Okay, so let's talk vertical leap.
I think when it comes to vertical, there are four factors to consider.
The first, energetics or basically the energy system.
When it comes to vertical, we're looking at 1 to 2 seconds
of a maximum effort contraction.
Your muscles are really just using the stored ATP.
There's not much going on here.
There's not really much you can do in a one-off instance.
When it comes to repeat jumps, that’s another story.
Okay, number two.
When we talk biomechanics, we are really talking
about joint angles and levers, the ability to use your body
and the technical factors that make you
more effective and more powerful.
With biomechanics, there is kind of two.
Arm swing and when we talk about arm swing,
we are talking about up and down.
Second is joint sequencing, that’s your ability
to load the body like a spring and then uncoil it
in the appropriate order.
Both of these things together are all about improving the ability
and the efficiency of the stretch shortening cycle.
A bad athlete looks like this.
Where they’re eccentric and then the amortization phase down
down at the bottom, there is a lag,
there’s a little bit of latency there.
They come out and they create their concentric power.
If you are a more explosive, more reactive, a stronger athlete,
a better jumper, you're going to be able to load
that eccentric portion faster, but also get out of it faster.
That means not only do you load that eccentric,
that down part of the jump quicker and more explosively,
you get out of the bottom, the amortization phase faster
and it will create more concentric power
taking more of that eccentric load with you.
The third thing is really the physics of the jump,
and when we talk about the physics we're really talking
about the ability for your body to displace the center of mass.
To do that, you really have to beat gravity.
Gravity has a speed of 9.8 meters per second.
To beat that, that means you have to jump faster than that, I think.
I'm going to call my brother, should be out of bed.
He's smarter on this stuff than I am, let's see what he thinks.
Davey Can’t take your call at the moment.
Please leave a message after the tone.
We'll just go with it.
To beat gravity, you have to move vertically
faster than 9.8 meters per second.
20 minutes later.
-Hey Davey, how you doing?
-Hey, not too bad. Just missed your call.
-That's okay. I had a physics-based question for you.
I'm doing vertical leap right now.
-Oh, okay.
-Gravity comes down at a speed
of 9.8 meters per second, so that means-
-Per second per second.
-Per second per second. I will fix that.
If one were to hypothetically want to beat gravity
and therefore move the center of mass up against it,
you would have to leave the ground faster than 9.8, wouldn't you?
-No, you can leave the ground at any speed.
Even if you leave at 9.8, you're going to be one second before
you go back to 0 speed.
-Right.
-But if you leave at half that you’ll only be able to for half a second.
-Oh, okay. I don't have to technically beat gravity
to get off the ground?
-No. You just have to give yourself a momentum up.
-How does that work from a physics scientific point of view?
I was so wrong.
-You squat down and you put all your momentum up,
so you're traveling up at some speed.
Then you'll keep going up, but once you are off the ground,
you’re not – because you’re not pushing off the ground you just-
-You’re not getting any more momentum.
So gravity decelerates you?
-Gravity is in acceleration back to the ground.
-Okay. The faster you leave the ground,
the longer you'll beat gravity for.
-Yes, and it’s two pronged, it’s a squared relationship –
because you’re leaving the ground faster
so you'll travel faster in that time.
and you’ll be off the ground for longer.
You want your leaving speed to be high as possible.
-Yes. Maximum velocity at takeoff?
I got that bit right.
-Yes. The bonus is If you double your leaving speed
you'll jump four times as high.
-So if you triple it, you'll jump nine times as high.
-Yes, because you’ll be in the air for longer
and you’ll be going up faster for most of it.
-That's great. So that reiterates my point that velocity at takeoff
is the number one factor when it comes to jumping.
-Yes, exactly.
-You don't actually have to beat gravity.
You just have to be fast and the faster you can be,
the faster you can be at take off, the better you'll go.
-Which is why everyone can jump.
You don’t have to beat gravity only to jump a little bit.
But to get a good jump, you have to be-
-Super quick.
-Super quick. and powerful
-That settles it. How are you anyway?
-Good. Just woke up.
-Dude, it's 10:40.
So, velocity to take off. That's probably the key.
That's the overarching principle, that's the one thing
we're really trying to improve when it comes to being better jumpers.
To achieve more velocity, that's when we start looking
at the physiology, the things that are going on
in our body that we can improve to make us better jumpers.
Velocity at take off, that means speed.
When we talk about speed, that’s speed of contraction
and that ultimately creates more speed of limb
and more speed and more torque
around the limbs and around the joints.
Accompanying speed is strength or force development.
These are your speed and your force capacity.
That's basically power.
Force times speed, that is the definition,
that is the equation for power and power is king.
Power is absolutely key when it comes to everything in sport.
When it comes to force, the factors that is going on here.
Type II fibers.
That's a bit genetic, but you can shift your fibers
with your training type.
Next, you want to down regulate your Golgi tendon organs.
These guys are the rate limiters inside your tendon
that tell you how much tension you can or can't produce
based on how safe they feel.
If you can make those guys a little bit shut off,
you can effectively create more force.
Next, you want to increase your neural drive.
That is basically giving yourself a software upgrade.
If you can make your brain and your nervous system
more explosive, you're going to jump higher.
The fourth point is cross-sectional area, CSA.
That's how big your muscles are.
A bigger muscle can ultimately create more force,
but increased cross-sectional area has a downside,
because the bigger your muscles, the more body mass
you have to carry around with you every time you jump.
When it comes to body weight, there’s a sweet spot.
You want enough muscle to create force,
but you don't have to carry extra baggage,
so being lean and also to a degree of being lighter.
Lighter people tend to jump higher because they can create more velocity
and more force relative to their weight,
which is actually another good point.
Force and strength, that’s really about being relative to body weight.
You can be as strong as you want, but if you also weigh a truck,
that's going to make it hard so if you could be lighter,
but still stronger that's going to help you jumping
because ultimately that gives you more ability
to create force at your take off
because you're moving a smaller object.
Okay, back to where we were.
Body mass. Leaner and lighter is really important.
Some other factors that's going on here.
Flexibility and mobility is massive.
You can create all the force you want,
all the speed you want, but if your joints
don't have the range, to number one, be loaded like springs
and then number two, to explode and to create
triple extension to leave the ground, all that force
is for nothing because you can’t put it through enough range.
The more range you can take your muscles and your joints through,
the more they work like springs because they can be loaded tighter
and obviously give you more energy back.
The last thing is the opposite with your tendons.
For every bit of flexibility and mobility you want
through your muscles and joints, you want your tendons
to have what's called stiffness.
That means when your muscles pull on them,
your tendon doesn't actually move much
relative to its original shape, so it holds its tightness and its tension.
That tendon stiffness, it's a yucky term,
I hate the word stiffness, but it is what it is.
That tendon stiffness we're talking about here,
that directly links into your stretch shortening cycle.
The ability for you to get into eccentrically
and then out of concentrically,
those loaded muscles are that loaded bottom position.
There you have it.
That's what constitutes and makes up a vertical leap.
You get these things right and improve these things over time,
you'll ultimately jump higher.
That's what it's all about.