Am I completing each workout feeling as if I could go back and do more?

If you answer "yes" to all of these questions, then you’re on the right track. If you answer "no" to a couple of them, then it’s time to take a closer look at your other activities, your rest, and your nutrition. Are you spending too much time playing other sports or

spending too many hours on the court? Are you eating plenty of good, clean, nutritious food? Are you getting enough sleep each night? If you answer no to some of these then simply pay more attention to them. If you answer yes to all of these then you may just be burned out and need to take ½ to a full weeks rest. Remember, long-term progress!! There is nothing at all wrong with taking a planned rest period. In fact, one of the

greatest performance coaches in the world, Ian King, has all his athletes take a mandatory ½ week of active rest after every 3 weeks of training! The reason he does this is because he has found his athletes actually get much better results following this approach. They come back to train renewed with energy and excitement and within a week surpass their previous performances. This is also the reason that active rest is already built into the programs I’ve designed. This can be a few days to a week of "active rest" if you want. You can and should take in some outdoor activities and occasional light exercise. Just stay away from the heavy iron during this time.

The training programs I’ve put together are designed to be “stimulatory” in nature. That is, they are designed to stimulate your body to increase strength, power, speed, and explosiveness. All these factors combined lead into increased performance. The workouts are not designed to kill you! Stimulate is not the same thing as annihilate! Generating fatigue is not the same thing as generating results. A workout doesn’t have to be extremely tough and long in order to be effective. In fact, the reverse is usually true. You could run around with lead boots on holding 50 lbs overhead until you threw up and this would surely wipe you out but what kind’ve improvements would it stimulate? Probably none. You should finish each workout feeling slightly refreshed, not totally worn out. You should feel as if you could go back and complete 50% of the workout again no problem. If you’re feeling totally drained you’re probably doing too much and need to cut down on volume.

What’s Possible?

So just how much increase is possible in your vertical jump? Well, I can say this. I highly doubt that any one person ever, and I mean EVER, has actually maxed out their vertical jump or hit their absolute peak. It’s physiologically and mathematically impossible to do so! Now before you say I’m crazy let me explain. Remember how I broke the vertical jump down into its components force and velocity? Well, regardless of the person, whether they have a 50-inch vertical or a 20-inch vertical there’s ALWAYS something they can do to enhance one side of the equation. One person may have a 50- inch vertical jump and spend 2-3 hours per week playing basketball. Do you think maybe if he reduced his on-court time and replaced that with strength training it might allow him

to improve a bit? Another person might be in the same situation yet eat an absolutely terrible diet. Do you think if maybe he started eating an optimal diet his performance might increase just a bit? Do you see where I’m going with this?

You can take anyone and regardless of the athlete and no matter how great he or she is, there’s almost always something they can do to improve their performance. This could be something as simple as just getting a few more hours rest per week, changing the focus of their training, investing in something like what you’re reading here, or paying more attention to nutrition. However, the closer you come to your limits the less room you have for improvement and the less room you have for error.

The fact is that age, injuries, and other things beyond our control will often cause our performance to decrease before the actual maxing out of our abilities ever happens. Another fact is, like it or not, few of you out there are going to be vertical jump

specialists. If you play any sports at all, the abilities and energies required in those sports are going to detract away from any one specific focus. During a game of basketball the average player runs something like between 3-5 miles. No matter how you look at it 3-5 miles takes a lot out of you. So what I’m saying is your vertical jumping ability,

regardless of who you are or your situation, - always has room for improvement. Some folks might gain 8 inches in 2 weeks. Others might gain 8 inches in 2 years. Some might gain 20 inches in 6 months. It’s very individual. I can say that I am fully confident that if you follow not only the programs I’ve designed, but more importantly, the science as I’ve laid it out for you - If you apply yourself to solid scientific training methods I am sure you’ll gain more then you ever could following any other cookie cutter program.

When will I see my best gains?

Believe it or not, most people will see their best gains after a few days to an entire weeks rest regardless of what program they’re on. Remember when I talked about recovery? After taking a few days rest, our bodies are recovered and ready to perform optimally. This is why each program should be followed with at least a 3-day rest period followed by testing. Athletes across all sports have long practiced “tapering”, or the reduction in volume prior to a big event. This allows them to take advantage of the enhanced

recovery that comes from the rest. However, it is essential that you have built up enough training volume to have something to have something to taper into! If you’re used to resting all the time sitting around watching TV then additional rest isn’t going to do you a bit of good! Follow the programs as outlined and the designed rest periods will allow you to take full advantage of this.

I actually remember the very first plyometrics type workout I when I was 16. I busted my butt for 6 weeks on this program and never saw a bit of gains! Knowing what I know now I realize that I was way overtrained at the time. I completed the 6-week workout 3 days before basketball season started. I proceeded to play through the entire season with tired legs. All the playing and running and everything really wore me down. Finally, when basketball season was over in late February I took a full 2 weeks and didn’t do anything physical whatsoever. One day I went back in the gym for a pick-up game. I got

warmed up and decided to test out my jumping ability and to my amazement I’d actually gained about 5 inches on my jump in the 2 weeks since our last basketball game! I didn’t suddenly gain 5 inches overnight. The gains were “stimulated” by my previous 6 months of high activity. When I was finally able to rest my body was finally allowed to adapt to that stimulation Just goes to show you the power of tapering and the power of rest!

What Do I Have To Do To Maintain My Vertical?

So when you develop that big vertical you’ve always dreamed of what are you going to have to do to maintain it? Actually you can do nothing at all and still maintain

everything you have. You can quit playing basketball or any other sport tomorrow and sit on your butt for the next 5 years without exercising and you will still have the exact same vertical as you did at the completion of your program! Ok, I’m only kidding! The truth is, you’re going to have to do some of the same things to maintain your vertical as you do to increase it, only at a lot less frequency and volume. It should make sense that if you improved your vertical by increasing your strength, that you will maintain it by maintaining your strength. If you increase your vertical by performing plyometrics you will maintain it by maintaining that plyometric strength. If you improved it by doing a combination of the 2 you will maintain it doing a combination of the 2. The good thing is that it takes a lot less frequency and volume to maintain a base of strength then it does to increase it. Strength can be maintained by training as infrequently as once every 7 days for a few sets. The same goes for plyometric strength and rate of force development. Plyometric efficiency can be maintained by just playing basketball as infrequently as one time per week. Basketball is a sport that is inherently plyometric, so just playing the sport is a plyometric workout in itself.

Secrets of the Pros

I’ll let you in on a little secret in-season training method practiced by virtually all NBA basketball players. Would you like to know what these players do during the season to maintain or increase their leaping ability? Well first thing, most players don’t increase anything during the season other then their bank accounts. The season is so long,

enduring, and physically demanding that physical capacities tend to dwindle. The players already get more than enough jump training just playing the game and in fact stress their legs so much through practices and games that any additional jump training during the season would be entirely counter-productive and quickly lead to overtraining. Rather, the focus for a professional athlete is maintaining the base of strength that they build in the off-season. They lift weights to maintain strength and let the on-court time take care of everything else. One thing you should get from this is another lesson on the importance of recovery. Unless you play very infrequently your season is not the time to be following a high volume program. Focus on improving your physical capacities in the off-season when you’re fresh. Build up your strength and power and try to fit in at least one good strength workout per week during the season to maintain what you have.