that MJ’s standing two foot vert at UNC was a solid 36", but his vert off of one leg from a running start was a whopping 46").
cool. more footballers around the better! watch the depth jumps for awhile. until you get your squats, snatch etc, you may not have the strength to absorb the impact of landing.
anyway, i dont really have anything for you, my only reason for doing plyos was to help with football, i wasnt interested in increasing my vertical jump really, but as coolcolj said “if you vertical is getting higher then good things are happening.”
sorry i cant be more help. one thing i will add, the addition of the power snatch to my program last sept has made the biggest difference in overall performance, speed and explosivness.
Well it’s an individual thing. For example, I’m much more comfortable jumping off 2 feet. But when I was younger I was more a one legged jumper, but I was also a lot lighter then as well. Having said that my 2 legged and one legged jumps are more or less the same.
My cousin on the other hand has the same vertical jump as I do, but he gets up a lot higher from a single leg jump - like 6inches higher! But he’s also a good 50lbs lighter than me
Your verticle would def. be higher with a running start off 1 leg. Besides the speed the reason one leg would allow you to go higher is becasue of knee drive opposite of you takeoff leg.
Nightmare, I am a flag football guy (WR) as well–just getting back into it after about four seasons out. I’ve never really tried specific training for football until now; in the past, I’d just run 3-4 miles 3x a week and do some lifting program from an M&F magazine. Now I’ve got more of a powerlifting weight program built around deadlifts, squats and bench, and I am doing mostly sprint work, plyos, and track conditioning work (interval type stuff) rather than the distance running. For the moment, I’m holding off on the olympic lifts because I haven’t been coached on proper technique. (I had an accomplished powerlifter coach me on the technique for the big three). So far, 3 months into it, the results are quite a bit better than the old routines, although my strength needs to come up a fair amount. Also, to Herb, thanks for the links to the discussions. I think I have the plyometric part pretty well in place (stair jumps, depth jumps, broad jumps, rim jumps, etc.), but I will need to work on the coordination aspect of transferring the horizontal speed of the runup to the vertical speed of the jump. I just never had anyone teach me how to do this.
By the way, a lot of folks in the earlier strings talked about arm swing technique. What exactly does that mean?
Generally, those of us who are ‘stronger’ will have standing two foot jumps nearly equal to our running one foot jump. A much higher one foot jump usually indicates better reactive strength and a better ability to use the elastic properties of the tendons.
What does this mean in practical terms? If your running one foot jump is much higher than your standing two foot, then you should probably work on max strength levels and the olympics lifts. If they are about the same, then you may want to do more plyometric/reactive type work. But ultimately, it depends on what your goals are and what your sport requires.
My single leg vertical jump increased greatly after using alternate leg bounding. It was also a few inches higher than my two feet vertical. I found the best way was to run in with a slow exaggerated jog (quite like the high jumpers). This way the elastic recoil of the muscles and tendons is more pronounced, and therefore aids height.
:devil:man, u guys all have a good vert, i got only like 25" standing, i wanna improve to a 35" standing, higher if possible, can anyone offer me a plyo workout for verticle? (will dat be better than weight training, cuz i have been doing weight for like 5 months)
