Box Jump Record Falls Yet Again!

December 4, 2008 on 10:22 pm | In Strength Training | No Comments

Last week we had a classic record battle between two 8th graders, Mike and Jake.  They were going back and forth to beat the record of 41 inches.  Jake ended up winning with a jump of 43 inches.

Well, the old champ, Nick came back this week and retook his record with back to back jumps of 45 inches!  I wish I could jump that high in 8th grade!  Sometimes its tough to remember that all those athletes that are fighting for the record are still in Middle School. 

After the first video of Jake taking the box jump record, I received some email questions about how I’m getting these youngsters to fly.  Well first, I have to take my hat off to the young athletes for being dedicated and hard working.  I have them hit serious lifts, deads, squats then back it up with some unilateral leg work for athletes.  One of the exercises we use, Bulgarian Split Squat Skater Style (BS4) is pictured in the video below. 

There are some things I don’t do as well.  I do not beat my athletes legs into submission by hitting high rep plyometrics daily.  I know some trainers who will assign 50-60 box jumps in a set.  Is that really training what you want?  If you want your athletes to jump high, then you have to train then jumping high most of the time.  If I was hitting 60 box jumps in a row, my last one would be about six inches.  Sometimes you have to train smarter not “harder.”  (I put harder in qoutes since in my opinion landing a 45 in box jump in 8th grade is certainly hard, but other trainers seem to think they have to be drenched in sweat and sore beyond belief for the lift to be hard). 

I also favor the box jump since it allows for more sets to be completed with less impact on the knees.  Instead of jumping their highest and coming down hard, the athletes land a box which is a shorter fall.  Additionally, the athletes have to work on hip and back flexibility to get their legs up high. 

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I have the pleasure of going down to Mike Hanley’s Training Studio and then Joe Defranco’s this weekend with Jim Smith, so stay posted for some great information!