Friday, September 18, 2009

Jumping Training - The Principles to Live By

By Amit Rosman

Usually individuals get involved with jumping training because they want simply have a better vertical leap. Thousands of basketball, baseball, and football players go through their own training every year from one of the coaches, or their own personal trainer. Whatever the case may be in your situation, it's important to understand everything there is to know about jumping. This all starts by understanding that you can jump higher from getting more strength from the core of your body.

Just knowing this isn't going to help you. In fact, it won't even make you progress to new heights. The reason is due to you needing to utilize the proper technique in order to get the maximum benefits out of your jumping training. If we just tell you what you need and you go try it, your results are going to be much different then if we take you through a step by step process. We see coaches get knowledge about what's needed, but forget to look for the proper technique along the way. Unfortunately, this route can lead to injuries to any part of your body, but especially the knees.

First off, men and women are not only biologically different. Their physical makeup is also different. Hence, they jump differently. Women in particular, tend to jump and land in a more upright position and they tend to jump off with an incorrect knee position. Their anatomical differences contribute to these differences and predispose women jumpers to serious injuries. Understanding this helps coaches, trainers and athletes alike to work on correcting this problem early on.

Now, this may sound too nitty-gritty. But if you are serious about wanting to increase vertical jumps, serious jumping training requires a scientific approach. That means understanding all theories - your anatomy, safety, nutrition, etc. - before you can begin to align your jump with what's proper. An effective jumping training program makes you understand what you need to do and how you're supposed to do it.

We understand that some athletes are just gifted, but you also need hard work to give yourself the best opportunity. Just look at all the legendary athletes out there, the one thing they have or had in common was they worked hard to be the best. Having this mind set ahead of time will give you a leg up on your competition. While natural talent is great, it's those who fine tune it that become great. The skies the limit, but it all depends on you.

Remember, your jumping training should revolve around learning to get your strength from the core. After you have it yourself, it will be easy to pick out your competitors who don't have the same type of training regimen you do. They will be trying to get their power from the legs and ankles instead of the torso.

Warm up and stretch. This can't be overemphasized. Your muscles need to be prepped for the exertion, just like you need to pre-heat your oven. Overexerting yourself can cause some serious injury. When you're lifting weights or doing some core exercises, be sure your body is ready for the physical demands. Otherwise, you'd just hurt yourself. So don't rush. Warm up and stretch.

Do some abs exercises. You need core strength to power your jumps. Building your abdominal muscle is the key to that strength. Crunches and oblique abs exercises should be on the plate. Your entire midsection needs to be toned and strengthen to lift your body off the ground even during jumping training.

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