Five Tips To Improve Your Penultimate Step
What's up YouTube? My name is Azir Rivera. I have a world record 50.5 inch vertical jump. And today, I'm going to show you how to improve your penultimate step on a two foot jump. The penultimate stands for second to last and it is the second to last step on a two foot jump.
Isaiah:So, it is the step you take right before you jump. Alright. That's the penultimate step. One more time. It's the step, the really long one, right before you jump.
Isaiah:Okay. And, the objective of the penultimate step is to lower you. The lower you are, the more time you can spend applying force into the ground. Why is that important? Well, if we look at a physics equation, there is something called impulse, and it is directly correlated to how high you jump.
Isaiah:Impulse is force times change in time. So, the more you can apply force over the longer period of time, the higher you're gonna jump. Now, the reason we even approach fast, however, is because the faster you're moving and you convert that upwards, the higher the peak forces are gonna be and the higher you're gonna jump. But that's why we wanna be low. You spend more time applying force into the ground.
Isaiah:And like Newton said, every action has an opposite equal reaction. So if you apply more force into the ground, it'll apply more force into you and you will go into the skies and jump and dunk on someone. So, my first tip is have a long penultimate step. Okay? The longer it is, the more you're gonna lower.
Isaiah:A really common mistake is guys will be running in and they'll take a really short penultimate like that. And I can always see it because that knee doesn't completely extend behind them. So you want to be here. You know you're doing it wrong if you take a really short penultimate like that. In order to improve that, let's say the hoop is the whiteboard.
Isaiah:Okay? And I'm running. The closer you start your penultimate, the less room you have to fully extend. Because what happens if I fully extend here? I'm gonna run into the hoop.
Isaiah:Right? So, make sure you start that penultimate, take that step really far from the hoop and that's gonna give you time to fully extend. Okay? But, you have to extend in the right way. Which brings me to my second point, lead with the knee.
Isaiah:What does this mean? It means when you take your penultimate step, when I tell athletes to extend it, they usually make a very critical error, and that is that they kick. They kick forward. But what you want to do is as you're pushing with this back leg, you want to lead with the knee. Imagine there is a very short person in front of you and you're just kneeing him in the face.
Isaiah:Okay? So you're gonna throw that knee forward as as you push back with that leg. Okay? Again, you're gonna throw your knee forward. Another thing that goes along with this, you know you're doing it right, if you feel a stretch right here in front of your leg.
Isaiah:This is the rectus femoris. Okay? You're gonna feel a stretch if you do it right. That means you're leaving that leg behind you, and then you're leading with the knee. Then, as you get into the air, your leg is naturally going to uncurl.
Isaiah:It's like a karate kick. Right? When you throw a kick in karate, you go knee, and then you kick. It's the same thing. Knee, then kick.
Isaiah:And you only kick once you're in the air. If you combine those two things, so long penultimate and then leading with the knee, it's going give you time to apply my third tip for a penultimate, which is get knee to knee. I'm probably going to put a picture up on the screen of what this should look like because it's really hard to demonstrate. I would have to be able to fly to be able to demonstrate this, but when you're in flight of the penultimate step, you know you did it correctly and you timed everything properly if you can get knee to knee before your plant leg hits. So this is the plant leg, and then this the block foot.
Isaiah:You want to get knee to knee before your plant leg hits the ground. In order to do that, you need to do these two things correctly. You need to take a long penultimate step, which is going to put you in the air for a longer period of time, so you can get knee to knee, and then you're going to lead with the knee because it is easier to move a leg that's like this than a straight leg. Right? So try it.
Isaiah:What what is faster? This or this? This is faster. It's because there's less torque. Alright?
Isaiah:You're in a more leveraged position. So, two things combined is going to allow you to get knee to knee early, and then, it's going to bring me to my fourth tip. Quick last two steps. You're going to plant these two steps as quickly as possible. I literally think, long penultimate, one two.
Isaiah:It's gonna be like a freaking ricochet off the ground. Right? One two. Those last two steps need to be the fastest steps you've ever taken. It's like the floor's freaking high.
Isaiah:Right? And, you're high and you don't want to burn your feet. So, one two, get up in the air. Now, might you be thinking, Isaiah, but you said to maximize impulse, need to maximize the amount of time that we are applying force into the ground so that we can have a reaction force that is going propel us up into the air. You're right.
Isaiah:But remember, the faster you plant and the faster you run, the higher the peak forces potentially can be. So, it is a balance between the two of having high peak forces, but also spending time into the ground. How you spend more time applying force into the ground is through how low you are. Okay? So you want to be moving as fast as you can, do a proper penultimate, that way you're low, and then maximum intent.
Isaiah:The reason I use this q is because it allows you to have max intent and apply more force into the ground. Okay? And then, my last tip for the penultimate step is shown by this beautiful diagram right here with my stick figures. This is this part, mid support of the penultimate. Then think of this as when you're mid air, and then this is you planting onto the ground.
Isaiah:Your head should be following this path, a direct line downwards. You know you're doing it wrong if you jump up into the penultimate. So a cue I always like to tell myself is jump down and out. Okay? Don't jump up and out.
Isaiah:You want to jump down and out. Imagine when you're here and you're about to take your penultimate that there's a ceiling. Right there. And you don't want to hit it. So you want to take as big of a penultimate as you can without hitting your head on the ceiling.
Isaiah:If you do that properly, if you notice my head, it travels straight down. Okay? You don't want to jump up into the ground. Okay? Or else you're going to lose your momentum.
Isaiah:So, that is pretty much all my tips on the penultimate. If you combine these five steps and you practice and practice and practice and practice and practice, it's going to get really efficient, and you're going to be able to lower more, and you're going to be able to transfer all that horizontal momentum and direct it upwards, and allow you to gain inches on your vertical. And, this has potential to increase your vertical quickly. I remember the first time, I even just did this step. The first time I did it, hit my first windmill.
Isaiah:I gained like three inches in the span of ten minutes. Alright? So, very potent stuff right here. If you found this helpful, please like the video, and if you want to get coached, be, personally to jump higher, go to thpstrength.com. And, if you're still worried, if you're like, I've never seen you, I don't trust your training, I have a free jump training course in the link in the description.
Isaiah:Go check it out. Catch you guys later.
