Vertical leap=speed?

I do not know offhand the measurement of my vertical leap, but the idea makes sense. I wrestled throughout high school, and thus I had much more fast-twitch muscle mass in those days. Now that I concentrate fully on running, I have found that I have far less ability to jump high and do anything else that requires large amounts of agility.

The way I did it was to hold a marker standing against the wall and mark as high as I could standing flat footed. Then I jumped from a standing position and measured the distance between the two marks. This was the method recommended in the book.

A twelve inch vertical leap for a basketball player =

waterboy.

My recollection is that Frank Shorter had a vertical leap of about 10-12 inches when he was in his prime running years. It's important to keep in mind, however, that the low vertical leap of many excellent distance runners probably reflects more than just a genetic predisposition to be poor leapers (presumably, because of a lack of fast-twitch muscle fiber). There is evidence that distance-running itself inhibits vertical leap, so that distance runners who stop training for a long time may have substantially increased vertical leap after they've deconditioned. So if you go out and do a lot of running to get into "better shape," don't be surprised if your leaping ability actually decreases.

By the way, supposedly the first female dunked this summer

in the women's professional basketball league. Her vertical

might be around 36 inches. I knew 5' 8" guys from Detroit

that could dunk.

If you went on the universal and could leg press the top

bar of the entire machine 20 X, you could dunk easy at

6 feet. I did 2000 toe raises a day at work. Vertical is

more than just what you were born with.

alright...

I'm not planning on going out for the WNBA anytime soon. Just hoping for a 1500 time that doesn't suck. ;^)

Vertical leap does go along with speed. I had a teammate last year who had a vertical well over 40 inches, and he also had some real speed. Fastest 200m in the program. Then you have another teammate, Ron Bramlett, he had a near 40 inch vertical and was one of the most explosive starters in the nation. Of course, these are sprinters, at least Ron is. I would imagine that our 3:38 1500m runner couldn't touch the backboard even at 6'01''. But in my experience, doing some distance in the summer (25-30 miles a week) would improve my vertical. But the best way to improve your vertical is to do hang cleans and bounding. Calf raises are good for a running jump, but for a vertical you need strong thighs. But if you are a distance runner, vertical doesn't matter.

Just my opinion...

I would say vertical leap (a way to measure explosiveness) certainly does matter. Krummenacker has had a huge summer, which he largely attributes to plyometrics. Deena Drossin also credits her huge improvemement to plyometrics. Seb Coe used plyometrics extensively, as did Alan Webb last year. Plyometrics improve your explosiveness, and therefore your vertical leap. Your leap isn't as important as your aerobic fitness, but I would say it's equally as important as your flexibility and weight. All four need to come together for peak performance.

Lisa Leslie (the woman who dunked) is like 6'6". It only takes a standing vert of appx. 20-24" to dunk when you're that tall.

Anyway.. i have good speed for a distance runner, and before i started running my vert was about 28" but now its more like 25".

Lisa is 6'5", 170 pounds. If the ball is smaller and she

can palm it, 24" vertical still isn't going to get it done

on a 10 foot rim.

Maximum reaching height with hand on top of ball 8 feet to

11 feet to clear rim = 36 inches.

You can jump higher with a running start than you can jumping from a near standstill, as you would when measuring your vertical leap. So, I really doubt she can do 36" in the vertical leap.

fred wrote:

Lisa is 6'5", 170 pounds. If the ball is smaller and she

can palm it, 24" vertical still isn't going to get it done

on a 10 foot rim.

Maximum reaching height with hand on top of ball 8 feet to

11 feet to clear rim = 36 inches.

Are we doing our math right? The average person's arms are as long as the body so Lisa Leslie can reach 3' 2.5'' above her heighth minus the length of her head. Do you get that? So even assuming her head is is a foot long that's 6'5 + 2'2.5 = 8'7.5 Her vertical up to 11' would then only have to be 28.5 inches. Every inch counts. This is just the beef of a 5'8 inch guy that can grab the rim but can't quite dunk.

I was 6'3" and dunked out of highschool. My opinion is based

on real world experience.

Lisa Leslie has got to be able to reach higher than 8 feet while still grounded. At a barefoot 5'10" I can reach 8 feet while still grounded. To think she, who is at least 6 inches, possibly 7 if she's listed true, can't reach higher than me is ridiculous. She appears to have some seriously lanky arms as well, so I would guess she can reach upwards of 9 feet while still on the ground. You seem to be doing these measurement flat footed, that simply doesn't make sense as nobody jumps from their heels. The best way to measure for a right hander would be to have them stand on their tiptoes of the left foot and reach as high as possible with the right hand. That is the pose being struck when dunking off of one foot, so it should be the pose measured. Whether or not that is how people are measuring your vertical these days, I do not know, but certainly it shows results that are true.

There are two types of dunkers, those that dunk from two

feet with no steps or 1 step, and those that dunk off the

run. Both can be trained for, and in the last NBA dunk

contest contestants described what they could do.

I can only reach 8 feet at 6'3", and I doubt Leslie can

reach 9 feet. It is good to argue over nonrunning related

trivia.

SpeedRage, are you male or female? Just wondering.

Fred, Leonardo's vitruvian man specs show that the body has a repeating phi ratio within it. I've checked it out on myself and I fit into it almost exactly which is good reason to believe my body is pretty standard. So, if you have 5" on me and we both reach the same height standing on the ground, I'm left to wonder if your hands, when the arms are hanging to the side, stop at your navel? If they do, I'd love you to post a picture on here.

i'm 5'10 also, and flat footed i can reach around 7'8. i haven't tested my vertical in a couple years, but when i was 5'6 i could run and jump up to around 9'6. so i'm sure it's pretty easy for lisa leslie to dunk. and i don't know why she'd need to be an entire foot above the rim, since you only need your hand to be above the rim. unless of course her hand is a foot long, which would be one huge hand.

Sure, make fun of a guy whose arms reach to his navel.