Jumping, Bounding, and Plyometrics
I believe there are several benefits to be had by incorporating jumping, bounding, and plyometric training in an off season training program. This training is great for reducing injuries, improving strength and stability, and increasing power. It also gives us exposure to higher velocity movements which we can not achieve with squatting and deadlifting exercises. Plus it allows us the ability to train in a more dynamic manner than can be achieved with barbells, dumbbells, and kettle bells.
Probably the most beneficial, and yet unrecognized, aspect of jump training is that of injury reduction. Simply think for a moment about how non contact injuries like sprained ankles, ACL tears, and "tweaked" knees happen. These injuries happen as a result of very rapid eccentric contraction and loading of the muscles and joints. This load is just too much too fast and the muscles are not able to contract to protect the passive structures of the joints and injury results.
I often hear athletic trainers, doctors, strength coaches, and therapists recommend slow eccentric strengthening exercises for injury reduction. While there may be some benefit to slow eccentrics I think this recommendation is a mistake for the most part. Slow eccentrics may have a place with regard to general strengthening and rehabilitating an injury or surgery. However, for a healthy player we want to reduce the likelihood of an injury happening in the first place. So as I stated before the mechanism of injury is a rapid eccentric loading and to train for this we must program rapid eccentric load in a safe and progressive manner.
To accomplish this we need to have a sequence of exercises that progressively increase the eccentric loading the athletes receive. Most strength coaches are already familiar with these exercises however, I am not sure that we are always utilizing them appropriately. The sequence I feel that jump training should be programmed in the of season is as follows:
Phase 1-Box Jumps with a 'stick'. By 'stick' I mean they stick the landing and hold that position, hip, knee, and ankle flexion with an upright torso for a one count. By doing this we are emphasizing the eccentric load or the landing portion of the jump. The benefit of jumping onto a box is that the loading of the impact is reduced. For example, if I were to jump 28 inches off the ground and land onto a 24 inch box I am only descending 4 inches. Gravity does not act upon me for the full 28 inch descent to the ground. The reduced ground impact force is what makes this a phase 1 progression. I don not allow the players to jump off the boxes. They must step down. If a player is jumping onto a tall box they will walk down onto the shorter boxes.
Phase 2-Hurdle Jump with a 'stick'. With this drill I am doing everything that I did with the box jump landing. The difference is that I am landing on the ground once I clear the hurdle so I am being exposed to greater ground impact force and more intense eccentric load. Using the example above, if I jump 28 inches up I will then descend 28 inches into the landing.
Phase 3-Hurdle Jump 'continuous'. In this progression all we have done is remove the 'stick' landing. What we are looking for is to rapidly change from eccentric to concentric contraction. This will obviously give us the most intense and rapid loading.
Also, I feel that many programs do not incorporate enough single leg jump training and in my experience this is of paramount importance for injury reduction. The reality is that the players are constantly transferring their body weight from 1 foot to the other. Again this is where the non contact injuries are occurring, when one leg is rapidly loaded. I will use the same progressions as above:
Phase 1-1 leg Box Jump with stick
Phase 2-1 leg Hurdle Jump with stick
Phase 3-1 leg Hurdle Jump continuous
