How Long Does It Take To Go Fro A 24 To 40 Inch Vertical?
What's up, guys? Welcome back to the teach me strength podcast. My name is John Evans, and I have coached four of the current six individuals who have tested a 50 inch vertical leap. In today's episode, I'm going to be going through a q and a from my Instagram, and I'm just gonna rip through these as fast as possible. So if you guys did ask a question, it might get answered on this podcast.
Speaker 1:Alright. So let's start here. The first one. Johnny Boy, how long does it take typically take for a six foot athlete to get from a twenty four to a forty? So the first thing is gonna be how long you've been training, your age, and then, I guess whether you're one foot or two foot also plays a pretty big role.
Speaker 1:But if you're, let's say you're like an 18 year old kid, you haven't really done any training, to get to a forty from 24, maybe about three years, give or take, depending. Alright, next one. How much does getting lighter improve vertical would x pounds at x amount of inches? So we've actually looked at this a handful of times, and we had some different models that Isaiah's best friend David made. He's a physics major, and he basically figured out how much more force you'd have to apply in a given amount of time when you lose weight, and then how many inches you would would gain as a result.
Speaker 1:I don't think there's a strong, like, linear model yet, and the reason why is because typically as people lose weight, they also have other consequences happen. So the first, the eccentric forces will change, which can change pretension, which means that you won't necessarily have a higher jump. Another impact is upper body mass. So if you have really long arms that are heavy, and you swing those hard, you're gonna get more lift from that. So I've seen when guys lose weight and they lose upper body mass, sometimes that can actually have a negative consequence.
Speaker 1:I've seen a lot of athletes jump quite a bit higher when they gain weight, and then the other part is losing functional mass. So we need mass specific force. It means you want mass that's gonna help you jump higher and not just whatever mass for the sake of mass. Alright. Are pliers better barefoot?
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess it depends what you're training in, but I do think that you probably can get considerably higher loads in the feet if you are barefoot. Do I think they're better? No. Do I do them? No.
Speaker 1:Do I like athletes doing them? I don't see anything wrong with it. I think if it feels better and you like it, you can get a little bit more of reactive contact, and that can be good. How do you prevent a flat tire when dunking? So he's talking about one foot.
Speaker 1:When you run too fast, typically what happens is the dynamic strength of your leg, as they call it in high jump research, isn't high enough to handle the running velocity. So how you prevent it? You need to have a more powerful takeoff leg. You need higher eccentric rates of force development. You need higher concentric rates of force development, quasi isometric conditions, dynamic isometric strength, all the things that we train for.
Speaker 1:Okay. How to generally reintroduce work from a hamstring tear? This is a really, really good question. Typically, first thing you wanna do is remove everything that's provocative, and then I like to introduce light isometrics in about every other day. Then you build into strength work.
Speaker 1:So don't sprint, don't jump, don't do plyos. Slowly build in the strength work, and then you can start adding weight to the strength work. Then you wanna build into dynamic activities and follow a ladder, a progressive ladder. So typically, I like to do a skips and then eventually work into straight leg bounds and then into accelerations and then into upright running. Alright.
Speaker 1:I gotta keep this open. Okay. What's your thoughts on training upper body with a bodybuilding split training vert? It's mediocre. I wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1:You could do it, but I don't like it. Does Titan stretch the tendon? Titan in and of itself doesn't stretch the tendon. The whole system will I guess in a sense it does, but the force in the muscle is going to be you know, your force from your muscles attached to the tendon, the tendon's attached to the bone. So if you have a lot of force in the muscular tendinous unit, the tendon is gonna stretch.
Speaker 1:So in a sense, yes, but not directly. What exercises do you do for energy storage phase, and how do you progress? The my favorite one is just depth drops. I really like doing depth drops. Typically, I'll start with 10 to 20 reps from 24 inches, doing it every third day, and then I'll build into standing jumps and then approach jumps.
Speaker 1:How do you find out and decide what you wanted to do with your life? I didn't expect this question. I was obsessed with vertical jump training basically my entire life. So for me, I wanted to be a division one athlete, and I was bullied pretty intensely. Part of where I grew up is that sports were king.
Speaker 1:So being a better athlete meant that you had more opportunities, you were more popular, you, I guess, in a sense, had more social equity. And so for me, the reason that I wanted to be a coach is because I found training and just became absolutely obsessive. I fell in love with it. The idea of making someone better and being a better product and taking what is essentially Robin and turning him to Batman or turning into Iron Man from Tony Stark was a cool concept to me, and the fact that training could do that was absolutely enticing to me, and then obviously the results of being able to improve. So they say those that can't do teach.
Speaker 1:Obviously, my goal was to be a track and field athlete, I wasn't good enough. But I became so invested in getting better and progressing. And to me, the best athletes weren't the ones who were the best athletes, they were the ones who improved the most. So I found out what I wanted to do because my mentor had coached me. I felt like there was a massive gap in high level coaching, and I just picked something that I loved.
Speaker 1:Do you have a goal for how high you want to jump or like a dream dunk you wanna hit? Right now, I think as I get older, I don't necessarily I don't necessarily care about hitting a new dunk or anything like that. For me, it's just jumping as high as I possibly can for as long as I possibly can. So no dream dunk or anything like that. I really like to hit elbow, though.
Speaker 1:I'd say that that'd be one. Top exercises develop eccentric RFD. Depends on what muscle you're doing. So if you're talking about vertical jump exercises, eccentric RFD, sprinting is gonna be a really good one. Plios are gonna be a really good one.
Speaker 1:Med ball throws are gonna be a really good one. Fast drops into, like, squats, drop squats, drop even RDLs, drop single leg squats. Anytime you're just traveling fast downwards and you have to stop that force, it's gonna be really good for developing eccentric strength. Thoughts on decathlete turning into a dunker? Super possible.
Speaker 1:Super possible, and they're some of the best athletes, so I've seen it happen. Peyton Bear was actually a dunker before he was an ecathlete, and he's now the NCAA record holder for it, for the decathlon. Can I do isometrics again during a practicing games if my knees get cold? Yes, and I would encourage you to. How much rest between isometrics for knee health?
Speaker 1:Typically between reps a minute, and then six hours between any loading on the tendon. How much vert can Isaiah maintain just by jumping? Probably like a 46 to 45, but he'd probably get hurt. Is it possible for you to develop a low 10 sprinter through online, or do you need in person? It's hard.
Speaker 1:I think I I don't I think you could, but they'd have to be a really special athlete, for sure. Do a podcast with Randy Huntington. I would love to. How to recover from sickness and periodization. They would just give it time.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you're periodizing and you're sick, then, I don't know, I mean, you just have to wait till your cold dissipates. Think I'll hit a 51 day? I mean, you gotta keep training. I'd say do the best you can. How you dealt with an athlete injured with knee bursitis?
Speaker 1:Knee bursitis usually is a misdiagnosis, but typically, I mean, it's the same concepts that we do for anything else. So progressive loading. What time, 100 time do you think a 50 inch vertical corresponds to? So, like, what is the like, what does it equate to? I mean, if 50 one's a world record and that's nine five eight, then I would say, like, you know, there's four or five guys that have hit 50 at this point.
Speaker 1:So if there's four or five guys that have hit, you know, a certain time, like, what's the top what's the time that five guys have hit in the 100? I don't know. Nine seventy five, something like that. Nine seventy. How do you fix your approach to be smoother instead of a stiff run up?
Speaker 1:Relax. Relax. Relax your eyelids. Relax your hands. Feel bouncy.
Speaker 1:Feel fluid. Do you have a video of your first eSpa? I think I heard you say it was on, like, nine nine or something. I do. It was on nine eight and a half, and, yeah, I definitely have that video.
Speaker 1:I just haven't posted it in a while. Which would you rather be in the Olympics, dunk contest, max vert contest, or two foot high jump? What would you rather oh, like, of these events? Max vert, dunk contest, or two foot high jump? That's a really good question.
Speaker 1:Probably max vert. I I think that would be the coolest one. How would you train for stride length and sprinting? Stride length is a consequence of ground reaction forces, so you have to get more powerful and explosive in everything. I mean, sprinting is probably the best way to do it.
Speaker 1:Be a good accelerator. What undergrad or graduate degrees do you have? I have an undergraduate degree in sports science and a master's degree in also sports science. What's your thoughts on the go to form stuff? I think it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:How to stop slowing down on my last two steps on my one foot jump? My last stride is too long and slow. Long isn't bad. You have to start slower. So if you run too fast, your only option is to slow down.
Speaker 1:So start slower and accelerate through the last couple strides. Can I get a follow-up coach? Maybe. I I like you, Francis. In all seriousness, how do you manage to coach on so so many athletes on THP?
Speaker 1:We have a really good team. We've built up I mean, essentially, when I started the business, it was just me. So I added Isaiah in 2000 and well, I mean, I'd coached him for three years and trained him for three years, and he was always asking questions. So I it's really just developing good coaches and then trusting those people to do their job so they know everything that I wanna do and the way I wanna do it, and then knowing how to scale. So we have systems in place so that we can add people to group chats effectively.
Speaker 1:We hire a lot of people. And then the coaching is more knowing that my coach is not a coach. So when I come in and I answer questions or I'm doing technical analysis, I know they know how I wanna do things so they can help me out. Where's Donovan been? Donovan actually is back home now.
Speaker 1:He wanted to pivot to be back with his family. He really missed home. So he's still training, still doing everything there, but now he's just doing it at home. Through required books for strength and conditioning, that's a really good question. I think Science and Practice of Strength Training by Zaddy Worsky is really good.
Speaker 1:Super Training is always one that I recommend, and I really like Power Ply Metrics. Those are probably my three favorite books. Maybe Purization by Bampa. I have a Baker's Cis while in season, it feels unstable. That's a tough one.
Speaker 1:Generally, if you have a Baker's Cis, you need to get it drained. What is the best way to increase a vert without access to weights? Jumping is definitely the easiest way. But there's sprints, extensive tempo work, pistol squats. With plyos, they're neuromuscular, so you don't wanna go too heavy on those.
Speaker 1:And the strength work can work pretty well. But I would probably say sprints and then once a week jump sessions is a really good way. What does Prinsloo mean? Prinsloo is one of the athletes we coach. It's just one of the cycles that we wrote, and we named it after him.
Speaker 1:I think my weakness, if elasticity, but my current mesocycle's power. Should I skip? No. There's benefits in doing things that you're already good at, and you're always gonna touch on the next quality if you have a good periodized program. How and where do program tempo runs in training?
Speaker 1:Always on down days, general days, after high intensity days. Typically, you don't want the volumes over 2,000 meters, and you want to be out of breath, but you don't want your legs burning. If strength is my biggest deficit, how long do I stay in a strength cycle to again, I would make sure that you're still doing everything. I think falling into the habit of only doing one thing and trying to correct a deficit by just hammering one thing is, it's shortsighted, and you're gonna miss other qualities that are really important. Biggest difference in a one foot program in comparison to a two foot program.
Speaker 1:One foot programs are gonna have more plyos. They're gonna be shallower ranges of motion. The ranges of motion in general are gonna be more specific. There's typically more of an emphasis on the posterior chain, so you're gonna need to do more hamstring dedicated work. You're gonna need more running, tempo running, upright sprinting.
Speaker 1:The movements are faster in those quarter ranges of motion, and you've gotta do stuff fast. And really, the biggest one is you have to listen to your body in those programs because one foot is inherently more intense and the risk of injury is a lot higher. Yuri uses different periodization models to intensify training. Why only use one? We don't use one.
Speaker 1:We use more than one. I have block periodization programs. I have high low setups. I have I mean, Yuri always used long conjugate sequence systems. He always trained everything at the same time.
Speaker 1:But how you do it, that's the art of it. So everyone knows that you need a long conjugate sequence system. That's like saying everyone knows that a burger takes salt, pepper, and ground beef, but how do you put them together? How much ground beef do you put relative to the salt, relative to the pepper? And then that's really what makes a good program.
Speaker 1:How would an athlete being six eight affect your programming? The forces are a lot higher. So Ben talked about this quite a bit. It takes a lot more force when you have longer limbs because the distal limbs have more mass at the end ranges, and that increases the torque on the proximal muscle. So you have to keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:Typically, volumes are gonna be a little bit lower, and can still do everything, you just have to pay attention to your body. You can't push through discomfort, or sometimes you typically need a little less volume, is what I've noticed. Something that is a common knowledge in the Dunn community today that wasn't five years ago. Oh, that's a really, really good one. Five years ago was 2021, so I was still putting out a lot of information.
Speaker 1:I think isometrics were probably popularized in 2018. So now, I think we have a better understanding of condomalacia, for sure. I think that's which is just general knee pain. Outside of that, I think sprinting is probably a little bit more well understood by the dunk community. I think people know they need to do it.
Speaker 1:And I think that people understand the general concepts of training, thanks to Isaiah and myself. I definitely think that's true. How do you set up periodization of a jumping macro cycle? I do fluid periodization with long conjugate sequence systems, it doesn't fall into any hard category, but always go from high volume to low volume, low intensity to high intensity, get more specific as you move across the months. Are hip thrusts good for one foot vert?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. What qualities both qualitative and quantitative makes you pay more attention to an athlete? I would say their motivation and self they have to be self motivated. They have to be intrinsically motivated, and they have to they do the work. I think that people that ask too many questions and stuff like that and and hyper focus and hyper fixate that never really do the work on themselves to learn are really hard to coach, because they don't retain information as well, because they expect that information to be given to them instead of having to work for it and know that they're doing something right and and trust the process.
Speaker 1:I think when people don't trust the process and they're constantly asking questions, it can be it can be difficult. Should I gain healthy weight to improve my deep squat weight and then lose fat to jump again? No. I would just increase muscle mass slowly. Would you ever consider doing a day in the life of the greatest jump coach video log?
Speaker 1:I would. I think it'll be fun. Experience with athletes use on cannabis, impact on performance recovery. I think that in my experience, athletes that use it in small doses on recovery days do recover better, but I think you have to be really careful. I think a lot of people form a psychological addiction to it, and that can be really dangerous.
Speaker 1:How to improve your block foot. Punch it into the ground as fast as possible. Slide it into the floor. You should feel pushback. Sometimes that works too.
Speaker 1:Best place in Florida. Probably I don't know. I haven't been everywhere, but I really like the The Keys. I don't know which one's in Sarasota, around Sarasota. Best place, though?
Speaker 1:That's really hard. I probably have a favorite place, but I don't know about it. Best place. Is an official THPStrending facility something you'd see in the future? I would.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Definitely. We just have to grow more. The overhead on those facilities is insane, and typically it doesn't turn a profit. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:This is like a really good question. I'm doing really well. Life's good. My mental health is good. My spiritual life is good.
Speaker 1:My physical health is good. And financially, we're we're doing well, life's life's good. How can I improve vertical while having to practice four times a week? It's really hard. I would say you can lift twice a week and jump as high as you can during practice when you feel fresh.
Speaker 1:Are two up, one down squats helpful for amortizing faster? Not necessarily faster until you do fast stuff, but yes, they will eventually. How to get through the mental side of patellar tonopathy? Stick with it, know that it'll get better. It's an easy thing to fix, and you just have to trust the process and be patient, and yeah, it's not a hard thing.
Speaker 1:We call it the Ebony Rio, and Jill Cook always call it the depressed, diffused, and depleted, or something like that, the three Ds, because it can be hard to mentally handle it, it will get better. How do I improve? Five step approach. Start slow, start with less steps, and add steps. How do you balance what you know is technically right with individuals versus individual's natural mechanics?
Speaker 1:I always try to coach good technique, and then if they don't naturally improve within six months, then I'll let them go to their natural tendencies. If an athlete can power clean a lot per body weight, but can't jump high, why is this? Because jumping isn't power cleaning, and that's gonna be tough. Who came up with the exercise name good girl, bad girl? Don't know.
Speaker 1:That's a really good question. How should you train in season? You need less strength work. Typically, one to two days a week is more than enough. If your limiter in jump sessions is intra fatigue, not pain, how can you adjust jump volume?
Speaker 1:You should slowly build it up. There is a massive burden in my yard right now. Holy hell. Yeah. You slowly build it up, and it'll get better.
Speaker 1:Best caffeine cycling strategy to maximize long term max jump gains in dump knockers. I think just as long as you take more caffeine on the day you wanna jump, you're good because you will desensitize to caffeine. How do you calculate volume and intensity for an athlete in a mesocycle? It's based off of what the upper ranges I've seen athletes handle and then moving downward from that point. So I know the end range of what athletes can handle, and then I essentially say, okay, I'm gonna work backwards.
Speaker 1:And if this is the most that someone can handle, then I'm gonna keep decreasing volume until they are at a level that they that I know they can handle. And then if they're giving me feedback like this is too much, we'll just keep dropping it until they can adapt to it. My current vertical right now, it's really hard to say. I would say on a really good day, 36, 37 off one foot. It's nothing crazy.
Speaker 1:This isn't a question, but I'm pretty sure the singular form of indices is index. Thanks, Brian. What's Isaiah's standing reach and a good standing reach to have at six foot? His standing reach is eight one and a half, eight one, something like that, between the two depending on time of day. A good reach is that.
Speaker 1:That's a really high reach. If an athlete like John Morant went all in on jump train, do you think you'd break yeah. I think you could absolutely break the world record. How have your program ideas and methods shifted, if at all, in the last one to two years? I would say I'm a little bit more lenient on the general days.
Speaker 1:That's probably the biggest thing. What's your favorite car? I love my seven twenty. I love it. I like the sound of Huracans, but being in them, I don't like at all.
Speaker 1:But I love the SVJ. I think it's a beautiful car on the outside. Do you sometimes make your guys work on 100 meter sprints? If so, why not? The risk is too high, and I just don't wanna it's it's the risk is too high.
Speaker 1:The hamstring pull risk is too high. If you're a kid, you're under 16, 17, sure. But for these guys, they're they're jumpers. They're not sprinters. And if they pull a hamstring, they're gonna be out for a long time.
Speaker 1:What are the best workouts to increase explosiveness in any sport? I mean, power clean, jump squats, pin squats, anything from a standstill where exploding upwards really volitionally. Do you have a specific dunk you're working towards on 10 feet? Definitely an elbow. Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Definitely an elbow. How do you periodize training when you have both indoor outdoor season springing? Oh, that's that's a long winded question, but definitely go watch the YouTube video on that. That's that's too that's too deep for for this right now.
Speaker 1:Will you advise your athletes to use b p c one fifty seven? No. No. I will not. I think it's cheating.
Speaker 1:And until it's not cheating, no. If they're old and they wanna do it, and they don't they're not competing for anything, and that that's their choice, you know, I'll tell them, like, hey, here are the benefits, here are the risks, it's not well studied. There's not a lot of evidence yet on it, so, you know, that's you make your own choice based on that information. Favorite guilty pleasure food, Chick fil A. How do you progress a high school high jumpers approach through the season?
Speaker 1:Start at six, go to 10. Yeah. I would start short approach three, and then once they get comfortable, out of step, out of step, out out of step, progressing back as they need it. Will you bring back THPStrength calls? Maybe, maybe not.
Speaker 1:There weren't a lot of people that used them. How many dunk sessions should beginners and intermediates do per week? Just one. I think one is more than enough. If you're under the age of, like if you're in high school or before that, I think you can jump as much as your body allows you.
Speaker 1:But that's the video, That's all the questions that I have. I don't think there's any more that came back in, but I hope you guys enjoyed this. If you're interested in coaching, go teachfreestrength.com, and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye.
