The Higher Jump Factor
Hi. Welcome to HowtoJumpHigherTips.com. If you found this page then it’s likely that you are an athlete and that you are looking for information on how to improve one aspect of your game that is quite important in your sport: The Jump.
If you are a basketball or volleyball player, then jumping, for you, is a way of life. And it is essential to your career that you become good at it. No, not just good, but great! You need to be great in all aspects of your game if you are serious about competing in your sport for a long time.
But what constitutes a great jump? The answer to this is quite simple. A great jump is one that maximizes the explosive potential of your physical attributes. Contrary to most belief, a 20 to 30 inch vertical jump is not quite reaching your potential yet because the human body is capable of jumping higher than that. According to professional vertical jump trainer Jacob Hiller, The human body is naturally gifted with the amazing potential to explode up to 40 to 50 inches of vertical flight.
But before you go deeper into learning how to jump higher, I’d like to give you a friendly reminder first. Because like many things in life, it is very easy to fail in your quest for that higher vertical jump. The recommended approach to increasing vertical jump is not a simple, single faceted approach but a multi-faceted training that will require self-motivation and inspiration. You however have a distinct advantage in that, being already an athlete, you know that, unless you were born with great skills, you need to train like a pro to become a pro!
Why Go Into Higher Vertical Jump Training?
It’s not everyday that we see a basketball player with a height of 5′5″ jumping and dunking a ball cleanly but let me tell you that it can be done. Many of us are not motivated to work and achieve great things because we are held back by wrong impressions and preconceptions. Just because you are short doesn’t mean that you will never be able to dunk a basket ball or make a clean spike over the volleyball net without using a trampoline. Making your vertical jump higher by at least 10 inches is quite possible regardless of your height and fitness level.
Imagine the shock of your friends when they see a 5′5″ basketball player make that 40 inch jump to the hoop or a 5′5″ volleyball player make that 40 inch leap to drill that volleyball down that opponent’s court. It can be done! One proof is the case of a dude named Brandon Todd, a 5′5″ hoop player that motivated and trained himself to jump higher in basketball. And guess what, he succeeded and made a video as proof that short people can jump, too! See the video below (source: The Jump Manual). Watch Brandon fly and be inspired. You can do it, too!
But don’t do it just to brag about it. Do it because it is the next logical step to improving yourself and your game. Increasing your verticals by at least 10 inch will require dedication on your part. But it doesn’t end with that. Motivation and dedication must be be accompanied by knowledge.
Avoid Failing, Train Right
Like many things in life, failing in your vertical jump training can be as easy (if not easier) as succeeding. The reason for this isn’t necessarily because of the difficulty of achieving your goal but because there are aspects of the training that you can easily do wrong without proper guidance. Jacob Hiller gives four reasons why people fail to increase their vertical explosion:
- Lack of knowledge of correct training principles
- Incorrect application or use of correct principles
- Lack of motivation and discipline to train consistently and correctly
- Lack of proper eating habits and nutrition
Learning sound principles isn’t as easy as it sounds because many of the higher jump training concepts can be counter-intuitive. Hence, to get this information you will need to get it from reliable sources. The internet is a boon to this because there are now real expert trainers online that are sharing reliable information on the correct techniques and principles.
Real experts are now available via online correspondence to serve as your personal trainer to teach you how to use the correct principles correctly. Let me repeat that. To succeed you need to apply the correct principles correctly to work. Many so-called exercises to jump higher freely given on many websites will feel right when you do them but they may be the wrong thing to do if you want to improve your vertical jump. Remember, that you need to train for explosiveness, not endurance. You will need to push yourself, not pace yourself.
Discipline is perhaps the toughest to achieve in any type of training, physical or otherwise. It’s not a common commodity to be able to develop that motivation to do everything consistently according to a pre-specified training regimen. This aspect right here will be an internal struggle and one which you will need to work on by yourself. But worry not. Get inspiration from the fact that there are many many others who have successfully achieved this and have reached their explosive vertical jump potentials. Jacob Hiller encourages people to go and interact with fellow trainees in forums (like in his Jump Manual forum). Get motivated by hearing about their success stories! How else would they have succeeded without discipline? Learn how from like-minded athletes!
Last but, definitely, not the least would be nutrition. This is one aspect that is overlooked quite often. Even casual basketball or volleyball players should take heed the fact that you are indeed what you eat and that proper nutrition will increase your chances of becoming the athlete you envision yourself to be. Maximize your body’s potential by giving it the right nutrition.
Photo credit: Nathan Dainty
