Are you a basketball player, track and field jumper, or just a general athlete who wants to be able to jump higher? You may not have thought of this, but did you know that there are two main types of vertical jumpers? Understanding what type of jumper you are is very important when developing an effective vertical development plan to jump higher. To achieve successful gains in increasing your vertical, an individualized plan is necessary that requires you to know what type of jumper you are. I’m going to explain the two main types of jumpers and the ways each can most effectively develop their vertical jump.
1. The Force Jumper
These types of jumpers rely heavily on their physical strength or explosive ability to jump. When you look at these types of athletes, they tend to look less elastic and more powerful when they jump. These athletes have much more strength than speed or rebound. You may also notice that they jump from 2 feet and can often jump high when standing still. In many cases, athletes may not even know that they are power jumpers because they have not yet developed their muscular strength. Since these types of athletes naturally have a lot of muscular strength, it would not make sense for these athletes to focus on strength training. These athletes would see the best results with a plan focused on plyometrics.
2. The elastic jumper
These types of jumpers rely less on their strength and more on their natural overall body composition. If you’ve ever seen an athlete jump in a fluid motion that seems almost effortless, then you’re looking at a springy jumper. These guys tend to have long legs, long Achilles tendons, and smaller joints. In contrast to the power jumper, they have much more bounce and speed than strength. The elastic jumper tends to jump higher on one leg when starting to run. These types of jumpers excel at their body structure and have natural plyometric ability. These types of athletes would benefit more from a plan that focuses more on weight training, such as squats.
The two types of jumpers we just covered are the 2 ends of the spectrum when it comes to jump types. There are plenty of athletes who fit into several different combinations of the two. The main thing to understand is that no two people are the same. To develop your vertical effectively, you must have an individualized program to properly develop your body type. By understanding what type of jumper you are, you can better develop yourself to jump higher.