Getting Ready for Depth Jumps?

I started thinking today about how much I wish I could jump higher. Yes, I’m working on it and I know I need to be patient. This got me to thinking about how I should start setting up programs for myself and others when I begin training people.

I hear a lot of people doing depth jumps and I think its a great exercise. It really trains reactive ability. However, I’m wondering if people should start with depth/altitude drops before doing depth jumps. My rational is that people have to learn how to stabilize themselves on the landing before going on to the actual jump part.

Learning how to stabilize the force created from landing will make the jump more efficient. I see some people doing depth jumps and landing slightly left or right of where they jumped from. I don’t know if this how to do with the timing of their individual legs getting off of the ground or what.

However, it makes sense to me that if they learn how to “stick the landing” first before going on to actual depth jumps, the benefits would be better because a lot of reactive jumping is stabilizing the forces.

Thoughts??

This idea is unoriginal, but yes it’s a good strategy.

Yeah, I feel like it would be something someone else would think of. The reason I ask is that I’ve read in some places that Altitude drops really don’t help anything because there’s no concentric portion like in a jump. I guess I should have mentioned that.

[quote]arnoud verschoor wrote:
www.higher-faster-sports.com/shockmethods.html[/quote]

This confirms my thoughts then. Thanks.

Make sure you’re strong enough to make them worthwhile.

[quote]rmccart1 wrote:
Make sure you’re strong enough to make them worthwhile.[/quote]

Do you think that doing them from relatively low heights can be of any use for weaker athletes, or is it just pointless until a decent level of strength has been developed?