You stated in my other post that you went from a 12in vertical to 36in in 2 years. Did you do this by lifting , or doing special exercises or simply by getting the perfect form? How do you jump properly? I don't know any volleyball coaches so I was hoping you could help me.
Nutty as this might sound, I think a large part of it is also midsection strength.
I can't really come up with a scientific or objective reason right off the bat, but my personal feeling is that stronger abs make it easier to get your mass moving--whether you want to get it going fwd, backward, laterally, or vertically.
"I think my jumping ability has been helped by all the deadlifting I've done over the last year or so but I don't think that's going to be appropriate for a 7-year-old."
Im pretty sure deadlifting isnt recommended for CAT training. Squats and power cleans will definately help with the vertical though.
jonwell (or anybody) do you know of any good sites that show and explain jumping techniques and exercises? My daughter has unfortunately inherited from me my microscopic elevation and hangtime and I'd like to find some, preferably fun, jumping techiques we can work on together. I think my jumping ability has been helped by all the deadlifting I've done over the last year or so but I don't think that's going to be appropriate for a 7-year-old.
Any help appreciated.
Thank you for your comments. Your points are well taken. To pick a small nit, I never said I thought deadlifts were unsafe, just inappropriate. Perhaps inconvenient would have been a better term since we do not have weights at home and I know of no other place she could do them (our gym weightroom is limited to those 14 and over). She is already pretty strong with body weight exercises since she currently works out 9 hours a week in competitive gymnastics. I do not want to push her anywhere, just help her improve an important gymnastic ability in a fun, but safe way.
Perhaps this is not the appropriate forum to ask such questions, so I will refrain from doing so in the future.
Bringiton: Sir, I am not attempting to be polemical, but if you feel that deadlifting is not safe for your young daughter, then why do you feel ok with her pushing the limits of her vertical leap?
In many ways, the force upon the skeletal system from landing after a good jump is many times greater than what most anyone can deadlift!
All of that said, I'd say that if you want to help her vertical without hitting the weights, then go with some kinds of bodyweight exercises to condition her major muscle groups--esp her trunk. A good approach might be to put her on scrapper's #2 workout (has oodles of ab work in it) and combine it with some back hyperextensions. Working some sprinting and rope skipping into the mix could also be a good idea.
I'm sure you know the URL for SCRAPPER's wokrouts, but here it is nonetheless: http://www.webfects.com/hea/routine/htm#
Bringiton: Sir, this is a forum about S&C for improvement of athletic performance. Your question about helping your daughter with her vertical is much, much more appropriate than, say, all those aesthetic questions! I would feel bad if you felt our responses discouraged this line of questioning from you!Anyway, if she can't train with weights there are still things she can do. If she's in gymnastics, you're right that she's probably really advanced for most bw exercises. Can she do one-legged bodyweight squats? If she can't, then this might be a good project for you and her to get her strong enough to do them. Personally, this is also the direction that my S&C training has been going. My current goal is reaching 20 one-legged squats, and I've been experimenting with various methods to up the reps--methods which I feel could help get someone from 0 reps to 1 rep. I'll share my methods if they prvoe successful.Here's another interesting and VERY advanced bw leg exercise: (from http://www.testosterone.net/articles/160stud2.html )
Of course, you could also use your arms to hold down her ankles instead of using the board with straps (In trying this exercise, I found that using a training partner is better than using artificial means to keep your ankles down).Try this stuff with her and let us know how it works!
Hmmm....My opinion only, not based on anything
other than observation....But wouldn't jumping
excercises actually be safer for a kid than an adult?
Their bodies aren't heavy enough to do the kind of
impact damage that ours would upon landing. That
grace period of childhood seems like a great time
to develop tendon (or is it ligament?) strength with
low injury risk. Meanwhile, deadlifting and other
weighted options seems to me to put too much
constant stress on soft developing bones.
The analogy might be the difference between
bouncing a rubbery object wherein it would just
spring back to shape quickly versus placing a
heavy object on it wherein it starts to bend slowly,
and if repeated might just stay bent.
It seems to me that childhood
is the perfect time for plyometrics (you'd still have
to ease them into it and progress them through
safely).
PN...
Buddhadev, Sir if I was defensive in my reply I apologize. Thank you for your suggestion about the body weight squats--that sounds perfect and I have done those myself back when I was grappling on a regular basis. The other one also sounds interesting as well.
Right now the two of us engage in friendly "competitions" doing pullups, pushups, swimming/diving, etc. This may seem hard to believe but she is generally the instigator of these competitions because she is a very competitive little girl. She can do 9 dead hang pullups and 87 pushups (she loves to beat me on that one) so she is very strong relative to most of the other kids, even boys, her age.
I will brag a bit because this weekend she competed in a state-wide gymnastics meet and won her level in the vault, placed 3rd in floor and beam, and was 3rd overall in what was probably the most competitive level. She has skills, but right now jumping is her biggest impediment in her scores and if I can help her in this area without risking her health or limiting her desire I would like to do it. Again, thanks for your suggestions and for putting issues of health and risk up front in your answers.
No problem bringiton, and no need to apologize. This is the written medium and being that I can't convey my tone via body language and voice, I can understand why you might have taken it as me second-guessing or being pointlessly polemical with you.In any case, I hope my suggestions are of benefit to you and your daughter. Oh, and my suggestion was not with regard to simple boydweight squats or hindu squats. I'm speaking of one-legged bodyweight squats. I should include the caveat that with nine hours of training per week already, you should be very, very cautious in any additions or changes you make. Like I'd say for an MMA fighter, if you want to work on her strength more to help her vertical, you might want to put some of the other gymnastics training she does down to maintenance levels until you have reached some sort of objective goal. I wouldn't want my suggestions to result in your little girl getting overtrained and ultimately injured.I have to say that your daughter sounds like a really awesome kid! You won't have to worry about her being bullied, because I think you're right that there are very few seven year olds of either gender who are that strong!Please keep us posted on her progress. I'm curious about whether my thoughts here are really as valid as they seem to be to me. However, I'm out of town right now and will be for the rest of this week and next, so for at least a while, unfortunately, I won't be able to read this forum as much--let alone post, but I"m archiving this thread right now.