Confused on Increasing Vertical Jump

To start, I am 17 years old, am 6"2 and weigh 160 lbs. Next year I am going to play basketball and thought it would be a good idea to increase my vertical leap from now until the beginning of the season. I have been working out for about 4 months now and figure I would start a new program, and my only goal would be to increase my vertical leap.

I have done some research and am a bit confused. I saw that most sites/articles said that you need to do leg exercises with plyometrics. Then with some research I saw some program called Air ALert 3, so I did some research on that and saw very mixed reviews so what do you guys think of that. (link: http://www.austinhoops.org/files/Air_Alert_III.pdf )
And if that isn’t good, what kind of plyometric exercices should I be doing?

Hey man, please for the sake of your joints and oher important parts of your body, do not do any air alert program. Give some stats regarding you’re squat numbers and standing and running vert numbers. You need to figure out what your weaknesses are, what your srengths are (if you have any) and then figure out the best way to shore those up. Let us know.

“Vertical Jump Development Bible” by Kelly Baggett.

Buy it. Follow the programs. It breaks training down to simple (not easy, but simple) programs and provides customization options as well. I highly recommend it.

Side note: just doing plyometrics is not going to get you where you want to be. To break it down very simply, to be a good jumper you need to:

  1. Be a proficient jumper- plyometrics can help with this.
  2. Have strong legs- weight training can help with this.
  3. Have low bodyfat- diet and training takes care of this.

So whatever program you follow needs to address these three components. Beware of anything that tries to make it much more complicated than that.

[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
“Vertical Jump Development Bible” by Kelly Baggett.

Buy it. Follow the programs. It breaks training down to simple (not easy, but simple) programs and provides customization options as well. I highly recommend it.

Side note: just doing plyometrics is not going to get you where you want to be. To break it down very simply, to be a good jumper you need to:

  1. Be a proficient jumper- plyometrics can help with this.
  2. Have strong legs- weight training can help with this.
  3. Have low bodyfat- diet and training takes care of this.

So whatever program you follow needs to address these three components. Beware of anything that tries to make it much more complicated than that.[/quote]

Great advice. The steps 1-3 are spot on in my book. Look at anyone with a solid vert and they have those 3 aspects down pat (or at least 2 of 3 damn good)

Squats! Back, front etc.

The Kelly Baggot programs are good, just depends on your training history. What you have been doing for those four months.

Leave the plyo stuff out for a while until you increase your strength.

At 6’2" and 160lbs if you increase your leg strength it will go along way to increasing your jumping ability in a short period.

Just stick with it…

Cain

just throwing somthing out there say some one 6’2" 170lbs with a 300lb squat were to increase his squat to 400lbs and only gained 5lbs of weight that would make him 175lbs now would his vertical have to increase?

Not necessarily, though it almost certainly would, assuming he maintained his proficiency throughtout.

[quote]flightposite wrote:
just throwing somthing out there say some one 6’2" 170lbs with a 300lb squat were to increase his squat to 400lbs and only gained 5lbs of weight that would make him 175lbs now would his vertical have to increase?[/quote]

In almost every logical situation, yes. Unless his polymetric ability degraded horribly for some unknown reason, then yes.

if his plyometric ability did not degrade could there be a way to figure out how much it should in theory increase?

Not really, no. Well, not easily. Youd have to have a bunch of scientific equipment to measure his rate of force production, and it would be hypothetical how much of that new power he could apply just as quickly. Even then, itd have a high rate of error.

If by “a bunch of scientific equipment” you mean a tape measurer and a stop watch then yes that’s correct.

Start learning how to squat, but in very light loads i.e. 50-80% of your body weight. Squat to parallel or just above.

In the meantime, performing jumps will strengthen the muscles of your legs while improving all those other great qualities (speed strength, RFD, etc. etc depending on what time of jump)

Do high volumes of box jumps, squat jumps, tuck jumps, star jumps, etc. and also do lots of med ball work (OH toss, chest pass, squat throw, etc. be creative). You want to exhaust these options before you start worrying too much about the weights

above all be patient and be persistent. the gains will come

[quote]duck_dodger23 wrote:
If by “a bunch of scientific equipment” you mean a tape measurer and a stop watch then yes that’s correct.

[/quote]

Yes because you can hand time a vertical jump accurately.

Use your brain there big guy.

Using a tape measurer and stop watch ANYONE can monitor how their power output and “reactivity”

Take some guesses, and I’ll tell you when you have it figured out. deal?

as far as ive heard vertical jump is most about calves, hamstrings and glutes/back rather than quads. of course they help too, but not that much.

least thats what ive heard.

[quote]duck_dodger23 wrote:
Use your brain there big guy.

Using a tape measurer and stop watch ANYONE can monitor how their power output and “reactivity”

Take some guesses, and I’ll tell you when you have it figured out. deal?[/quote]

Monitoring your power output and being able to predict how many inches you gain are completely different, big guy. Being able to record changes in power is completely different from getting accurate numbers to plug into equations to give you an accurate answer. I’d like to see someone hand time a movement that takes less than .2 seconds.

[quote]flightposite wrote:
just throwing somthing out there say some one 6’2" 170lbs with a 300lb squat were to increase his squat to 400lbs and only gained 5lbs of weight that would make him 175lbs now would his vertical have to increase?[/quote]

He would be able to powersnatch his own bodyweight with no dip to catch it…

so 39-40+ inches at least, but generally speaking, taller guys need less strength for a certain vert, if they have normal or longer femur/leg ratios.

As long as he is a well practised jumper with good reactivity and jumping efficiency

it’s based on a little formula I’ve thought up just from observation of a few 5’9" guys with vertical jumps over 40 inches :slight_smile:

Assuming the squat is a full oly squat - high bar, ass to the floor etc

[quote]Defekt wrote:
Monitoring your power output and being able to predict how many inches you gain are completely different, big guy. Being able to record changes in power is completely different from getting accurate numbers to plug into equations to give you an accurate answer. I’d like to see someone hand time a movement that takes less than .2 seconds. [/quote]

Well, if you’re monitoring reactivity then obviously you’ll need more than one jump wouldn’t you?

Stop being confrontational and start using the noggin

How, using a stop watch and tape measurer, could you quantify how much power someone is putting into the ground and how fast they are doing it? Think about it.

Duck,

If you want to prove your point, set up the equation and do the math for us. I’d like to see your solution.

Seems to me that though one can rather easily measure changes in reactivity, relative power, absolute power, strength, and a host of other qualities, seeing how those changes translate to gains in an individual’s vertical jump would require multiple measurements over time (i.e. diachronic analysis) – and even then there is no guarantee that the second 50 pounds one adds to his squat will yield the same gains as the first 50.

CCJ proposes considering the numbers of other jumpers, and I think he’s on the right track. Indeed, these very correlations inform modern training methods. Differences between individuals, however, will certainly affect the accuracy of such general predictions.

So what’s your method?

Well thanks guys for all the help so far, I didn’t mean for this to get into a huge argument. Some additional info

Max squat: 190lbs
Current Vertical Leap: 23"
My goal would be to get about a 30" vertical leap by mid september. Would that be possible?
Also, I will check into that book.
As for the 3 steps, I have step 3 down, I have below 10% BF so I will focus on the other 2 steps. What kind of plyometrics are beneficial? and what other lifts should I be doing besides squats?