SHOULD WE TRAIN EQUALLY TO IMPROVE THE VERTICAL JUMP?

Normally a greater capacity of jump is associated with the performance in several sports that require specific actions of jump like the soccer, basketball or volleyball, besides relating with actions of speed like sprints, changes of direction, etc.

Training focused on its improvement is commonly known as jumping training, plyometrics or stretch-shortening cycle (CEA). Normally, we found an application of exercises with light loads or with one's own body weight to improve our vertical jump, which can be an inadequate approach in its attempt to improve on many occasions.


In the first place, we must understand that the success in our ability to jump will be determined fundamentally by two factors:

1. Fast eccentric-concentric transition (Speed)
2. Subsequent ability to apply high force (Force)

A combination of both factors will result in:

POWER = FORCE (newtons) x SPEED (meters per second)

Two athletes may have identical power values ​​with levels of applied force and speed at which they apply that force totally different. Therefore, the needs to improve one or the other factor will be different.

For example:

• Sportsman A: Jumps at a speed of 2 meters per second with applied force of 1500 Newtons.
• Sportsman B: Jumps at a speed of 1.5 meters per second with applied force of 2000 Newtons.

Both athletes develop a power of 3000 Watts. However, the athlete A will have more need to work his applied force and athlete B the speed with which he applies that force. I clarify that the values ​​are random, since the objective is to understand the concept.


You could use the comparison with a tractor, which is capable of moving large loads at a very low speed, and a motorcycle, which does not have much capacity to move high loads but is very fast with light loads, as some authors have done ( Balsalobre C. (2016))





In the sporting context the fact of increasing the speed of the actions will be fundamental to be agile and fast, but so will the applied force so that the displacement is greater in each of them. It will do you no good to do reactive exercises at the speed of light with a brutal coordination if in each contact you are not able to apply a high force and, consequently, move further away. An example could be coordination staircase exercises that, despite being useful for different objectives, are not enough to develop optimal power or displacement.

It will be necessary a balance between both qualities and for this it is necessary an evaluation and individualization of the training adapted to the strength or speed needs of each athlete.

For this purpose, analysis of the athlete's strength-speed profile is carried out.

How do we do it?

A simple and valid way to do it is through the MyJump application, which allows us to record our application of force and speed before different incremental loads and perform an automatic graph showing our profile and needs automatically by applying predictive equations .


Here you have an example of a personal evaluation in which we detected an imbalance of the profile force velocity with deficit of force, so it would be more necessary an improvement of this quality to have an optimal performance of jump and power of the lower limb.

CONCLUSIONS:

• In sports training, an individualization process is always necessary, so we can not have premises or prejudices about the best or worst exercises or the general needs of all athletes without first carrying out an evaluation.

• In the training aimed at the improvement of jumping and the power applied in specific sports contexts such as football or basketball, an evaluation of the athlete's strength-speed profile allows us to know what needs our athletes have in a simple way and to prewrite them individually. , therefore, much more effective the time invested in this type of training.

• Although there are profiles that need to train mostly one of the qualities (strength or speed) does not mean that the remaining quality is not trained, but that one or the other will have to be given more priority, being able to work both complementarily.

• The work of improving vertical jump and lower limb power should be more specific to the needs of the sport as the competitive moment approaches. Therefore, in sports such as football it will be fundamental to carry out an analysis of the strength-speed profile as soon as possible in order to take advantage of the non-competitive or pre-season period and be able to emphasize intensity ranges not specific to the sporting gesture.

I link the video tutorial offered by the MyJump application through its own YouTube channel