Min-ticle #3 - How to Jump!
I’d like to put a tiny disclaimer at the head of this article and say this: I am not a doctor of any kind. I am only writing from my own experience and my opinion. I am not liable for any injury you may encounter in jumping.
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I’m continuing this series of basketball posts from last week. Writing these articles is not only helpful to the people I coach but also helpful to me in breaking things down and explaining it to them.
How to Jump
Strength
I’d like to get this out of the way first because it’s not what I want to focus on here.
Obviously, the strength and springy-ness you have in your muscles, tendons and ligaments will contribute to one’s ability to produce force, and this is something that you may want to focus on if you really want to get good at jumping in the long term. [I will write a separate article about this soon.]
However, I want to focus on what we can change now to increase your vertical by several inches in one session. And that is… technique.
Technique:
#1 Some Stretches and Warm-ups
Stretching out the muscles will prevent any tight spots from restricting our range of motion. The basic idea is:
We stretch out the posterior chain - (the back of the body). This can be done with some two touches and variations of that such as pike pancake and straddle pancake. This will stretch out the calves, hamstrings and back. I like to elevate my toes when doing toe touches to increase the stretch on my calves.
[I will include diagrams of all these stretches soon, for now google is your friend.]
We stretch the anterior chain - (the front of the body). This can be done with several different stretches. Some examples include the cobra pose, reverse nordic and couch stretch. This will stretch out the tibialis, quads and abs.
We stretch out our sides. This can be done with a simple side stretch. The stretches our quadratus lumborum (basically, the sides).
We stretch the groin by doing some deep lunges to the front and to each side.
I’d like to add here: In my opinion, the more flexible you are, the more explosive power you have access to.
To warm up, some people like to do some explosive exercises such as lifting some weights or doing sprints. Personally, I like to warm up with some sub-maximal jumps. For me that means touching the rim of the basketball hoop.
#2 The Descent
I.e. lowering yourself down before you explode out of that position into your jump. This needs to be quick. Too slow and the elasticity in your muscles will start to lose effectiveness. We don’t go all the way to the ground but we don’t go too shallow either.
#3 Arm swing
As you lower yourself, swing your arms down and back behind you. [I will include a diagram soon]. As you jump, swing your arms up and use that momentum to drive yourself further upwards. Arm strength will help here.
#4 Leg kick
This is more of a niche skill to develop so don’t worry if you don’t quite get this one: While you are in the air, kick your legs back behind you (as if you’re doing a double butt kick) to provide even further upward momentum to you jump. Having strong hamstrings and glutes will help here.
#5 Stepping into it
Part I - Your Feet.
The idea is to run into it, however, in my opinion, it’s more effective to first practice stepping into it. Once you understand how to step into it, you will naturally be able to implement that into a running jump.
In basketball, there are what we call plants. - How our feet land before the jump happens. There are four in total: (1) right-left, (2) left-right, (3) right and (4) left. Today, we’ll focus on the two-foot jumps.
When you are starting, just pick whichever plant feels comfortable to you. (Further down the line, you will want to practice the other plants to develop your jumping ability.)
Take a big step: one-two-jump. The 'one-two' is your feet coming together, then you jump.
Part II - Jump UP not forward
To jump up we need to translate our horizontal motion into vertical motion. If the angle of our jump is vertical and our momentum is forward, our resultant force is going to be a little bit of both. The angle of our jump needs to counteract our forward momentum and translate that into the power in our jump.
For this, I would recommend focusing on going up and not forward. Don’t overthink it. If you are going too far forward, correct for that.
#6 Landing
Just like with jumping, our landing also has different forms: right-left or left-right. To be able to land safely we need to be able to do both. Evening out imbalances in both of our legs will help us prevent injury.
Summary
Stretch and warm-up
Lower into it
Swing your arms as you jump
Kick your legs behind you while in the air (if you can).
Take a big step: ‘one-two-jump’
Focus on going up, not forward
That’s a lot to take at once. Try and focus on one thing at a time and if you’re struggling try different things.
Also please be careful! Learning to jump for the first time is like learning a skateboard trick. When you’re unfamiliar with the technique it’s easy to become un-coordinated.
However, it’s important to really go for it. I remember limiting myself when jumping to grab a basketball rim just because it’s so high and falling is scary.
To prevent injury or fear of injury, make sure (1) that your shoes have an adequate grip with the ground beneath you and (2) that you go for rim taps rather than grabbing the hoop if you are not quite sure.
Here is a useful video on how to dunk:
