www.JUMPOUTTHEGYM.COM This is the first of many videos to come explaining some basic strength and conditioning concepts geared to get you jumping higher explosively in no time. Vertical Jump Training WWW.TTSPERFORMANCE.com Speed Training WWW.TTSPERFORMANCE.com Sports Training WWW.TTSPERFORMANCE.com Jumping WWW.TTSPERFORMANCE.com

In order to increase jumping ability, a number of explosive exercises can be performed to strengthen the power of the quadriceps, hamstrings and especially the calves. Discover how to do box drills to increase jumping ability with help from a certified personal trainer in this free video on fitness and exercises.

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Super Strength Super Fast; Fun Faster Jump Higher: Eight-Week Exercise Guides for Sprinting, Jumping, and Developing Super Strength Through Explosive Weightlifting

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I have even seen tennis coaches continue to push their players through a plyometrics training session even while these young athletes complained that their knees were hurting. Lunges are one exercise that will cause major discomfort to a young and underdeveloped player.

There are various factors to take into account in deciding on when to perform weight training in relation to on-court tennis training. Some of these factors include: Time of day, the duration of the tennis training session, how much time is required on the court, how much time can be devoted to strength training, the age of the athletes, the equipment available and do the athletes know how to use the gym.

I have spoken to a number of tennis coaches over the years who have used a light-weight training session using dumbbells before they head out onto the courts. They feel that this fifteen minute session prepares their athletes better and also assists in preventing injuries as their muscles, tendons and ligaments are ready for the explosive movements that they will face while on the tennis court.

There is some evidence suggesting that a light warm-up using weights prior to a tennis session can help in better preparing athletes physically and thus preventing soft-tissue injuries.

As far as conducting a weight session specifically devoted to strength training; I feel that it should be conducted separate from the tennis session. That is not back to back. For example, if you are coaching a college tennis team where you have more flexibility with their training schedules, your athletes could complete a gym session in the morning before the team tennis session in the afternoon which is when most tennis squads train. Allow for the athlete to recover in between their gym session and their tennis session with adequate rest and proper nutrition to boost energy levels for their next session.

Of course, if you are looking for one simple answer as to when they should do a weight session you are not going to get one. By that i mean some athletes prefer to do weights in the morning and some at night. The key is to have several hours rest between the two sessions.

It is often easier to say when you shouldn’t do one. Don’t try to conduct a weight training session immediately before or after a tennis session, don’t complete a session in the gym on the day of a match, don’t add new exercises into a routine the day before a match as it will likely cause muscle soreness and finally; create an individualised weight training program for each athlete. One program does not fit all!

You should plan ahead and know what type of tennis session you will conduct that day and whether or not you are in the pre-season, in-season or off-season. These factors must all be taken into account before deciding on how and when to conduct your strength training sessions.

During the post season is when you will want to rest, recover, refresh and deal with any possible injuries. During the pre-season you will want to begin with a progressive strength training session that builds up to a power training program that leads into the competitive season.

If your off season is quite long then you can structure your program to allow for those weaker athletes to spend more time in the gym building their basic strength before starting some plyometrics training. Those already advanced can be introduced into a plyometric training program earlier where possible.

The structure of an in-season training session on-court would depend on when your next game would be. This also applies to individuals and not just squads. You obviously don’t want to be introducing any new exercises or power training sessions the day before or the day of a match. It is important to maintain a regular strength training program with at least two to three sessions a week. During the competitive season you will want to reduce the volume by decreasing the number of sets and repetitions and maintain the current weight with a slight increase if needed.

The reason is that during the in-season the intensity of match play will take a toll on the body both mentally and physically. Also, during the on-court sessions you will naturally be performing plyometric exercises when you lunge for a ball, performing the split-step or performing the continuous bounding and jumping movements that are required in setting up for a shot.

Conduct a needs analysis. What is this you may ask? Well, basically exercise physiologists will conduct a needs analysis for an athlete prior to designing a specific program for them. This needs analysis will test the athlete for their: current flexibility, strength, power, speed, agility, assess current injuries, assess potential barriers for the athlete, equipment they use, their nutrition, what phase of training they are in (in-season, off season), their goals and more.

After a needs analysis they will: Design a program with specific goals for the weight the athlete should use; the number of repetitions and sets; the rest between sets; which muscles to use and in what order; whether or not to include super sets, etc. When they should start adding plyometric exercises to their sessions.

Create a stretching and warm-up program specific for tennis. Develop a program based on the equipment available. Set goals with reviews to analyse the success of the program and implement changes if required. Communicate with the coach as to what stage each athlete is at with their strength development

When I trained professional players we had to work with a whole new set of rules due to their travel commitments and the fact that they were always recovering and preparing for their next tournament. Strength training sessions would involve using a gym at the hotel or tennis centre following the guidelines of maintaining their strength without any new and radical changes that cause injury or soreness. If the player went out or lost earlier in the tournament then we would increase the emphasis on their physical conditioning as we had more time before their next match.

One favourite piece of equipment to use on the road was the stretch or elastic bands. You can create a full body program that can be conducted in a hotel room or on the court.

As stated at the start of this article strength training is essential for all advanced tennis players and will improve a player’s game. You will often notice that young players under twelve will win matches based on consistency and if these players do not grow then they will be gradually swamped and over powered by the players who do grow and increase their strength.

Strength and power equals bigger and more penetrating shots. Consistency combined with strength will allow for a player to tactically beat an inferior player on a physical level. This can be discouraging to players who once relied on their consistency to win. It is therefore your role as a coach to advise the player on when they should start strength training and explain to them how this will help them to better compete against these stronger opponents.

An athlete’s progression and longevity in sport will depend on whether or not they enjoy playing and competing. Losing will obviously discourage a young athlete so show them ways to improve their game not only on the court bust also off the court with strength training, power training, improving their speed, agility, flexibility, nutrition, mental toughness and every other facet of tennis.

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Super Strength, Super Fast; Run Faster, Jump Higher: Eight-week Exercise Guides for Sprinting, Jumping And Developing Super Strength Through Explosive Weightlifting

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Here’s what was covered in these parts:

Part 1: Kettlebell exercises to jump higher

Part 2: Band training secrets to improve your vertical leap

Part 3: What to do the 22-23 hours outside of the gym to maximize your vertical jump

Part 4: What does speed have to do with jumping higher?

Part 5: Technique, weaknesses and mobility to maximize your vertical

Of course I could not write an article on vertical jump training without discussing stair exercises. After all they do call me “The Stairs Guy, The Stairs Guru, and even Step Daddy”! I was also fortunate enough to see first hand how valuable stair training can be when I served as strength coach the WNBA’s New York Liberty in 2002 & 2003. We actually found ourselves with out places to train. Can you imagine that? Well at the time the New York Knick’s training center was under construction and it really caused problems for us.

So why am so hung up on stair training for power development? The first reason is that stairs lend themselves great to plyometric training.

The exercises of choice are usually box jumping and bounding when it comes to plyometric training. Stairs can replace the need for a box and bounding actually requires no equipment. Another thing I like about stairs is that you can develop a rhythm which I believe to be very important. By this I mean you jump from stair to stair for the prescribe number of repetitions. You really can’t do this with a box which makes the stairs a better choice.

Another thing is I believe a hard surface works best when doing power development training. A harder surface gives you a better ground reaction force thus making you more powerful. Some trainers actually use sand training and I think this actually defeats the purpose of getting a forceful stretch-shortening reaction. Keep this in mind though as a hard surface can be hard on your joints. Stair work for power development should be done no more than 2 times a week. And if you are in season it should be done only once a week with very low volume or low level hops (1 or 2 steps at most) and a way to condition. Steve Cotter makes an excellent point in his talk on power development training: It’s like homeopathic medicine. You want a little bit of the poison so that you adapt to it and get stronger and more powerful. So only a little bit of power development training in stairs can go a long way. Just remember to work hard, be intense and don’t over do it! In fact our power development work in the stairs only takes up 15-25 minutes 1-2 times a week.

Stairs serve as excellent equipment for plyometric training for many reasons. You have steps which serve as indicators of improvement. When an athlete begins he/she may be able to hop up 1 step at a time. As the athlete improves they can hop up 2-3 or even 4 steps at a time showing marked improvement.

Actual plyometric training equipment can be very expensive and usually is not available to many athletes. This is not the case with stairs.

The next reason is because stairs are excellent for high end anaerobic conditioning and speed development. So what do I mean by high end conditioning. Simple: The conditioning that leaves you bent over and gasping for air. Getting in killer shape is important because jumping takes a lot of you. More importantly is that a great jump is just that a great jump. You want to also be able to have a great jump through out an entire basketball game. Don’t be the athlete that looks good in warm-ups when nothing is on the line. Be the athlete that can jump, block shots, get rebounds, dunk and make a difference in the 4th quarter.

On top of that is that running and hopping up stairs for conditioning will in fact improve strength and power. In fact even if you just adopt running up stairs for conditioning you’ll notice significant improvement in strength and power. The reason for this is because you are training to move your body against gravity and that inherently has a strength & power component. Even further is that in season you will want to curtail the heavy power development work because of all the jumping you are already doing. But you can still do the high end anaerobic conditioning (usually running up stairs) because it is time efficient and gives lots of bang for your buc (conditioning, strength & power).

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Here’s what was covered in these parts:

Part 1: Kettlebell exercises to jump higher

Part 2: Band training secrets to improve your vertical leap

Part 3: What to do the 22-23 hours outside of the gym to maximize your vertical jump

Part 4: What does speed have to do with jumping higher?

So what else can I possibly cover on vertical jump training? Well when you consider that I learned from over 13 of the world’s strength coaches there is certainly a lot more.

And when I say world class that is exactly what I mean. Here’s a quick review of who these vertical jump experts have trained.

San Francisco 49er, San Diego Chargers, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Women’s National Soccer team, St. John’s University, St. Anthony’s HS Basketball team and much more. The list is actually to big to list!

So it is safe to say that there is a lot more.

Now, what if I told you that there is a gentleman that helps people improve their vertical in only 20 minutes? Well this is exactly what Gray Cook learned when doing university research on jump training.

When researching who I would like to learn from on vertical jump performance I was lucky enough to meet and learn from world renowned physical therapist Gray Cook at a Perform Better Seminar. And being the nerd and nice guy that I am I asked him if he would be willing to do an interview with me on vertical jump training. I really wanted to get information from Gray on his functional movement screen FMS. And like I said earlier the great thing in speaking with Gray is that he actually did his university research on vertical jump training. Gray is a big proponent of perfecting your technique in order to maximize your vertical jump. Gray used light resistance bands to make sure his subjects jumped properly. If you jumped with bad form the bands would magnify this so you had to jump correctly. What did this do? This group improved their vertical and reaction times in only 20 minutes!

And even better is the correct neural programming this sets up so you go out and practice on top of this new programming.

Connecticut based strength coach Jimmy Smith was referred to me by radio talk show host and sports nutritionist Dave Depew. He had some great things to say but he came up with a good one most people forget. Work on those weaknesses! If it’s so simple why aren’t many coaches not doing this and sticking with cookie cutter crap. I see this way too much. We must not get married to any exercise or program. The athletes that can back squat should back squat. But the ones that can’t should do an alternative. Remember this, there is always an alternative. Even world famous Strength coach Mike Boyle speaks of being in love with the squat and not wanted to scrap it with players that complained of knee pain from squatting. Stay single and play the field when it comes to exercise selection. You’ll be glad you did.

Another great point Jimmy made was the importance of staying away from plyometric exercises when in season. In season basketball athletes already jump way too much. Why should u ask them for 20-40 more jumps during plyo work? Get then in the weight room to keep their strength up which can decline during the season. Then in the off-season work on power development. Of course there is flip side to that for weekend warriors like myself. I don’t practice everyday and play pick-up games 3-5 times a month. In this case it makes sense to use plyo work to prepare your body for the demands of basketball.

Mike Robertson chipped in on another over looked component of vertical training or any training for that matter. And that my friend is mobility training. As Mike pointed out: If you Google vertical jump training you’ll get thousands of hits focusing on strength and plyometric training. But mobility is a critical factor many don’t touch on and that is a big mistake. And don’t make the mistake of thinking mobility is the same of flexibility. Mobility is the ability to use your flexibility while you move. If you can’t reach certain positions in makes it a lot harder to maximize your performance. Mobility training will help you to achieve this and even better yet is that you can do it as a warm-up and with minimal time.

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