Advanced Plyometrics - How to use different plyos to jump further and run faster 

Congratulations 👏🏽. I have helped a couple of master athletes including a current US masters one. All the best and keep jumping

Many thanks for the video comments and your query... in some ways I see your point, but if you load a plyo from a deep position the knee can actually be placed in a compromising position. The more flexible will have less issues (think martial artists). I’d rather use lateral movements to shore up and stabilise and also weights, balance and body weight exercises to develop that robustness (over fuller ranges). Also keeping a limit on the amount of plyos can help as can making sure the athlete is not tired or tiring and if that they are optimally conditioned.

Many thanks for the comments. I'm just trying to get across some of the things I've picked up, learnt and implemented that I have had success with through my writing and coaching over many years. Which sort of brings me to your point. What I do in general has worked with the guys I coach (three men over 7.70m, two women over 6.20m, two 16m triple jumpers in about 6 years as highlights...). So, with the drop jumps I'm looking at creating better reactivity and leg stiffness and the brain muscle connection in terms of activation of FT motor units. My rationale for the front third of the foot contact is that is more akin to the contacts made when sprinting, plus if you dropped on your heels you'd create greater shock and less smooth firing of the ankle, knee and hip. Now for hops from a platform or with a run in then the heel is going to slightly lead the contact and therefore we get the more flat foot impact... but as there is forward momentum there's not going to be a block/brake placed on the movement by the heels dropping "behind" the athlete as would occur from a drop jump. I still train (!) and I'd not be able to react from the floor if I landed flat footed and tried to jump up from a drop jump (it would shut down the contribution of the ankle in my mind). I guess Dan P may be referring to jumps where the foot sort of rocks over the take-off which can occur in the long jump and high jump and perhaps there's specificity there. Now, having occasionally coached high jumpers and thought about their conditioning, due to the slower contact time and the need to "stop to go up" more heel/flat footed contacts can been used - however, I think most athletes will naturally adapt to the type of contact needed for the specific type of jump they are doing. Going up needs slightly more delay than going forwards. But the angle of the knee is also crucial - too much knee bend delays the take-off and the contribution of the tendons (yet basket ball players and volley ball player often jump into a two footed take-off with a deep knee bend... I believe this is because they often don't have the same horizontal take-off speed as athletic event jumpers and therefore need more time to generate the force (perhaps more concentrically at that) to get off the floor with those flat footed (but launched into) take-offs. Hope this makes sense. And just to add this is what I have found works primarily in terms of speed and horizontal jumpers....

Thanks! Well, on average, we include plyos in virtually all the group sessions a week. As an example, y/day 'section' 2 of the session included speed bounds x 3 over 20m and the 4th section 2 x 6 x 2 bounds off a low platform and into the pit from a short approach... I keep the plyo content quite low in terms of reps and sets but include it constantly and all year round. Sessions can have 3 sections of plyos if we include units of take-offs and skips too. I think that once an athlete is well conditioned then most of plyo exercises will not be overly fatiguing if done in sensible numbers... when it comes to the more intense ones (bounds off a platform, for example), then I keep more of an eye on the numbers and look for signs of fatigue, such as slowing ground contacts... and here I use a much more circumspect approach. As you may see from the videos I use an integrated approach to workouts which cover many bases and I think if you do this then the athlete gets used to the regularity and is able to cope with the loadings. Hope this helps,

2 years late, but my solution is to to train the hamstrings more. Specifically Nordic curls

I guess: single leg depth broad jumps.

This is not an easy answer to provide as it will depend on what you are used to and your level of training maturity. So , you need to be comfortable firstly doing the exercises i.e. Strong enough. One thing I will say that if this is the case that you need to always emphasise quality and safe speed of movement. So use 4-8 reps - 2-5 sets. Only do 2-3 weights exercises and make sure the weight lifted is over 85% 1RM. Take plenty of recovery. For the plyos - follow a similar protocol and select 3-4 exercises. Hope this helps. 👍🏽🙏🏽

I'll rely on my fitness writing experience here... there are so many variable to weight loss (diet perhaps being the main one - if that's not optimum then the responses of your training never will be). Now aerobic training despite what you may think can reduce lean muscle mass and create a body that's not so calorie burning efficient... with men in particular the more lean muscle you have the more calorie burning your body will do 24/7... I often used to write "have you ever seen any overweight sprinters? Sprinters who are primarily anaerobic animals.... You may lose more weight now if you sprinted and lifted weights and created a more calorie effect body (coupled with the right diet). If you still want to run for fitness, perhaps add in some shorter intervals and HIT training to have more anaerobic effects which should also spike calorie burring and post exercises energy consumption. (EPOC). Now, VO2max, I expect it has been increased over your years of running, the thing is it's very much genetically determined and if my memory serves me right can only be increased by around 12%... lactate threshold and performance economy can be enhanced much more significantly... so again. if you want to continue the aerobic/running route to fitness/weight loss I would perhaps try to train at elevated VO2 levels (circa 85% max heart rate) in order to stimulate greater lacate tolerance, and also boost performance economy. Net result greater calorie burn and hopefully greater fat loss. A note on the latter be realistic in terms of your fat loss targets vis a vis for example your age. Perhaps do 2 weights sessions a week; one HIT session, one lactate threshold effort and 1-2 moderate intensity aerobic efforts. Hope this helps...

@@Johnshepherdtrackcoach thx for this positive wall of text i really enjoyed reading it ...today i did 11km interval runs in 42 minutes (including rests)....plus i do one (above ) 22km long run every week...i think problem has to be in my diet as u mentioned...thx again for ur reply sir...

Yes, however, I would also spend more time doing doubled footed jumps as well as single leg ones and going up more than forwards in terms of the trajectory (of relevant jumps). The drop jumps would work but as said, emphasise vertical jump height. You could drop down from say 60cm and then jump up to touch the ring, or onto stacked boxes. Another option: double foot jumps for height, holding weights - around 30-50kg, with the odd session really heavy ... also do some of the jumps holding (where suitable) a basketball to make it more specific. Hope this helps.

@@Johnshepherdtrackcoach thanks for the tips. this helps alot