Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Learn How to Jump Higher Now

The secret to knowing how to jump higher is something that many athletes want to find out. If you are a basketball player, you surely want to be able to make as many dunks as you can. If you are a volleyball player, you surely want to block the ball as often as possible. These circumstances are only two examples of the value of jumping higher in different sports.

And so, is it ever possible for an athlete to really increase her or his jump? What factor holds the key in increasing an athlete's jump? Here is a discussion of some factors that have been proven to influence a person's jump.

Each and every athlete observes and values discipline. Discipline is very important if you want to achieve your goals and this will surely help you a lot in achieving them. If your goal is to increase your jump, you must be disciplined in doing your exercises, taking proper care of yourself, eating the right types of foods, and so on.

Remember that it is not easy to become the best in your chosen field. Of course, no one would want to be regarded as the worst player in his or her team, right? And you also definitely do not want to be the type who does not get to play since there are so many players in your team that are better than you. Tons of discipline is surely needed if you want to be known as the best player in the team.

Another important factor is getting a coach or a mentor. Aside from being disciplined, you must always strive to learn something new. What new strategies are available which are effective in increasing your jump? Are there fresh equipment that can increase your jump? Furthermore, the wisdom and maturity of your coach or mentor are valuable things that he or she can impart.

When looking for a mentor or coach, he or she must have the experience and knowledge which are important in grooming you to becoming the best in your chosen sport. Remember also that you need not be afraid to ask someone to mentor or coach you as this person is an essential factor in your success. If you want to become the best, you have to learn from the best. Before you decide on a mentor, make sure that you have dine your research. You have to find out as much information as you can about the person. Also remember that you must be able to trust and respect your mentor.

Other important factors for an athlete to learn how to jump higher are knowing what exercises are right, knowing how to do them properly and how often these must be done. These things can be definitely taught to you by your coach or mentor. Just make sure that you know how to do these exercises properly whenever you have your training. If you are doing the exercises incorrectly, you may definitely get injured.

These are only three factors that are vital for you to learn how to jump higher. Truth is, there are more factors that are just as important as these factors are.

Learn How To Jump Higher - Need To Know Jumping Exercises For Serious Ballers

Want to learn how to jump higher?

Well there are many answers to the question how to jump higher. I can almost guarantee that if you are at this site you are a basketball player that is serious about improving there. There are many exercises that are designed to increase vertical. You are going to need to find a set of exercises which fits your needs and into your workout schedule.

Playing basketball, being able to do this better than your opponent can give you a huge advantage. That is why so many young athletes want to learn how to jump higher. Increasing your vertical leap will improve every aspect of your overall game such as:

* dunking

* shot blocking

* rebounding

* jump shooting

Being able to do all of the above better than your opponent is a critical part of learning how to jump higher.

To start increasing you should start including these basketball jumping exercises into your workout routine. The exercises that I am talking about are Burnouts and Calf Raises. These basketball jumping exercises are great at increasing your vertical jump.

Burnouts are a very high intensity exercises that will work both your calves and thigh muscles. It will also increase your vertical explosion which is very important also.

Squat hops are a similar exercise that will help to develop the explosive leaping ability that you use when jumping off of 2 legs.

You should add both of these jumping exercises into your workout routines right away. So many people try to learn how to jump higher but they are not following correct principles and good jump training programs. Anyone can increase there vertical leap.

It is going to take a lot of dedication, hard work, and willingness to succeed. Yes you are actually going to have to work to learn how to jump higher. There is no magic item that you can buy to instantly increase your vertical.

You will find that the 2 basketball jumping exercises above that I shared with you, when combined with a few other exercises will increase your vertical very quickly.

Learn how to jump higher is a simple question to answer if you know where to look for the correct information at. Start taking the steps now in this article if want to start increasing your vertical as quick as possible.

Vertical Limit - Learn to Jump Higher

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.