Some opponents of plyometrics believe that its usefulness is very limited for sprinting because sprinting is plyometric and other plyometric exercises lack the GCT (under .10) of sprinting.
But aren’t these people missing something? For example plyometric can isolate certain sprint movements and develop force and velocity without the acceleration needed in sprinting. Also, couldn’t plyometrics help overcome sprinting plateaus?
I know you have extensive knowledge on the subject. Thanks…
I’m in between on the usefulness of plyo. I think hurdle hops and one legged hops and hops onto boxes are really the most useful all others including bounding are probably redundant or co-linear in other words they do the same thing as the key plyo exercises mentioned above. They come close to contact times experienced in sprinting but not close enough. The only truelly plyometric exercise that is similar to sprinting and would probably help sprint speed is the long jump. This is according to research I have seen.
Interesting take!
How do you feel about jumps from height? I believe these gives the force (up to 8 times bw if done at 1m height) and speeds (if done quickly) that are close to sprinting.
Also, I believe jumps from height uses gravity to pre-load muscles followed by the jump to unload muscles. In other words, it’s a great way to work on RFD without having to accelerate to high speeds.
If you look at plyos as a way of developing general strength then the GCT does not matter.
I like bounds, squat hops and a few other unilateral drills but don’t deem them 100% necessary. I don’t feel there are many pure plyometric drills that do anything that sprinting won’t do. Keep in mind pretty much all the various sprint drills are plyometric drills so my statement can be kind’ve confounding. The muscle-tendon stiffness can be improved by the sprinting and the various “sprint-specific” drills.
Research will show that there definitely is a correlation between performance in stuff like depth jumps and sprinting speed but the reverse is also true. If you get faster and stronger then performance in depth jumps will improve as well.
On that note it would seem that depth jumps could be a good way of developing some of the qualities necessary for explosive sprinting.
Good point!
Good info man! Thanks!
My favorite is a drop off a foot high box and over a hurdle set at 30 or 33 inches. I prefer this because it requires very little flexion (almost feels straight legged, though it’s not) compared to a jump from the ground. The height comes from reactivity not concentric strength. It pairs nicely with MaxV, just like concentric box jumps with Acceleration.
Could we say that plyometrics (drop jumps) act as a means of targetting specific muscle groups with less overall stress on the whole organism than max velocity sprinting. So they are not general but highly specific, a means of ramping for competition? Does any of that manke sense?
I believe it depends on the type of plyo being done. Drop jumps depending on what height can give you up to 5 to 7 bw forces (up to +1000lbs depending on bw) so in this case you could look at it as building strength.
Other plyometrics and so called sprint drills can help isolate certain sprint movements in a specific manner. Don’t forget ALL sports involve some type of plyo. Whether it’s kicking or throwing a ball or sprinting. So yes you can make plyo both specific to a sport or used for general strength with less stress on the organism (depending on volume) than max velocity sprinting. Drop jumps work more on the force (strength) side. However, depth jumps mimics the specific loading unloading involved in sprinting. Especially when done in under .20.