Vertical Jump Training for Youth

Vertical Jump Program

If a kid wants to improve his jump SAFELY, the best thing to do is NOT dozens and hundreds of jumps wearing strength shoes. That's detrimental to the long term health of a young athlete. Here's a great post from Brian Grasso's newsletter. You can signup for his info at www.developingathletics.com and his youth training certification at www.iyca.org

Now his info...

"Start with the basics – an athlete needs to be stable before they gain strength, and strong before they gain power. By providing little more than jump training, you have effectively cut out the two first elements, on which the athlete is built. Here’s how it might look in a good plan:

Assessment – Structural concerns are established and corrected via therapy and/or corrective exercise if need be.

Movement Training – Can these athletes move with any degree of efficiency? Develop a movement-based warm-up that incorporates basic elements of global coordination, functional strength and dynamic flexibility.

Strength Training – THE missing ingredient in most pediatric training programs for my money. Strength is the basis for speed, power, agility and even flexibility (no good to be ‘flexible’ if you lack sufficient strength to use it properly).

Eccentric Training – Before you unload thousands of jumping drills on kids, you may want to check how they land! Poor landing habits increase the likelihood of injury and reduce potential power. Teach kids HOW to jump and land BEFORE you expect them to it in countless drills.

Power Training – Go ahead… now they’re ready!

By the way, the athlete I was referring to above is 15. If we had a 6 – 10 year old, the concepts of periodization and long-term development change altogether… We’ll save that for a different article!" - Brian Grasso


Strength first, jump later,

CB



vertical jump