Want to jump higher?

I'm going to dare to say that vertical jumping is one of the most desired athletic attributes in all of sports, (except perhaps in Curling and Table Tennis). It's one of the key indicators for how "athletic" someone in a given sport is, as well as certainly one of the most measured attributes by coaches. It gives us a good idea of an athletes general lower body power and strength.  However I feel that many people try and get too "cute or fancy" with trying to train athletes to jump higher.

Check out Shawn Myszka from Explosive Edge Athletics, in Edina, MN, and his series of videos on improving the vertical jump. Shawn did a great presentation at the NSCA National Conference last July on Eccentric Training. I had a chance to speak with him after his presentation and he's incredibly knowledgeable about training and the proper mechanics of getting athletes to be more explosive. Also this guy is jacked! Which tells me as a fellow coach and professional that he practices what he preaches, and I love that about great coaches that they are in the trenches coaching as well as being positive role models for their athletes.

Shawn says right off in his intro video that people are trying to be too "gimmicky" (is that a word?) with special shoes, etc., while really getting better at jumping comes down to a few key things; Technique and Coordination, and then REPETITION! He makes another good point that science shows us the best lines of force and that many times athletes are jumping with too wide or narrow a stance which in turn messes up the foot position and joint angles necessary for optimal jumping. And of course when he's talking about Repetition that means good reps friends, remember our 10,000 hours principle? The athletes who are the best in the world at something may not necessarily be the strongest, fittest, or most athletic (however that helps) but they've had the opportunity to put in more REPS. Shawn gets into a lot more detail about jumping in his ,
video series on his YouTube page here.

Back to work and fired up!

Sorry for my lack of updating the blog while I was away with my swimming teams for training trip.  It feels like I've been gone for months instead of days so I'd say that means it was a great trip and I really got a chance to "recharge" the battery.  I've been thinking a lot about goals recently since my time spent with Martin Rooney from the world famous Parisi Speed School in Fair Lawn, NJ.  One of the main points that Martin made was that your goals need to be focused and clear and even more importantly that you need to have the goals written down.  We even went so far as to create Physical, Educational, and Financial goals for 2011.  You don't have to use those categories but they certainly seem like good ones that everyone can relate to.

Now when you ask most people if they have goals many times they'll answer yes, but when you probe deeper they really have no idea what their actual goal is.  For example most everyone seems to answer that a goal is "to lose weight", OK- well how much weight exactly?  And over what period of time?  See if we don't make our goals Specific, Measurable, Realistic, and Time Bound then we're setting ourselves up to fail.  As the saying goes "failing to plan is planning to fail", without written goals you're doing just that. It also helps if you post your goals somewhere that yourself or others will see them, this is just more quality assurance that you're conscious on a daily basis of what your trying to achieve.  I've even gone so far recently as to keep a "mini copy" of my goals for 2011 on me at all times!

And since I'm talking about keeping your goals where you can see them and be held accountable I'm going to post my Physical & Educational goals right here on my blog so that you all can see them as well.  I'll refer back them frequently and cross them off as I accomplish them.

GOALS FOR 2011
Physical
1) attain less than 10% body fat
2) work on mobility & flexibility 10 mins per day
3) do 100 push ups 3x week
4) compete in an Olympic Weightlifting contest
5) go snowboarding 10 times

Educational
1) write or contribute to a strength training book/manual
2) write an article for NSCA's PTJ or TSAC journals
3) read a non training related book every 3 months
4) read a training related book every 3 months
5) contribute more to the NSCA

Me and my new friends from the Parisi Mentorship visiting Ground Zero in NYC. 

Expect big things from this group in 2011!

I'm outta here for a few days....

I'm not sure how much I will be posting over the next 2 weeks.  I'm headed to St. Croix and Puerto Rico with the Dartmouth Men's & Women's swimming teams for their annual winter training trip.  It's going to be a lot of training as they'll be in the pool 2x day and we'll be lifting every other day.  But I'm sure we'll find some beach time in there somewhere...

 

Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. It is the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, being 28 by 7 miles (45 by 11 km). 

Incredible Push up variations;

I just spent 3 1/2 days with Martin Rooney from the Parisi Speed School in NJ. Martin is the most motivating and inspirational person I have ever met in my life. He took me and a bunch of other guys from all over the US and Canada though a ton of these Push Up variations. They were brutal!!

Best part of the whole thing was that inbetween each set of push ups we were writing down goals for 2011! Talk about stimulating your brain and body at the same time, wow. Give some of these a try and let me know what you think.