When performing plyometrics, we are aiming to improve the “static spring” capabilities of the body. In many ways, it is the total opposite of traditional barbell strength training.
Perhaps this is a reason that strength training and plyometrics work so well in a program together versus one used by itself. Plyometrics optimize the ability of the athlete to lock up the muscle isometrically and allow the tendons, fascia, and connective tissue to provide the power of movement itself.
Strength work works muscles and tendons, but neurologically, the muscles are providing the movement power, particularly in the concentric, or “up” phase of the lift. Plyometrics, on the other hand, rely on elastic power for the concentric, or “up” phase of the movement.
This is where coaches can get things a little confused, as many people use elastic bands and other devices to try to increase “power” in the concentric phase of a jump. This may be good for those athletes who need more “muscle” in their jump, particularly their standing vertical jump. In terms of “load and explode” optimization, this practice causes the difference between one’s standing vertical and running jumps to get smaller by putting too much “muscle” in a movement when it should be elastic.
This might be good for box jump competitions, but not for fast dunks or high jump.
In this realm, one plyometric that I have found to be perhaps the pure epitome of static spring (legs are rigid, while feet become the gateway to the fascial system) In running jumps, the less leg bend an athlete can get away with, the better. Of course, athletes need training to get to this point, as a strength-dominated athlete just doesn’t have the fascial power to jump like an Olympic high jumper (but they can get better with training!).
The point is though, that every athlete can become more elastic. A great exercise to hone in on this is the “Altitude Drop Leg Depth Jump”. Before we get to the depth jump version, let’s go back to “Altitude Drop Legs” quickly.
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The Altitude Drop Leg exercise uses the crossed-extensor reflex to neurologically improve the quality of the stiffness in ground landing.
One cool thing I learned at the “Rewire” clinic I hosted featuring the legendary coach Adarian Barr is that depth drops are a different skill than actually dropping in an athletic manner. In other words, the eccentric phase of a depth drop is a different skill than the eccentric phase of a depth jump.
Even in a drop, you can see the subtle desire of the body to “bounce” and the way the arms have to move to blunt that response. That’s not to say drops are bad at all, but what I am saying is that you eventually have to move on to training means that harness more of how the body is meant to move in jumping.
I’m honestly NOT a fan at all of deceleration training. I like drop jumps in the general stiffness and position sense, as well as their raw effect on muscle recruitment, but as Adarian Barr says, deceleration is built in to change of direction and all sport movement. We don’t need to actively train it. This being said, I do have depth drops in my programming, but not any sort of deceleration work in relation to changing direction, since it doesn’t neurologically happen in sport.
How I’ve taken the powerful stimulus on the drop leg mechanism (holding one leg up before bringing the legs together, and then driving them down) is to harness this to make a depth jump better. How do you make a depth jump better? More force? Not really… just less time, and less knee bend. Granted people jump at different levels of knee bend, but again, the less knee bend you can build strength in, the better.
For my latest training exploration, I used a depth jump to a hurdle (the best type of depth jump for rate of force development) and added the drop leg in, and BOOM, I found it was the fastest way I’ve found one can get off the ground in a depth jump. Just check out the video below.
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All this being said, no plyometric in and of itself is magic, but each one helps us unlock a new aspect of being an athlete in the direction we want to head. This one is a huge elastic trainer, as well as movement “screen” in terms of execution with good position.
Finally, this exercise is not 100% unique, as athletes get a very similar stimulus in hurdle hops, as the legs driving down before each jump gets set up is fairly similar, but the Altitude Drop Leg to Depth Jump gives it a single stimulus edge, as well some asymmetry, and body-halves working together.
Give it a try!
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