Hi Coach,
I’ve seen the post series dedicated to jumping technique on your blog and though it would great to hear your thoughts on my box jumps:
Thank you in advance for your help.
That’s not a drill that I use. I see no purpose in it. In only encourage bad landing mechanisms. When I jump onto a box it’s only to decrease the fall before the landing, not to beat a certain jumping height.
It’s nice and well to show off on the internet, or as an occasional test. But I would never use that as a training exercise.
Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time. I have been using box jumps as an activation exercise initially, but I have now switched to training the movement just like any other exercise to build up athletic performance and explosiveness. What type of alternative would be better in your view of things?
My rationale behind including it as a power movement is allows to exhibit the greatest amount of force applied in the least amount of time possible which fits the definition of power pretty closely. Do you dislike it because it is more of a testing time type of exercise rather than a raw power/explosive builder?
My point is that you can still do all out jumps without having to jump on a super high box, landing in a compromising position
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When I do box jump, I always try to land in what I call an athletic position. Basically a position where I could react quickly to my opponent if I was in a field sport.
That is exactly right… when doing plyometric/jump training you need to put the same emphasis on the landing than on the projection
dislike the version where you focus on jumping on the highest box possible because it puts the body in a bad landing position (you are landing by pulling the knees as high as possible to give the illusion that you are jumping higher than you really are).
You should put the same emphasis on landing solidly as in projecting yourself (in the athletic position as it was mentioned) . I also don’t like the running start… again yes to show off on the internet it’s “good” because it allows you to appear to jump higher. But if you want to build power you must do control starts.
It will sound weird, but except for running short sprints, the best way to run faster is to jump higher. 10-30m sprints are all about acceleration which is all about applying force against the floor. So any exercise where you have to apply force explosively against the floor will improve short sprints…
Jumping drills of the proper progression levels (look at my videos)
Broad jumps
Loaded squat jumps (if you are of that level)
Power clean/snatch from the hang/blocks
Speed squats
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