Mlke Reinold – Inner Circle – The Science of Plyometrics

Mlke Reinold – Inner Circle – The Science of Plyometrics

Most coaches are unfamiliar with plyometrics. We know that plyometrics improve performance, but due to a lack of study, we don’t know how. Aside from a few studies on acceleration, data on the usefulness of plyometrics for speed development is quite limited. Even describing plyometrics is challenging since the few experts on the subject use various titles to describe different jumping activities.

The following is a realistic method for understanding and doing jumping exercises. This is sound guidance from experts in sports science and applied coaching. This is a broad topic that will be addressed in this and two subsequent articles.

Plyometrics: What Is It?

Plyometrics make use of the stretch-shortening cycle of the neuromuscular system. They make greater use of tensile energy from tendons and muscles. Sport science is still trying to figure out where the benefits are coming from at the cellular and tissue levels, but the facts are clear: plyometrics improve jumping and sprinting performance.

Plyometrics improve power by influencing the neuromuscular system. Jogging, on the other hand, does, allowing coaches to contemplate the usage and incorporation of the plyometric modality.

The body’s center of mass travels just a few millimeters up and down vertically and a little more than two meters horizontally at maximum speed. As a result, coaches may be curious in what plyometrics may do to stress the body in order to improve speed performance. Several sports, including basketball, make use of jumping. Jumps training does not need a leap of faith to believe that it can improve leaping abilities. Moving into space to complete a leap, on the other hand, necessitates speed, and there is some discussion over how jumps training might increase speed, particularly top-end speed.

How Does Plyometrics Work?

Hurdle Hops with Plyometrics (Figure 1)

Plyometrics provide a fast stretch in the muscles, and the body responds over time by improving the efficacy of the motion and, more crucially, by redirecting the forces created to produce more force in return. For upper-body training, forces can be generated by using the ground or, more particularly, Olympic bars and medicine balls. In any case, extra caution is essential when fast forces are involved. Rapid stretching is a more sophisticated type of overload than weight training, where the load of the bar or other weight-bearing equipment is readily apparent.

When compared to more typical training methods, plyometrics contains millions of possibilities and derivatives, making progressions and improvements more difficult to quantify. The stretch-shortening cycle of soft tissues and even bones under plyometric stress leads in a positive improvement in total force generated in the same or less time than other types of training.

Many coaches use plyometrics to assist their athletes apply more force to each step in less time, hence increasing speed. A common goal is to limit ground contact time. However, because running generates maximal power faster than any plyometric alternative, the question arises: why utilize plyometrics for speed development if they are not as specific as sprinting at speed?

Why Does Plyometric Training Work?

When you explore the reasoning behind the adoption of this shock-method jumping training approach, plyometrics are popular for a number of reasons, some shocking and some not so striking. The list below is not complete, but it demonstrates the significance of jumps training for athletes in track and field and team sports. Here are the top five benefits of plyometrics.

Improvements in jumping and speed (functional power enhancement)
Reduced noncontact injuries (proprioceptive force control enhancement)
Enhancements to the power-to-weight ratio (nervous system enhancement)
Growth in the operational economy (elastic contribution efficiency enhancement )

Bodyweight plyometrics are popular among coaches because they usually incorporate familiar motions, making them easy and natural. Sprinting, weight training, conditioning, and technique improvement are all useful to athletic performance, but for the reasons described above, plyometric jump training is especially effective.

Many athletes reach greatness just by competing in their sport. Everyone wants to know how much better they could be if they completed sport-specific plyometrics. How much more beneficial are prescription plyometrics compared to genetics and the random acquisition of leaping and sprinting skills via general sport exposure?

How Effective Are Plyometrics?

With so many choices available, from traditional strength and power training with weights and other equipment to sprint and specialized agility training, it’s unclear how much more plyometrics can aid athletes. Without plyometrics, world records in sprinting have been established, and greatness has been attained by basketball players, for example, who have been blessed by genetics and have acquired amazing leaping and agility qualities in the absence of plyometrics or any type of structured training.

It’s also worth noting that plyometrics strain connective tissues and put athletes at danger of injury. So the larger issue is not whether plyometrics help, but whether they are worth putting time and energy in if they risk injury and the outcomes are not proven to be considerably better than playing the target sport and performing assistance work with traditional training methods.

What Is the Justification for Using Plyometrics?

Coaches have had success both with and without plyometrics. The easiest way to include plyometrics is to make them widely available and then observe how individual athletes react. Athletes in some sports will not gain significantly, but tiny doses of plyometric exercise appear to assist even endurance athletes when appropriately integrated into training.

The following are the real-world advantages of plyometrics:

They have the potential to be specialized enough to overload certain joints.
They can serve as substitutes for certain motions for disabled athletes. They can teach landing and other movement skills.
They are an excellent choice when space is restricted or the weather is bad.

Clearly, there is a practical necessity for plyometrics. Not every athlete is born with Usain Bolt’s legs, lives in a warm region of the world, or can train on such soft surfaces as grass on a daily basis; not even the most seemingly perfect training program can prevent an athlete from injuring themselves; and not all skills can be learned simply by watching videos of proficient athletes. Hands-on practice of various motions is required, as is having training alternatives on hand to avoid staleness and provide options for disabled athletes.

Plyometrics: How Are They Used in Training Programs?

The following two sections will go through the two major subjects of training and coaching plyometrics. Coaching is about educating, whereas training is about loading. Coaches are in charge of training and ensure that what is intended for training is implemented successfully. The phrase applied sport science refers to good coaching based on proper education.

As a result, the next two essays comprise the meat of this series. They will discuss how to analyze, prescribe exercises and proper workouts for, and, of course, monitor an athlete’s training effects. On the coaching side, they will go over teaching by construction, which means the best ways to get athletes to grow without giving them too much or too little spoken guidance.

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