Overview
Plyometrics is a fancy name for "jumping drills."
They train the nervous system and muscles to
execute the full jumping motion with as much coordination, power,
and speed as possible. In practice, this means you
should concentrate on jumping quickly, "bouncing" off
the ground (rather than "pushing" off the ground) while
maintaining a full range of motion.
For your plyometric workouts, keep things short and simple.
After an excellent warmup, do one of the workouts below or a combination thereof,
limiting your total number of footcontacts to well under 200. During the off-season, you should
do two plyo sessions per week; in season, limit yourself to one day per week.
These workouts, which take only about 15 minutes to
complete, should immediately precede your weight workout two days
a week during the offseason and one day a week during the season. In addition, you
should
>"periodize" your plyometric workouts to fit your weight training and competition schedules.
"Warning, Will Robinson! . . .Warning!"
Plyometrics are extremely hard on muscles and
connective tissue (especially tendons), which is why you should
keep track of your foot contacts for each workout, limiting them to the
150-180 range, and why you should always give yourself at least 48 hours
between plyo sessions. While you can probably do a
scaled-down version of the "low impact" workout without
lots of foundational weight-lifting, you should lift for a minimum
of two or three months before attempting the "high
impact" workout. If you can't wait that long, at least skip
the depth jumps for a few weeks. Depth jumps are especially hard
on joints, and they require a significant amount of strength for
an athlete to do them correctly and safely (a good rule of thumb
is squatting at least 1.5 to 2 times your body weight). Speak with a knowledgeable coach to
learn the proper mechanics for these drills. Also speak with your physician before beginning any conditioning program.
Sample Plyometric Workouts
To see a clip of a particular drill, click on its name. As you watch
the clips, focus on three mechanical keys:
Balance . . . which the jumper maintains by keeping
his head up.
Speed . . . the jumper bounces off the floor rather
than landing, then squatting, then jumping.
Double-armswing . . . the jumper uses a long, explosive,
double-armswing every time
he jumps (in slow motion, you'll notice the armswing begins an
instant before he contacts the floor and jumps).
"High Impact" Workout (approximately 150 foot contacts)
- 5 x 20m
Bunny Hops or
Zig-Zag Bunny Hops
- 5 x 20m
Bounding (L, R, L, R, L, R, . . .) or
Hopping (L, L, L, . . .)
- 5 x 5
Zig-zag Plants (final two steps of approach, angling to the right, then
left, then right, etc.)
- 5 x 5
Depth Jumps (using a set of stable jumping boxes)
-
Block Jumps to
failure (one continuous set until you're jumping no
higher than six inches)
"Low Impact" Workout (approximately 160 foot contacts)
- 3 x 12
Square Jumps I (jump from corner to corner on a 4'-5' square)
- 3 x 12
Square Jumps II (jump from corner to corner on a 4'-5'
square)
- 3 x 15
Explosive Step-Ups (step up on a jumping box and explode into the
air)
- 3 x 15
Box Jumps (jump up on to box, step off, pause,
repeat)
Technique page
Weight Training page
Main Jumping page
Updated January 2006.
Copyright 1997-2006 by Tom Wilson. All rights reserved.
No part of this page or site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
without the prior written permission of the author and publisher.
Plyometrics