I agree with you, but why not work and improve on the jumping mechanics? It's not rocket science.
I'd be interested to hear your suggestions on what to do to improve jumping mechanics in a practiced jumper. And how is the best form defined in the first place?
He is NOT a "practiced jumper". He doesn't put in enough "effort" into jumping and does the same routine of jumping (sucky jumping) again and again and again. He will not gain anything doing that (no wonder he didn't for such a long time).
He looks like he uses what, 10% of his strength on those SVJ? Not enough bend and power into these. I think at this moment he's better suited to jump from a much lower position and use a weight vest while doing so. He could try paused jumps from a lower than "usual" position. He should be striving more towards your bend Steven. You really look like you're actually using your strength when you jump.
Yes yes, different structure blah blah blah, he just SUCKS when it comes to jumping right now. I don't care about the structure at this point. He needs to do plyos for a while and THEN come back to increasing strength. It's not a logical way to increase strength in an attempt to use it in a deficitary body movement like his jumping is at this point. That's like having a Formula 1 engine and using a Kart transmission in your car. Why the heck would you do that?
He's not even using his shoulders/traps well at this point. And because he bends too little when he jumps, he doesn't have the time to actually USE them well in my opinion.
So what it would be good for him to do right now is two leg bounds for length, consecutive vertical jumps from a stationary position (to the rim) and depth jumps later on. He needs to learn how to load properly and use his strength to convert it into power. He should be more away from the gym and more into the playing ground right now.
In terms of his running jumps I can't comment too much, he has the same problem Kingfish has - no speed, no compression in the plant, too much muscling etc. That's why he needs more plyos right now, multiresponse plyos. He needs to learn to muscle less and "use the tendons" more (be more reactive).
Now his structure definitely doesn't help and he will need to increase strength in the near future but at this point my opinion is that he needs to do more plyos and do weight vest jumps to the rim with the hope that his mechanics will change a bit. Adding the weight vest will actually make him muscle more his jumps but if he alternates between weight vest jumps and without the weight vest jumps in the same session, emphasizing speed and "relaxed" jumping (without the weight vest) while using a progressive acceleration approach/plant he should be good.
