Ask Me Help Desk - Please Help Me With My Vertical Jump

OK so here's how it goes.

I'm a 13 year old male. I'm 5' 7" tall. I have a 19" vertical jump.

I play basketball and do track (highjumping, longjump , sprints).
My goal is to at very least touch the rim by next basketball season. I know I am capable of doing this so I was just wondering if I am on the right track. And if my jump is good. If not; what can I do to get better?

Thanks,

HOOSIER

Quote:

I'm a 13 year old male. I'm 5' 7" tall. I have a 19" vertical jump.

What's your reach? Plus highest touch?

Quote:

I know I am capable of doing this

Well this may be a very hard goal to achieve because you probably need about 10 inches I'm geussing

Quote:

I was just wondering if I am on the right track.

Well, what's your workout scheduled? I'm geussing you have done a lot of plyometrics, so I would advise you to lift weights get a simple workout schedule. Squats and Deadlifts on different days remmeber and don't forget upper body and core.

Here's a quick article I wrote like last week. Trust me on this it was only a year ago when I wanted to dunk(I was 13 5'5 and had a great vertical so I know what its like trying to dunk I almost could get rim I could in games soemtimes.)

Vertical Jumping

I know that this may be one of the things you desire (A Great Vertical Leap). There are many reasons to train to get a high vertical leap. For many sports I there’s different reasons to improve your jumping ability. Like in Basketball many many many people with want to dunk a basketball so badly they’ll pay a million dollars for a program which says that you’ll gain this many inches in this amount of time.(I exaggerated on a million dollars but…) There is no way that there’s a guarantee for a program because your body may be use to the same workout routine so if you were doing plyometrics for a while( a commercial program ). Most of them are plyometrics. If you do plyometrics then do more plyometrics you probably not going to gain well so don’t fall for them 10 inches in 5 weeks things. Most people are now like but what about testimonials? They can be lies. Anyway even if there not lies I doubt that many other will gain like that. Now I’m going to break this down into two sections ( Weights and Plyometrics ).

Weights

Many of you guys probably never trained with weights before so why not start now. To be good at sports you need to be in good shape and be strong enough to do what you have to do. I think weight training is one of if not the best way to improve vertical jumping. If your just going to start with weights soon check out my other article for a simple program which you can use and change the exercises. You want to go for form before weight. Once you get form down then put on some more weight but don’t put too much because you don’t want to sacrifice form. I think of some exercise that you may want to incorporate in your program (this is only some lower body don’t forget about upper body and your core) are Squats/Deadlifts have them on different days so that you don’t tax your cns( central nervous system ) too much. Lunges are great because they can fix the imbalance in your legs. Step-Ups can be good to if done with a higher chair so you can get your glutes and some other posterior chain muscles into that exercise. Leg Curls are pretty good for hamstring but GHRs work great to but are much more difficult so beginners don’t start with these. Pistols can be a great addition to any workout just practice them with something to balance on first then try without balance work your way up to that. There are many more but these are just some easy ones.

Plometrics

Plyometrics are a great way to get more quick. There are the different kinds. High Med Low intensity. High intensity plyometrics should only be done when you have a good strength base and squat 1.5 times your body weight so if you weight 100 you would want to squat 150. Low and medium plyometrics are usually can be done without squating that much weight.
Example of high intensity plyometric: Depth Jumps
Example of Medium/Low intensity plyometric: Lateral Cone hops

This is just a quick overview I will later go into more in depth information. I will not have any Q and A’s this time I will make a huge page of Q and A’s hopefully very soon.

I'm 12yrs old and about 5'8". I'm not shure how high my verticle is but I can touch the middle of the orange box connecting the rim to the backboard. My goal is to be able to touch rim by January 3rd.(when we get back from winter break at school). Is there any way that I can accheive this goal? And another one of my questions is do platform shoes work?

I have heard mixed reviews on platform shoes. I however have a good friend who played for UK who wore ankle weights. He learned to jump with the extra weight when took them off he had a higher vertical.

Ankle weights may help but in the long run will ruin you. They pull on tendons what your should do is strap them around your waist so there like a hypergravity weightbelt. I would advise anyone if they have the money to buy Kelly Baggetts Vertical Jump Bible. Great info and like 9 good programs. If you don't have the money or anything I can help you with a program and xmaddox you're my height and I'm 14. Also platform shoes will help Newbies to training mostly if not only.

Try this site. Its free and has lots of good info on jumping. All the info on it I have used. I'm 6'0" 185lbs, 7'10" max reach, 33 inch vertical, highest touch - a few inches short of 11 feet. So check it out
http://www.thejumpingsite.com

I'm 13... 5'5 weigh 110 my vertical is 28inches I know its sort:a high but its true:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Air J

Whats your reach? Plus highest touch?

Well this may be a very hard goal to achive because you probaly need about 10 inches i'm geussing

Well, whats your workout scheduled? I'm geussing you have done alot of plyometrics, so i owuld advise you to lift weights get a simple workout schedule. Squats and Deadlifts on different days remmeber and dont forget upper body and core.

Heres a quick article i wrote like last week. Trust me on this it was only a year ago when i wanted to dunk(i was 13 5'5 and hadpooppojplkk kkk lsoemtimes.)

Vertical Jumping

I know that this may be one of the things you desire (A Great Vertical Leap). There are many reasons to train to get a high vertical leap. For many sports I there’s different reasons to improve your jumping ability. Like in Basketball many many many people with want to dunk a basketball so badly they’ll pay a million dollars for a program which says that you’ll gain this many inches in this amount of time.(I exaggerated on a million dollars but…) There is no way that there’s a guarantee for a program because your body may be use to the same workout routine so if you were doing plyometrics for a while( a commercial program ). Most of them are plyometrics. If you do plyometrics then do more plyometrics you probably not going to gain well so don’t fall for them 10 inches in 5 weeks things. Most people are now like but what about testimonials? They can be lies. Anyways even if there not lies I doubt that many other will gain like that. Now I’m going to break this down into two sections ( Weights and Plyometrics ).

Weights

Many of you guys probably never trained with weights before so why not start now. To be good at sports you need to be in good shape and be strong enough to do what you have to do. I think weight training is one of if not the best way to improve vertical jumping. If your just going to start with weights soon check out my other article for a simple program which you can use and change the exercises. You want to go for form before weight. Once you get form down then put on some more weight but don’t put to much because you don’t want to sacrifice form. I think of some exercise that you may want to incorporate in your program (this is only some lower body don’t forget about upper body and your core) are Squats/Deadlifts have them on different days so that you don’t tax your cns( central nervous system ) too much. Lunges are great because they can fix the imbalance in your legs. Step-Ups can be good to if done with a higher chair so you can get your glutes and some other posterior chain muscles into that exercise. Leg Curls are pretty good for hamstring but GHRs work great to but are much more difficult so beginners don’t start with these. Pistols can be a great addition to any workout just practice them with something to balance on first then try without balance work your way up to that. There are many more but these are just some easy ones.

Plometrics

Plyometrics are a great way to get quicker. There are the different kinds. High Med Low intensity. High intensity plyometrics should only be done when you have a good strength base and squat 1.5 times your body weight so if you weight 100 you would want to squat 150. Low and medium plyometrics are usally can be done without squating that much weight.
Example of high intensity plyometric: Depth Jumps
Example of Medium/Low intensity plyometric: Lateral Cone hops

This is just a quick overview I will later go into more in depth information. I will not have any Q and A’s this time I will make a huge page of Q and A’s hopefully very soon.

mine is 28

Make some wooden boxes, and put you some leg weights on and jump boxes, that's what we used to do in basketball

Well you are well motivated, that definitely is the right track. I think you should just keeping working hard and having fun playing basketball, you won't miss your goal. Just be patient, you are young

I'm 16 about 5'6 and my highest jump now is 30 inches. I've found out the real trick to jumping high is finding the perfect form of jumping. For example, if you miss-time throwing your arms up in the air before jumping, or don't bring them back far enough, u've already killed some inches. You have to be able to understand and feel a perfect flow of kinetic energy through your body to get that perfect jump. No awkward or unnecessary movements.

The explosion does not come all from your legs, so doing squats won't add too many inches but they can be helpful. A lot of power comes from your core strength. I developed a strong core for baseball, and it ended helping me out in basketball too.

Heavy weighted workouts build a lot of slow-twitch muscle while what you want to build-in your legs-is fast-twitch, the explosive muscle. My legs aren't the biggest, but they are still strong.(fast or slow twitch does not matter significantly when it comes to core strength)

Great workouts to build fast twitch muscle are agility drills and plyometrics.