I, like many basketball players, have always wanted to be able to dunk and jump through the roof. However, many high school strength coaches as well as basketball coaches are ill-informed when it comes to the best techniques on how to achieve a higher vertical jump. I set out with one goal two months ago, to put six inches on my vertical jump this year, and it has been two months and I have already more than achieved my goal.
The first step in improving your vertical jump is letting go of your old paradigm of working out. If you want a higher vertical jump, you probably will not be the most jacked guy in the gym, but you will be the most athletic and functional.
After breaking away from the muscle building paradigm and shifting to a movement oriented paradigm, I sought out the best training course for my objective. I found an NBA Athletic Trainer named Paul Fabritz who had recently put out several online training programs to help people improve their vertical jump. I settled on the Vert Code Body Weight (he also has programs such as vert code elite, fat don't fly, and speed code). Vert Code Body Weight is broken into four phases. The first two phases are two weeks each and the last two phases are four weeks each. Throughout the whole program it is five days a week going leg, core, leg, core, leg.
The first phase starts off with ensuring that the athlete has the base strength and mobility to handle the jumping that comes in later phases incorporating many isometric hold as well as active stretches. Additionally, it focuses on teaching the form of jumping. Most people have no idea the best way to jump even people who have been playing for years.
Phase 2 focuses on the load and redirect part of the jump featuring exercises such as lateral bounds and long jumps. This gets the athlete ready to redirect force and change direction. Being able to load weight and redirect it is essentially the main force behind a jump. When you jump, you need to load all of your force into your glutes, hamstrings, etc. and redirect that force against the floor in the vertical direction.
Phase 3 is the explode phase where athletes work on building optimal concentric explosiveness. In order to accomplish achieving optimal concentric explosiveness, athletes can do exercises such as jump starts, drach jumps, and oscillating rear foot elevated split squats (RFESS)
Phase 4, the final phase, is the spring phase. In order for us to get that spring , we do a lot of plyometric exercises such as consecutive hurdle jumps, bounds, lateral bound one foot jumps, and versatile jump drill which features different footworks for jumping.
I highly recommend follow @PJFperformance on Instagram and for those interested in putting inches on their vertical jump I recommend you start with Paul Fabritz Vert Code Body Weight!
