Decrease your vertical jump?

no, this is the right forum. it's about yao ming so it applies...



anyhoo, i remember reading the same thing about mind decreasing his hops. i think it was a result of added weight. simple matter of having more up top putting more strain on the hop.

 

I think it's because of the conversion of the metric system... Yao claimed his jump is 35 centimeters, the Rockets thought 35 inches...

 

im not really sure how he decreased it but when i gained weight... my vertical increased without any lifting LOL

 

I believe it has to do with building fast and slow twitch muscles. If you look at the way body builders work out, they do real slow deliberate movements which isolate certain muscles. This is great if you want size but it sucks if you what to increase dynamic movements. Compare that to power lifters and football lineman. They are just as big but they are quicker and more mobile. This is because they do more power excercise like squats and dead lifting and I they do it quickly to work those fast twitch muscles that the need to run and jump.

 

oh my god, 35 cm. thats like 14 3/4 inch vertical.

 

Yao's feet are longer than 35cm.

I bet he jumps around 28 inches. Just wild guessing.

 

28 inches is a lot for a guy his size. He doesn't seem to jump that well. The NBA average is probably anywhere from 30-33 inches. The average for centers is probably less than 30 inches.

 

Maybe Shawn Kemp used the wrong lifting regimen, and that's what happened to his vertical. Same thing with Hot Plate Williams -- remember him? Definitely, he was lifting the wrong things, like double-bacon-cheeseburgers.

 

He was doing squats, but at the wrong weight. That'll end up bulking you up, and he loses what little explosiveness he has. His vertical doesn't matter anyways, he has to jump like 2 inches to dunk.

 

Squats help increase your explosiveness and help you run faster. They build up your upper thighs. When you first do them, they fatigue your legs but if you do them regularly they recover faster and you reap the benefits.

 

Beer can help decrease your vertical jump!!!

 

I should be able to jump over the Compac Center by now.

 

Nope. Not always. It depends how you do your squats and at what weight. If you do low reps of heavy weight, that is NOT good for jumping. You'd think those muscle-men that can squat 600 would have 30" verticals at least, right? No, they can hardly jump. You have to work out your legs explosively to increase leaping.

 

I'm not worried then. Let's see: 90 inches in height, 15 inches in vertical leap and 40 inches of raised arms = 145 inches, or an inch more than 12 feet. Opposing players will really have to soar!

 

OK, I have a degree in exercise physiology(graduated with honors). I am a certified strength and condtioning specialist and certified personal trainer by one of the 2 nationally recognized certification commissions, the NSCA. This is all just to let you know that I know what I am talking about.

Building your verticle involves a few different components - maximum strength, speed strength (or explosiveness), core body strength, and flexibilty. Someone wrote that doing heavy squats for few reps would not increase your verticle - not true. If you lack maximum strength than increasing this part of the equation can make a tremendous difference. This person spoke about guys squatting 600 pounds and not being able to jump. They probably lack speed strength or explosiveness. You can be incredibly strong without being explosive. Heavy squats are very effective at improve speed and jumping ability, especially when done in conjunction with explosive exercises. When I talk about heavy, I mean weight equal to or greater than 85% of one rep max, which should essentially allow 6 or fewer reps. Fast twitch muscle fibers are preferentially recruited at this level, particularly the Type IIB, or fast glycolitic, which are able to develop the highest force levels.

For improving explosiveness, there are several methods that are very effective - plyometrics, squats with lighter weights(research shows that 30% of 1 rep max is close to ideal) but performed as quickly as possible, regular jump training, Olympic lifts and even sprinting. The purpose of explosive training is to teach the muslces to recruit as many muscle fiber as possible as quickly as possible. For example, if I take the 600 pound squatter referred to above as an example. He would obviously have a very high level of maximum strength, but if he is unexplosive he may only be able to recruit 70% of his muscle fibers during a jump attempt. IF I take him and add some light weight, explosive squats, Olympic lifts and some plyometrics to his program, and I increase his recruitment ability to say 80% his verticle would dramtically improve.

Remember power is equal to force X velocity. The amount you can squat effects the force component, and the speed of contraction effects velocity of movement. Plyometrics are effective because they teach the body overcome a tremendous amount of force in a very short period of time. I have read where the force of a 220 pound athlete hitting the ground from a 24 inch box can be as high as 3 times his body weight. If you noticed above that I listed plyometrics separately from jump training. Technically, true plyometrics involve jumping and landing then jumping again as quickly as possible, with very little knee movement. The idea is to spend as little time on the ground as possible. True jump training includes plyomterics but also encompasses jumps that involve deeper knee bends (squat jumps etc).

Other factors that influence jumping include the athlete's strength to body weight ratio. This simply means that you want to be as strong as possible with as little body weight as possible. Look at the 600 pound squatter listed above. If he weighed 200 pounds I bet his jump would be substantially higher then a similar athlete that also squats 600 pounds but at a body weight of 300 pounds. The 200 pounder has a strength to weight ratio of 3:1 vs 2:1 for the other guy. The main thing for atheletes to remember is that excess body fat can be a tremendous hinderance to someone involved in a sport where a high strength to body weight is improtant. Imagine getting out on the break and trying to dunk with a 20 pound weight belt strapped to your stomache - No Bueno.

Strengthing your abdominals and particularly you low back can also aid in improving you jump as the muslces are directly involved the chain of movements during a verticle. Remember during most jump attempts there is bending at the waist. Being able to raise your body out of this bended position rapidly aids in creating upward momentum. Flexibilty in the ankle os also important because the longer your foot stays in contact with the ground the more force against the ground can be developed by the calf muscles.

Genetics also play a huge role in how high you can jump. Some people can naturally recruit a very large amount of muslce fibers at one time or have a higher amount to fast twitch fibers present. These people sucj because they can jump or run fast with little work. The rest of us have to work at it, but rest assured that if you can find a properly designed program and put the hard work in, your jump can improve. Will you be able to jump like Steve, probably not unless your are genetically as gifted as he is, but you can improve. When I played volleyball in college I improved my verticle to 36-38 inches through hard work and the principles described above.

I hope this helps bring some understanding to those out there wanting to improve on this crucial area of athletic performance.

 

I reallly appreciate your info, stevel. Right now, I can touch the rim. My vertical is probably around the 24-30 inches range, and I'm about 6 foot. (I had a 24 inch vt last year, so it should at least be around there.) Right now at school, we are having an offseason workout for basketball. I will try to do things that you discussed so that I can increase my vertical. My goal is to dunk at the end of this year, but I may need some help in the form of another growth spurt.

edit: Oh, btw, by end of the year, I meant the school year, not THIS year. Our school year ends around May, next year.

 

Thank you for that post. I was gonna have a hard time trying to explain the benefits of squats. I'm only 6'1 but I can dunk with two hands vertically. My vertical is about 34 inches. Most of my leaping ability came naturally, but squats along with a few other leg exercises have helped me a lot.

 

I dont dink yao ming's vertical jump aint dat high around 2 ft