5 Explosive Exercises For Your Vertical Jump

Treys are another problem, by the way. ) At least with dunks you wouldn''t have guys who can''t touch the rim attempt to throw down a windmill in games. But shooting the ball is a lottery where everybody is bound to win. I mean, eventually. So why not give it a shot? A three-point shot, in particular.

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A left hander off a steal vs Notre Dame ...right in front of us.... the other was was Milo ....... and as he was giving the fans a high five they laid it in at the other end. I was not a happy camper.

How ya doin Danny? Hope all is well.

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One dunk was Croatian sensation in 91. Other one was?

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By the way, we had two plays for back door dunks... and in 16 years on the varsity we got ZERO dunks.... but got three 3 pointers off the pass.

In all those years my teams had 2 dunks that I can remember. But we had a lot of threes.

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We had shirts made like this ....

Picture of a guy dunking and another guy hitting a 3....

It said... 'TWO FOR YOU & THREE FOR ME"

That says it all.... anyway... JMO

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Well, boys wanna be like their heroes... And the heroes fly high nowadays. I don''t know if anybody wants to be like Steve Nash, for example. Though this guy was a two-time MVP in the NBA, not that bad, uh?

Of all the sports I know, basketball is the most mythologized by a clear margin. For starters, nobody knows the rules. :)) How can it be not a travel when your pivot foot is off the ground?! Ok.
Or AND 1. Or all this cult of athleticism.

I was huge into soccer when I was in HS. I can''t recall any talks along the lines of "if only I could run faster...". In soccer the best player doesn''t mean "the fastest player"! It doesn''t even mean the best scorer. You can be outrun, outpowered in some cases — and still be the best player. Because you''re good with the ball, you understand the game and you make right decisions. It is not what coaches say — it is how it''s felt by the players.

In basketball guys would rather spend two hours on dunks than one hour on shooting around. Why so? Because once in a couple of games they''ll have this opportunity... the path to the basket is clear, the ball has found its way into your hands... boom — with authority! No time was spent in vain. :)

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I like Stepan's comments. This is a hot topic in my house. I coach 8th grade boys, have an excelling 8th grader, and I'm also huge into Crossfit. However I'm very cautious letting my eager, hard-working boy to do any of the exercises I put my body through. He's at an age where he wants to 'grab the rim'. He does alot of body weight & agility exercises but I don't let him squat with my bar only light dumbbells with various exercises. I don't want to see him get injured at this age from stuff I let him do so this is a challenging issue on what is good or what is too much. *I was the kid who had a good vertical in HS/college due to squats, leg workouts, & track&field and didn't have good ball-handling skills or footwork!

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Good stuff.

My knees hurt just watching the videos. LOL...oooh...I think I just pulled a hammy...

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Nice drills for advanced athletes.

I''m not an expert in weight training (though over my playing years I tried various stuff including some of the shown above) but IMHO the main point is: too much focus on the whole thing. Not to say it doesn''t matter what you do, and a good athletic coach is always a benefit. But honestly... I don''t think Kobe Bryant or Dwayne Wade would''ve jumped worse were they limited to the most ordinary squats and jumps for their whole career. Or maybe to just playing the game.

What is really important and valuable, is injury prevention routines, joint strengthening exercises, balancing drills, etc. The problem is, to sell these drills you usually have to promise your players that eventually it will help increase their vertical or starting speed. So guys think it''s kind of preparation for some really cool weight training. Whereas it is the most important thing in and of itself. Many pros understand it, I guess (or at least there''s someone around to tell them), but at youth and amateur levels I can see an obvious shift toward the heavy-weighting practices, in many cases very dangerous ones.
Somehow guys do not realize that +5 inches in the vertical (let alone hardly achievable in most cases) won''t make you nearly as good a player as +5 percent from the FT line...

If you''re born with the ability to jump or get by people, you''ll know it. If you''re not, better concentrate on other things, your strengths. Do not spend your time on trying to become decent where you can''t be great. Spend it on where you can. Shooting the ball for one. ☺

As for conditioning... Any reasonable drills will do it, I think. Just do not overdo them.

All that being said (and written), props for another interesting and thought-provoking topic on my favorite basketball site. Thank you for your work!

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Great for jumping ability

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Adam,
The commentary on the video of the jump squat was put up there to show that jump squats with the bar on the spine are not nearly as beneficial as jump squats with the dumbbells held low.

Sorry if the video was confusing, but I just put it up there to give a video example of different styles and the changes in body position of each.

We agree with you and all jump squats should be performed with weight held low.

Thanks,
Scott Moody

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Great variations for a firm foundation as it relates to explosive mobility. Thank you.

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Great point Adam!! We do the squat jumps with resistance bands or utilizing a functional trainer... we all want to improve our athletes abilities but safety is paramount.

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Good with most of this, but jumping with weight on your shoulders, especially an Olympic bar, is irresponsible and unnecessary. Especially teenagers. That kind of spine compression can only lead to one thing. Injury followed by a lawsuit.

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These are great workouts, and I like the fact that they don't require heavy weights which has the effect of putting a lot of pressure on the joints. Thanks for the ideas, we can implement them immediately.

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I am glad

to see the variations of improvement for the athelete. Thanks,keep up the good work

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