- The Assessments used by Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls to maximize their performance
Here's a quick question for you? Would you follow the advice of a speed expert for vertical jump training? If your answer is no then I highly suggest you finish reading this article.
I was able to peacefully grill world class speed expert Lee Taft. Lee is a true gentlemen and an excellent teacher. So what can one learn about vertical jump performance from a speed expert? Well when you consider that the fastest athletes usually jump the highest I knew that Lee's Insights would really help here. Lee first tackled the importance of injury prevention by teaching proper jumping technique and making sure to maintain and yes train for optimal posture. One thing to take home is how Lee feels about injury prevention and many coaches forget that. Remember this: No matter how high you jump it means nothing if you are saddled with an injury!
One big point Lee touched upon was keeping an optimal strength to weight ratio. To do this it's important to keep your body fat levels low and use strength training protocols that specifically target strength (ie lows reps up to 5). This actually a big thing with speed training as many times increasing your speed is a matter of just achieving an optimal weight to strength ratio.
Another point Lee spoke about was the value of barefoot training which was also discussed in great detail by the founder of StandAPARTFitness.com, John Izzo. As simple as it may seem 99 percent of us never give the feet a second thought. We just cover them up with the latest pair of basketball shoes and that is it. Big mistake! The stronger your feet are the better your vertical jump and overall athletic performance will be. In fact shoes actually weaken our feet so it makes a lot of sense to work on strengthening them with bare foot training. Did you know that a simple ankle restriction will decrease the force generated from the musculature around your hips. Do you think that's important? Well when you consider that 80 percent of the force is generated by the hips that can easily translate to inches. Instead of working to get stronger work on fixing the restrictions on the ankle joint and you instantly will add more force and jump higher!
