Three Simple and Valuable Things You Can Do to Improve Your Vertical Jump

I know, jumping higher and higher is a dream of all, it was mine and therefore yours, too.

It is not impossible, indeed!... And I am going to tell you more. You can get the best results, not only working very hard. You can do all you want, but there will be a point beyond which you cannot go.
Thus, where and how can you act?

The steps that you must accomplish to appreciably improve your vertical jump are basically three:

1. First, you can act effectively on your body weight, that should be as perfect as possible. The fat is a sinker and it has greater inertia than the muscles, thus greatly reducing your movement speed. Your training must therefore always match with a proper nutrition. Eating too much and badly is contraindicated for any sport. In particular you should pay attention to high glycemic index food (bread, rice, and especially refined sugars, etc..), because their excessive intake brings to rapidly increase fat deposits.

2. A second thing you must think about is improving strength without adding too much muscle mass. You must therefore work with loads or weights to strengthen back, shoulders and quadriceps.

3. A third thing you must do, is expressed in a very simple concept, but too often neglected by many athletes and I am going to disclose it: do you want to learn to jump better and higher? Then, you must jump! You have to practice jumping! Sounds odd, huh? Yet any skill improves by repeating itself, running it again and again even in various forms.

Only in this way you can begin to learn how to really bring out your true vertical jump maximum expression.

5 Levels To Be A True Champion

To become Number 1 in sports, first of all you have to know what distinguish this number from numbers 2, 3, 4,...

Imagine a building composed of several levels and try to figure out at which level you are.

Level #1
To the basis, you’ll find all those who makes sports just…for sport. They do sports for fun, in Sunday tournaments. They train a bit, they have some fun, and they sometimes go out for dinner on Friday nights. There is nothing wrong and nothing to blame in this, it’s one of the many ways to practise sport. Tournament is a break between a laugh and another. Result is not that important. This people try not to improve but to keep form at most, the right compromise between efforts and fun.

If you don’t fit in here, you can try to go a little up:

Level #2
In this level you’ll find players who live on the brink of victory. They train and work hard, but they're never on the level. They probably have the best shoes on the market, but when it comes to go in and show, they could be barefoot. They’re pushed buy a strong passion, the only reason that keep them in gym, but they’re dominated by fear of mistake and so they will hardly improve.

If you don’t even feel to fit with this level you can go up a little bit:

Level #3
Here you’ll find good players, who work hard and aren’t worried about doing mistakes because their purpose is to improve. In tournaments, if they have to make decisions, they do it without worrying about consequences, the important thing is to take the best choice among those available. They aren’t infinite talented, but their courage and their constancy make them strong and able players. They won many trophies and personal awards and are always a good example.

If you don’t find yourself among these athletes yet, then you have a talent who stays on the top:

Level #4
Here you have the luck to have amazing physical gifts and the skill to propel them daily with hard work and efforts. Often your matches come from divine inspiration and your play is fluid and always inspired. You are one of that few players in the world that do thing with ease and it’s good to see you play.

But, in my personal rank, there is an additional level in the building to examine: the Foundations, where Real Champions are.

Level #5
In this zone, there are certain players not remarkable, not visible, but who are the most important. Maybe they aren’t the most talented, but they are the ones from whom you can learn the most part of sports and life. Their choices are never rash, but they contemplate situation, conditions, times and people.

I met many players and many champions, but they are really a few thing without the foundations. I saw teams made of wonders lose because without these elements, I saw little teams grow battleship-like because of the presence of one or two of them.

All of us can go to the foundation because we’re not talking only about talent, about physical qualities, about performances, but about the person you are before the athlete.

How To Improve Standing Vertical Jump

Let's get quite right into it...


The main component to increasing a standing vertical jump is strength.
This is why you will find many dunkers who have skinny legs, can jump out of the gym on an approach, but ask them to stand under the rim and jump and you will be surprised at what you see.
During an approach jump velocity can be gathered, and if the jumper is coordinates that forward momentum can be transferred to upward momentum.
A seasoned approach jumper will have also strengthened their tendons and the plyometric response of their body. Basically their body and tendons work together to use the energy from the approach and send it skyward. You can see this effect for your self by jumping off a small height and seeing how much higher you jump when you have jumped off a box. If possible keep raising the height of the box until the jump no longer increases. This is the height at which you want to be practicing your box jumps.
Everyone should be jumping higher from an approach jump than with a standing vertical jump. If it is not the case, than there is something counter productive with your approach.


By increasing your strength you will be able to improve your standing vertical jump, however the gains will also transfer over to your approach vertical jump.
Training plyometrics (like box jumps) with low ground contact time, and a focus on intensity is going to yield a greatest gain on your approach jump, however it will also show small improvements on your standing jump. Learning to perform the counter movement quickly, will alloy you to take best advantage of the plyometric ability you already have.
Increased flexibility is going to allow you to have greater mobility for both jumping styles, but will yield greater gains in the approach vertical jump which requires more limb movement and mobility. Hip mobility is extremely important.
Improving jumping form is a very good way to increase your vertical, especially your approach vertical. Proper from will help you utilize forward momentum, use glutes and quads correctly to explode, maximize the plyometric effect, properly use your lower back and erectors to create upward momentum, and use your arms to increase your vertical. Once again form will have the greatest impact on your approach vertical, although small gains can be realized in your standing vertical.

Jacob Hiller - Jump Manual

Your Winning Mental Training Program in 6 Moves

Mind’s the limit. As long as mind can conceive that you can do something, you can do it if you really believe it 100 percent.
(Arnold Schwarzenegger)

How Can You Develope a Winning Mindset?
It’s puzzling the number of athletes who pay a little attention to body’s most important muscle: the one that stays between ears. Whoever makes this mistake is meant to mediocrity; equally, teams that ignore mental training are easily detectable, they have low ratings and aren’t able to reach the compactness needed to go to the top.

Mental strength is usually the resolutive factor. Great athletes know how to take control of their own thoughts and their own emotions, and all of us canlearn to do the same. As for every art, many practise is needed, but it’s worth it.

An expert trainer will teach every physical technique as long as they will become automatic and habitual, but a top trainer knows that a fundamental part of training develops in mind.

Try not to fall in the trap of dedicating all your energy exclusively to physical exercise. Complete all your efforts with a mental training, that will strengthen your positive thinking and your positive emotions to get positive results.


Here are some effective techniques to sharpen you mental capacities. Results will be very surprising.

The six phases

1. Deeply relax your body.
2. Develop consciousness and attention.
3. Examine your narrow beliefs.
4. Take the control of your thoughts.
5. Become master of your thoughts.
6. Use a positive creative imagination.

Remind, the key to the success lies in training these capacities until they will remain deeply stuck in your unconscious.