A good vertical jump is a useful skill for traceurs, basket ball players,
martial artists, athletes, climbers and kangaroos. It's also just a cool thing
to be able to do. In fact as a kid my pulling technique consisted entirely of
jumping onto high things then wiggling my eyebrows at girls and going 'eh?'.
Perhaps unsurprisingly I didn't date much until I was... 20... Anyway, they were
all stupid because jumping is amazing (although I concede the eyebrow thing may
have been creepy). To find out just how high your vertical jump is you will need
a piece of chalk and a wall. Firstly stand flat-footed and mark on the wall the
highest point you can reach. Then do a big jump and mark the highest point you
can. Then tada! The distance between these points is your vertical leap.
Fortunately for the heavily gravity-effected among you there are several
techniques and exercises you can use to increase this number and I m going to go
through a few of them for you now.
Sunflower seeds:
'Whaaat?' you must be thinking, 'sunflower seeds will make me jump higher???'.
Well it s not exactly how it sounds, and this is actually a technique allegedly
used by ninjas. As you know ninjas are the coolest things there are so it's got
to have some merit.
Basically as part of their training, ninjas would plant a sunflower seed and let
it start to grow. Every day they would go out into the garden and jump over it
several times. You see the sunflower would be slowly growing (and they can get
pretty darn big) so each day they would be jumping a millimetre higher. No big
deal in itself but eventually they could be hurdling up to five foot. I used a
similar principle in my garden during my formative years where I built a hurdle
out of sticks (I was a special child (it s probably to do with that 'no
girlfriend' thing)). I just used the wooden sticks you buy from garden centres,
stabbed two into the ground and tied the third one across the top with string.
Each day I increased the height slightly. Now I m amazing.
Squats:
Squats are regularly practiced by those who want to jump higher as they are
essentially slow weighted jumps. Perform in an explosive manner in order to
build the type of explosive power you need to leap high into the air. These work
both quads and hamstrings which are both used in jumping.
An interesting variation on the squat is the sissy squat which is essentially
like limbo. You don t require any additional weight as the difficulty comes from
the awkward angle of the move which involves leaning back and bending your knees
while on tiptoes limbo-style. You will most likely need to hold onto something
to keep your balance. A great quads workout. Another good variation is the
one-legged squat (your other leg should be extended infront of you). Again this
requires no additional weight for most people and you may need to support
yourself against a wall.
Improve your Calves: Calves are involved in the last stage of a jump as you push
yourself off the ground with the tips of your toes. Strong calves then can add
significantly to your maximum height. Obviously calf raises are good for
development here, either weighted or on one leg. A good form of incidental
training for the calves however is to try walking on tip toes for a while. You
should fairly soon begin to feel the burn.
Stretching: Stretching the Achilles Tendon has been said to improve jump height.
This can be achieved with toe curls or touching your toes while sat on the
ground. Be careful though, you do not want to tear the tendon. That is not cool.
Plyometrics: For the uninitiated, plyometric training is training that uses
short bursts of strength from muscles thus working the fast-twitch fibres and
improving speed in the area. An example of a plyometric exercise for the upper
body is clapping press ups, as it requires that short sharp burst of energy to
launch yourself off the ground. The astute among you will already have made the
connection realizing that the same kind of power is used for jumping. 'Box
jumps' are a plyometric exercise for the legs that are very much like they sound
and involve jumping up onto then back off a box repeatedly.
Springbak Speedsoles: 'Speedsoles' are squidgey insoles that you place in your
shoes to give yourself a bit of extra bounce. Apparently the extra comfort for
the soles of your feet helps to speed up the electric impulses in your body and
thus improve your vibration frequency . This in turn should allow you to draw
more energy from your body for running, jumping and lifting. So now you know...
While you shouldn't expect flubber I have found that they do at least give you a
bit of a spring in your step and have the added bonus of combating shin splints
and other running-related pains. Read review...
Technique: Obviously if your jumping technique is no good then you are limiting
your potential. Here we are talking about vertical jump which is best performed
in two jumps: a small preceding bounce and the large main thrust. Consider the
first hop to be like loading the spring, during the second thrust you are
unleashing that coiled energy and pushing through the ground launching off the
balls of your feet. Marginal extra height can be added by swinging up your legs
and your arms. Vertical jump though is fairly boring. It's almost useful unless
you are playing basket ball. The coolest use of jumping you see is to jump over
stuff. That's what I'm pretty good at and I think it's time I shared with you my
awesome hurdling technique. Yes, I think you re ready...
Hurdling technique: For hurdling you will want a slightly different technique.
Good hurdles are a bit like scissor kicks and you will be swinging one leg up
while launching off the other. Start off with a run and as you approach the
obstacle make sure you're putting down your good leg about a metre away (this
may require an ungraceful little shuffle until you develop a feel for the
distance). Now as you bring your next leg up, swing it into the air as high as
you can so that it is almost already over. As you follow through you should push
off of your good foot, again from tip, launching yourself both forward and up.
As you cross over the object you need to bring up the launch foot and tuck it as
close up under your other thigh as possible which requires a certain amount of
flexibility. You should sail over looking almost like you're performing a flying
kick (which is well cool for photos). Simply unfold your bottom leg and bring
the other one down when you re safely on the other side.

Double Your Vertical Leap! - http://theveretia.key.to/