Soccer Performance Training - Jumping

Michael Minthorne: Hi! I am Michael Minthorne and I am showing you how to properly perform soccer movements. Right now, we are going to talk about how to jump properly.

When jumping, there are three phases that you must remember. First one is a counter movement, the second one is the actual jump, and the third one is the landing. I am going to have Dan show us how to do each of the three phases.

Alright, the first one being the counter movement. Anytime you jump if you don't know it, you go down before you go up. Your body is like a spring. You must go down before you go up. By going down, lowering his hips, bending his hips, knees and ankles, he is not only stretching his muscles preparing for a jump, he is also getting his body in position to get highest jump possible.

Alright, now for the counter movement, he swing his arm back behind himself, keeps his back straight, hips back, knees bent, and his feet; the balls of his feet are where his weight is, and they are both pointed forward. Once he comes in a counter movement, he know he moves up toward the jump. Here he is extending his arm straight up above his head, he is extending his hips, knees, and ankles. This is called triple extension. Here we can get the most power from all three of those joints. As we go up, we must remember to always squeeze the glutes to help push those hips forward.

Now the third part is the landing. He has to make sure that he lands in the same position that he started from, which is as he goes down, his arms go back behind him, keeps his back straight, hips go back, knees are bent and his weight is on the balls of his feet. He want to make sure that his feet are pointed forward.

The landing is the most overlook aspect of the jump. You can produce forces five times greater than your own body weight, when you are in the air. So landing is very key. So when you are training to jump, make sure that you don't just focus on the way up, but you also focus on the way down. This can lengthen the amount of jumps that you can take, so that you don't stress and wear out at your body. And Dan is going to take us through two jump showing us all three phases.

Good. Now you can see how fast the counter movement needs to be and how hard it is to get a good landing. So those are some tips on jumping. Next we are going to talk about how to be agile.