Steps:
1) Get your conditioning to a good level
- You can't have a good vertical jump if your overall conditioning is lacking, it's also very good for your health to have a strong cardiovascular system.
2) Lose any excess weight
- You can't expect to jump very high with a 20 pound tire strapped around your waist. The optimal body fat level for an athlete is 6-12% of body fat. A good rule of thumb is for every 5 pounds of fat you lose, that's 1 to 2 inches on your vertical jump.
3) Gain movement efficiency
- The vertical jump requires a lot of specific coordination, running vertical jump more so than standing. You can't jump very well if you look like a robot when you're moving. You need to have a solid foundation of sports and jumping.
4) Gain strength
- This is by far the hardest and most important aspect of increasing your jumping ability. The best exercise that transfers over is the squat. A good goal to aim for is a 2 times body weight squat, once you have accomplished that, strength becomes less of a factor.
This is just a very basic guide giving you a few pointers that may help steer you in the right direction towards increasing your vertical. There is a plethora of knowledge out there, both good and bad. The two best sites with the most information would be Kelly Bagget's website: http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/index.html and Andrew Darqui's website: http://www.adarq.org/forum/. If you read over all of their articles, your understanding of the vertical jump and how to increase will be a lot better.
[http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-JumpHigher]
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brandon_S_Thomas
