Help with Jumping
- Thread starter The Kai
- Start date
KajuMom
Yellow Belt
A very timely topic, for me at least. There is a very sweet young guy (~17) that I train with. He'll be testing for his 1st degree next month. He has incredible height on his jumping kicks. At our school, all jumping kicks are actually jumping/spinning kicks. On Saturday after class, I asked him to show them to me...he rarely "shows off" in class and he's a joy to watch. He said it took him a year of practice to get so far off the ground. He said he spends a lot of time just jumping straight up in the air with both feet, with one foot, jumping (bouncing sort of) from foot to foot and getting as much air as he can.
The instructor who taught him these kicks was in class and overheard us talking. He concurred that one of the best things you can do to improve your height is jumping (sort of a bouncing jump) back and forth, from foot to foot. He asked me "Don't you ever see me doing that before class?" Me: "Yeah, but I thought you were just dancing around," which is what it looks like. This instructor is a short, very stocky man but he is by far the _most_ graceful and stylish instructor at our school.
That last bit of advice the instructor had, it will take a brave person to follow through on this, is to go to the park or a soccer field and skip all around, trying to get as much height as you can.
Good luck!
The instructor who taught him these kicks was in class and overheard us talking. He concurred that one of the best things you can do to improve your height is jumping (sort of a bouncing jump) back and forth, from foot to foot. He asked me "Don't you ever see me doing that before class?" Me: "Yeah, but I thought you were just dancing around," which is what it looks like. This instructor is a short, very stocky man but he is by far the _most_ graceful and stylish instructor at our school.
That last bit of advice the instructor had, it will take a brave person to follow through on this, is to go to the park or a soccer field and skip all around, trying to get as much height as you can.
Good luck!
That sounds llke a great exercise for young knees but to take all the weight on one, I have found really pounds the cartilage of which, I have little. So, I have been doing two exercises. One is lifting knees to chest, now at 300 count.
My newest one is putting your back to a wall or something your hands can be on temporary in back like a bag, then sliding down into a chair position, knees bent. Without using your hands to push off, bring yourself up to a stand, then go down again. Don't let your knees go beyond your toes, like in a regular squat. I started at 20-30. I did 50 Saturday almost to failure of the hamstrings. That night, I had trouble walking down the stairs, not much support. The next two days, one of my quads was killing me, so I must have been compensating with my strongest leg.
I do know for Taekwondo jump spin kicks you need 90% (of the quad strength) in the hamstrings as well. I also do a rubber band-those exercise bands-and wrap it around a post and the back of my knee. I start in a bent position and straighten it. I can't do more than 20-30 of those either without really feeling it. See how you are, for hamstring strength, since I think that is the difference. Also, it depends on how much weight you have to lift. If you cut your weight, it is better for jumping. My instructor has noticed that I have improved. TW
My newest one is putting your back to a wall or something your hands can be on temporary in back like a bag, then sliding down into a chair position, knees bent. Without using your hands to push off, bring yourself up to a stand, then go down again. Don't let your knees go beyond your toes, like in a regular squat. I started at 20-30. I did 50 Saturday almost to failure of the hamstrings. That night, I had trouble walking down the stairs, not much support. The next two days, one of my quads was killing me, so I must have been compensating with my strongest leg.
I do know for Taekwondo jump spin kicks you need 90% (of the quad strength) in the hamstrings as well. I also do a rubber band-those exercise bands-and wrap it around a post and the back of my knee. I start in a bent position and straighten it. I can't do more than 20-30 of those either without really feeling it. See how you are, for hamstring strength, since I think that is the difference. Also, it depends on how much weight you have to lift. If you cut your weight, it is better for jumping. My instructor has noticed that I have improved. TW
KajuMom
Yellow Belt
Good points about jumping, weight, and knee integrity,Tiger Woman. Impact to the knees didn't even cross my mind! The instructor I referred to in fact is relatively heavy and has ongoing knee problems.
When I told my husband about how great this guy's jump spin kicks are, he told me about these shoes:
http://www.basket-ball.com/basketball-article-199.html
He works in the sports med and physical therapy department at a hospital, and says these are what basketball players use to improve their jump. Apparently, they work. Wonder if they'd work for jump spin kicks?
When I told my husband about how great this guy's jump spin kicks are, he told me about these shoes:
http://www.basket-ball.com/basketball-article-199.html
He works in the sports med and physical therapy department at a hospital, and says these are what basketball players use to improve their jump. Apparently, they work. Wonder if they'd work for jump spin kicks?
Check out plyometric exercises on internet or library research.
Jumping, regardless of performance activity, is an explosive movement. It has to be done well and coordinated with the rest of the activity (kicking, reaching, grabbing, spiking....) but it is one piece of the overall.
Generally you have to make sure that you have some kind of strength/stability in the body joints first and foremost. Then you can think about incorporating explosive applications of those muscles.
I use a lower body basic exercise that can help build a foundation, but you really should contact a sports/strength and conditioning specialist for the safest and least damaging training progression.
The basic lower body:
24 1/2 squats (bend to 45%) at a 'quick' tempo - about one a second.
24 forward lunges (each step counts as one) at a 'moderate' tempo - about one per 2 seconds
12 split squats (feet planted in the 'top' of a lunge step) per leg at 'quick'
24 split jumps (bend knees 30 - 45% and spring up and switch feet) at a 'quick' tempo
12 1/2 squat jumps (same as first squat but 30-45% bend and a jump/landing that blends into the next jump right away) at a 'moderate' pace.
Rest and repeat if you want.
At home or gym I might do multiple reps of the sequence (there are NO breaks in between exercises) with at least a 2 min rest between.
That will help get the basic foundational/structural support and endurance in the lower body so you can increase explosion.
Remember that you have to have 'raw strength' that will end up transferring to other types of strength (explosive, endurance, speed...).
Jumping, regardless of performance activity, is an explosive movement. It has to be done well and coordinated with the rest of the activity (kicking, reaching, grabbing, spiking....) but it is one piece of the overall.
Generally you have to make sure that you have some kind of strength/stability in the body joints first and foremost. Then you can think about incorporating explosive applications of those muscles.
I use a lower body basic exercise that can help build a foundation, but you really should contact a sports/strength and conditioning specialist for the safest and least damaging training progression.
The basic lower body:
24 1/2 squats (bend to 45%) at a 'quick' tempo - about one a second.
24 forward lunges (each step counts as one) at a 'moderate' tempo - about one per 2 seconds
12 split squats (feet planted in the 'top' of a lunge step) per leg at 'quick'
24 split jumps (bend knees 30 - 45% and spring up and switch feet) at a 'quick' tempo
12 1/2 squat jumps (same as first squat but 30-45% bend and a jump/landing that blends into the next jump right away) at a 'moderate' pace.
Rest and repeat if you want.
At home or gym I might do multiple reps of the sequence (there are NO breaks in between exercises) with at least a 2 min rest between.
That will help get the basic foundational/structural support and endurance in the lower body so you can increase explosion.
Remember that you have to have 'raw strength' that will end up transferring to other types of strength (explosive, endurance, speed...).
Thanks Mr. Martin, for your workout. I think I will try it. Then if it works a little for me, I can teach it for others. TW
bignick said:
Funny enough we did plyometric training a few weeks ago for the first time in ages. We did it for the kids classes first and they were really good so the Instructors then got us Adults to do it.
At the time there were only 3 females in the class one female tried it a little then gave up the other wouldnt do it but me being me off course didnt want to be shown up in front of the males so attempted all. It consisted of alot of quick jumps over what I considered high obsticles for very short legs. The guys were nearly killing themselves with laughter as I wiped out a few and also did a face plant and wiped out a whole line. I found it really hard.
Now what I found interesting was that when the laughter died down one of my Instructors told us that there was a perfectly good reason as to why I was having trouble and that there actually had been a study done on this and they found that women tended to jump more forward rather than straight up and down which men tend to do.
When I was jumping over the further through I got the more I was loosing balance and fell forward out of control as it was quite fast and you couldnt stop inbetween. So I was jumping forward rather than up and down.
Very intresting I thought.
:boing1:
I do something similar. I start out squatting down, in a frog-like position, holding my hands straight out from my shoulders with a slight bend in my elbows. Then I jump straight up and pull my knees to my hands. one of the great things about this is it gives you a softer landing by allowing you to start with your legs straight out then bending back down to the frog position, basically like distributing the force a little at a time.Enson said:
One thing to remember is to not bring your hands to your knees, you'll do it the first few times, but you have to pay attention to it.
