Exercises to Improve Jumping

[sirdarksol]

Has anybody done any practice improving their ability to jump?
While it seems a bit more acrobatic, you never know when the ability to move in a way your opponent doesn't expect might be useful. On top of this, anything that strengthens your legs also helps your kicks.

The one that comes to mind for me is this:

The student is to dig a hole six inches deep.
He then stands in the hole and leaps out of it, repeatedly doing so.
The next day, he digs the hole an inch deeper and puts weight on his ankles.
Then repeat leaping out of the hole.
Wash, rinse, repeat.

Obviously, there are problems with this training. First of all, the student won't grow stronger that quickly. He will plateau very quickly.
Second of all, adding weight to the ankles is murder on the knees and hips (though in this case not as much so as if you were kicking)
Third, and perhaps most importantly, most of us don't want to just dig holes in our back yards.

[tntma12]

For me, I just do weighted squats and box jumps.

For box jumps, one would have a platform about 1 1/2 to 2 feet high, ie:weight bench, and jump up on the platform and hop back to same position as start. Repeat 50 times in as few sets as you can.

[sirdarksol]

Good idea.

[disgruntled]

you can also jump on your stairs. jump to the first stair. once you got that down jump from the floor to the second stair and onward. i know that some people train that way, but i would think it would be dangerous because you are buggered if you miss a step or slip.

i have to stick to just squats because my hips are so bad. jumping is much too high impact. that and my arthritis is ten times worse in winter!!

i have hear the hole suggestion before.... isn't that what monks do?

[Spartan]

Look up plyometrics or order a speedtraining/plyometric program...a series and progression of drills...
One word of caution...do weight training first for a week or so and get in some kind of shape / muscle tone before doing the jumping...or you risk injury to the joints...
Any questions email me @ cqbspartan@yahoo.com
For every one hundred men you send us,
Ten should not even be here.
Eighty are nothing but targets.
Nine of them are real fighters;
We are lucky to have them, they the battle make.
Ah, but the one. One of them is a warrior.
And he will bring the others back.