How To Jump Higher

Jumping higher is something that every athlete could use. Some of the more obvious sports where jumping plays a key role are basketball and volleyball. But every sport can benefit from the quickness that you get from a jump training program.
Plyometrics are jumping exercises that teach you muscles to react better when you load them prior to jumping. A combination of plyometrics and leg strengthening exercises will provide you with power which is what you need to increase your vertical leap. It is not uncommon to see a 2-5 inch increase in your vertical leap within the first 4 weeks of training.

When watching beach volleyball you might wonder why the teams switch sides mid game. The games are played to 21 and the switches occur every seven points so that the sun isn't in one teams eyes more than the others.

You may think that volleyball is volleyball, whether played in sand or indoors. Well, I'm here to tell you that this not the case. Jumping in sand is much different than jumping on a hard court so the approach is shorter in beach volleyball.

The ball is also very different when it comes to beach volleyball. An indoor ball is pumped up until it's about to explode and is small and hard. An outdoor beach volleyball is softer, lighter, slightly larger and is not supposed to pumped up until it is as hard as an indoor volleyball.

Chances are the most difficult area to master in beach volleyball is the set. It has to look perfect, which means clean with no spin. You also aren't allowed to set serves in beach volleyball.

There is no open hand tipping in beach volleyball. You can open hand tip all you want playing indoor volleyball with 6 people on each team, but in sand volleyball it's not allowed ever.

Another rule change to be aware of is that you can't side set over the net. This means that if you are going to set the ball over the net for some odd reason, you have to do it directly in front of you or directly behind you.

For some reason you get 4 hits in indoor volleyball when the blocker touches the ball. This is not the case in beach volleyball, if the blocker touches the ball it counts as one of your 3 hits.

Follow these guidelines and you will be a better beach volleyball player.

More on how to jump in sand

Should you wear ankle weights to help you jump higher? NO! It's as simple as that. Ankle weights will not help you jump higher, how could they? The weight is below your knees so it wouldn't take any extra force to jump. You would only fill the weight after you left the ground so it wouldn't help your force production.

So you want to learn how to jump higher?

Jumping requires a different type of training than that of bodybuilding. If you want to increase your vertical leap then you need to train through plyometrics.

Here are some exercise that will help you in your jumping ability.

1. Squats. These aren't just 3 sets of normal squats though. You gotta switch it up a bit to train your muscles how to jump. Do the first set going down slow and then exploding up quickly. Explode all the way up onto your toes so that it is a squat and calf raise. Second set is going to be fast down and up. On both sets you want a weight that is challenging enough to barely finish 8 reps. Don't sacrifice speed to go heavy though! The second you can't go at a fast speed is when you know the weight is too heavy.

Plyometrics. These will require a box or something to jump onto and off of. Sit on something about knee high and have another box a little higher than what your sitting on directly in front of you. You are going to explode from a seated position and land on top of the box in front on you. Most people don't get bend their knees as much as they could and this results in a lower jump height. This exercise will force you to bend at the knee more thereby increasing your the power you are able to generate against the ground causing you to jump higher. Again do a height that is challenging enough to only be able to get 8. We want to train for power and height, not for endurance that's why the reps are so low.

Improving your vertical jump is all about training for speed and strength appropriately. You can't just do strength training without plyos because you won't have enough speed to match your strength.