Increasing jump height

[Casey]

Any good exercises/technique recommendations for increasing the height of jumps? I get good distance, but not so great height, and I really want to improve that.

[flippet]

All I can think of is 'box jumping', or jumping onto a bench or something like that. You need to train your....slow-twitch? -fast-twitch? muscles. I can't remember which one, but I think box-jumping onto progressively higher boxes/platforms does the trick. You have to train those muscle fibers to respond in a big way, in a split-second.


Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Skate@Delaware]

Yup! It's called plyometrics. We've been working on that all summer in our off-ice class. Jumping up on boxes, over boxes, through hoops, around cones, etc.... Then other stuff to work those muscles (fast twitch is right).

It's working because my waltz jump is higher, and my daughter's is wicked high!

[Anita18]

If you're still learning the jumps, it's probably mostly technique that's keeping your jumps low. My waltz jumps got really high after my coach took it apart, and I did no jump exercises during that time, LOL. I just had to remember to keep my right shoulder checked back until I was in the air, and to kick THROUGH the thing. Then, VOILA! Instant height!

[stardust skies]

Hmmm, I disagree with the plyometrics advice. Plyometrics and training your twitch muscles if mainly for multi-rotational jumps, to make you rotate faster, not so much higher (though it helps a LITTLE there, but it isn't the main point). Unless they have adapted it for single jumps somehow; I've never heard of that, but anything is possible and I certainly won't claim to know everything that is out there.

However, I do know that in the first...couple of years of skating or so, lack of jump height (esp. singles) has mostly to do with fear (I know, you probably don't think you're scared, but it's still a natural body response and sometimes you aren't aware of it and cannot control it). The rest has to do with muscles, you really need a lot of time to build those thigh muscles and arm muscles that will get you very high. The rest is speed- skating fast is important, but the KEY is to KEEP the speed after the three turn or whatever jump entrance is required (and know how to keep a strong check on a jump and have good timing), and that is where most people starting out lose their speed. Slow jump usually equals low jump.

For toe pick jumps, you really have to grasp the concept of propelling yourself in the air like a polevault. For edge jumps, you really have to learn to time the jump right and to "hook it" properly with the toepick (yes, even edge jumps jump off the toe pick in some way), so, I agree with Anita- it comes down to technique. And also, once you start working on doubles, your singles will get bigger, even if you don't work on singles anymore. By the time you do triples, your singles will be HUGE and you will have no idea how it happened, because you don't jump them anymore. It's an odd phenomenon. But it just comes down to building the right muscles, technique, and just being patient. These things mostly happen on their own.

[flo]

Always remember to keep your head up, and not look down. This keeps everything up, and if nothing more, the jumps will look higher, as people follow your eyes. Also, I think of toeing in on the way up.

[Skate@Delaware]

Well, maybe some of it was overcoming some of the fear, but I think a majority of getting height on my waltz jump was the plyometrics teaching me how to jump. I had to be taught how to jump up and down from the boxes!

So the plyometrics has helped dorky me learn how to pull it all together to jump (come on, I never even did jump rope in grade school because I was too clumsy and awkward! :oops: ).

[MusicSkateFan]

as my jump coach says..."Its all in the take-off" height comes in the correct technique. 8-)

[mikawendy]

Also, knee bend during the takeoff edge is important for edge jumps. Too little, and the jump is petite. (I always think of it as having to press down on the ice to go up, and if I only press down a little, the jump is tiny.)

[Kit kat]

kick hard and straight through the jump. You'll get a BIG improvement in height after that. Also, try doing your waltz jumps from ... i forgot what they were called.. but like forward snakes or something.. i dont know if that made sense :]

[Anita18]

My coach looked at all the jumps I could do this week, and I had basically the same problem in all of them, LOL. I would anticipate the rotation with my upper body before my legs got off the ice. So, leg first, torso later. :)

Plus, the right shoulder has to be checked back in all of the jumps, before the torso rotates. If your right shoulder goes forward before you get off the ice in a waltz jump, the jump will go around rather than up. (And there's not much to go around on in a half-revolution jump..)

Coach kept on stressing, "Jump up FIRST, don't worry about the rotation. It's only a single! :P " I also had to slow down the entrance and soften up my takeoff knee so my timing would be better. All of these things translate to more effortless jumping, at least for me.

[doubletoe]

Any good exercises/technique recommendations for increasing the height of jumps? I get good distance, but not so great height, and I really want to improve that.

Sounds like you might not be using the toes of your takeoff foot quite enough. When you take off, think about rolling up onto the toepick and springing straight up, pointing your toe as you take off. It makes a huge difference! :)

[Tessa]

Papa (was a rolling stone) (k, not really) has his MS + 60 in phys ed or something like it and was a pro hockey player, and college/high school/hockey camp coach since I'm born (plus girls soccer). Stepmonster has her MS in exercise physiology and plays in a womens' hockey league with women my age and younger (went to some national thingy last year for older hockey women). Much as I HATE listening to the parental units at my vast age, daddy has always been right about skating and ice, whether hockey or not.

Pylometrics -- jumping up before rotating, help, according to dear old dad, and practicing jumping up on the ice without rotating (like practicing the flip or lutz) help. I need to do more off ice practice, esp. remembering to bring the arms in and not drop the shoulder. I've been having trouble with my landing knee swelling from twisting and cheating on the toe pick and the weight gain since I last skated years ago and stepmother was said, "Do squats using the stability ball I gave you for your birthday last year to strengthen the muscles around your knee." Oh yeah. That stability ball in my attic. Hmmmmmm......

Just my parents, but durnit, I HATE when they're right.

Then again, daddy says my stroking is better than my stepmother's! Well it was 5 years ago. Then again he was on the east coast watching me practice and I was tired and didn't want to do another sit spin and he yelled at me, "DO YOU THINK MICHELLE KWAN GETS TIRED???" He's a good coach.

I find doing pylometrics and jumping off ice help with my confidence. My favorite is to practice jumps in a pool or the ocean to get the correct foot position in my muscle memory. And my coach keeps telling me to bring my free leg up, Up, UP and to think of bringing that knee up, up and UP! and get the correct wrap on the single toe loop, loop, flip, etc. The absolute best thing is to have a friend with an inground pool and try (carefully) to do axels off the side into the deep end.

Thank goodness I have at time to practice before I see daddy again! Actually, since being back on the ice since March, I'm totally excited!

[Justskatie10]

i don't no much bout jumping since im pretty new to skating but i've been told that u need to bend ur knees a lot and take off on your picks.

[luna_skater]

I get better height as soon as I remember to really lift the free-leg knee.