If you have seen any good vertical jump program you will see some good exercises that you can use such as deadlifts, squats, box jumps, bounding and so on. These are all excellent choices to help you develop your jumping ability. However, above all of these in terms of effectiveness stands one exercise that should be in ALL jump programs.
This exercise is far more specific to your sport than any of those others. It will develop all the athletic attributes needed to jump high including the often overlooked area of movement efficiency. Also if your sport requires you to do any jumping then this is the most sports specific exercise choice you can make.
So what on earth i this brilliant vertical jump exercise that gives such amazing results? The exercise I am referring to is none other than going out and performing some maximum effort jumping. It is obvious now isn’t it. Increasing your vertical jump not surprisingly should start with actually going out doing some jumping.
If you are trying to improve your jumping ability for a sporting pursuit, then the simplest, and most effective way to go about it is to actually practice that skill. Volleyball spiking is a great example. You need to time the jump as well as co-ordinate yourself to hit the ball with a lot of force, all while in the air. This isn’t as simple as just jumping up straight and down in the air. In the beginning you will struggle to move everything at the right time and with the right power to achieve your jumping goals with much efficiency, but in no time you will start to see noticeable improvements.
Sadly, despite the obvious benefits that doing sports specific jumping practice has, it is rarely included in any of the vertical jump programs you can buy. Vertical Mastery is about the only one that does. People often believe they need all sorts of fancy exercises, different sorts of weight training equipment, and cleverly designed programs, but it is amazing how often they overlook the basic act of going out and simply doing some jumping.
Spending time working on your jumping technique will help you jump higher in so many ways. First and foremost though it will improve your movement efficiency! This improvement offers up some potentially huge benefits. If you have less than stellar co-ordination then you will be severely limiting your potential jump height. Poor jumping skill results in energy leaks where instead of your muscles and joints working together you find some parts not firing in the right way to help you out.
Maximum effort sports specific jumping also increases your rate of force development and reactive strength in a manner that you can actually use. Squats, deadlifts, depth jumps etc will also increase these traits too, but they are not as specific as maximum effort jumping practice and therefore don’t carry over as well.
Basically all training you do is designed to force your body to adapt to its environment (also known as an adaptive response). So if strength is your goal you need to continuously lift heavier weights. In this way you send signals to your body that you require it grow in order to meet those continuously higher demands. Vertical jump training is no different. Having a big vertical jump is a direct result of you telling your body that this is what it is required to do. With regular reinforcement of the message that you want to jump higher your body will make the required changes to facilitate this goal.
However max effort jumping can only take you so far. It doesn’t do a great job of increasing your maximum strength for example. Lifting weights is a far better way to achieve this. For most athletes there will come a time when it is strength that is holding them back, but unless they have their jumping motion down first, they will not be able to apply the benefits of any additional strength anyway.
If your training has stagnated and your vertical numbers are going nowhere maybe it is time you took a step back, removed all your other exercises from your program, and just went out and started jumping. The truth is there are very few people who are great at the skill of jumping. A bit of practice and your results might surprise you.