In order to improve a skill you must practice it over and over again, right? Just repeat the movement back to back to back? Not quite. Maybe for something like coloring or playing an instrument, but when it comes to improving vertical jumping, that is not exactly a suggested plan of action.
You may then ask: then what should I be doing in order to increase my vertical jump height? Since the movement requires a great amount of force production, as well as a high rate of force production, power is essential. Power is defined as the amount of work done in a certain amount of time, otherwise known in your body as how quickly and forcefully your muscles can contract. The best solution to increasing this power is a mix of strength training and plyometric training (PT) exercise regimens.
Strength training should focus on power cleans, specifically midthigh power cleans and midthigh clean pulls. These two variations have been proven to be most advantageous in improving rate of force development and peak vertical ground reaction forces, which I just mentioned are the two essential pieces of a high vertical jump (Comfort et al., 2011). The other exercise is a deep squat (either front or back), which has been observed to significantly increase the squat jump (SJ) and countermovement jump (CMJ) heights (Hartmann et al., 2012). Whereas, quarter back squats actually produced significant transfer losses in explosive strength behavior, which the researchers attributed to less usage of hip and knee extensors compared to deep squats (Hartmann et al., 2012).
However, as stated earlier, PT must not be left out because strength and power training alone does not provide effective training for movement patterns of the SJ or CMJ (Lamas et al., 2012). PT affects the type II muscles fibers, which are responsible for the speed and force of muscle contraction (again, I already mentioned why this is important for vertical jumps). Squat Jump and CMJ have both been statistically proven to improve by 4.7% and 8.7%, respectively, from PT sessions (Markovic, 2007). Examples of just a few PT exercises that could be implemented would be single leg hopping, lateral hurdle hopping, or medicine ball granny tosses (forward and backwards).
Power and strength are helpful in most sports, but they are essential in order to have a high vertical jump height. Putting together a training regimen that includes power, strength, and plyometric exercises is very important when producing an athlete with a dangerous vertical jump.
- Comfort, P., Allen, M. & Graham-Smith, P. Comparisons of peak ground reaction force and rate of force development during variations of power clean. J Strength Cond Res. 2011; 25(5): 1235-1239.
- Hartmann, H., Wirth, K., Klusemann, M., Dalic, J., Matuschek, C. & Schmidtbleicher, D. Influence of squatting depth on jumping performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2012; 26(12): 3242-3261.
- Lamas, L., Ugrinowitsch, C., Rodacki, A., Pereira, G., Mattos, EC., Kohn, AF. & Tricoli, V. Effects of strength and power training on neuromuscular adaptations and jumping movement pattern and performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2012; 26(12): 3335-3344.
- Markovic, G. Does plyometric training improve vertical jump height? A meta-analytical review. Br J Sports Med. 2007; 41(6): 349-355.
Great article.
Thanks for specifying how jump training actually works. It isn’t just repetition because the formula that determines the power behind a jump (power = rate x force) takes into consideration both force and rate, or strength training and plyometrics, if you will.
Also the exercises you mentioned were excellent. I personally use the medicine-ball for loads of jump-specific exercises.
This article was ahead of its time! It’s not often you see such decent information about jump training dating back to 2015!