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Yes, the depth jump should be quick but the general consensus for 2-leg jumpers is that that comes second to the height attained. So the height you get on them should be the primary concern, and the quickness of the jump should come into a close 2nd place.

But considering what you're describing, you sound like you got more and more and more quad dominant as time went by. That's not necessarily bad news (a lot of the great dunkers are kind of quad dominant, even Derrick Rose was very quad dominant) but it's not good news either.

A different approach for you to consider is to do a lot of hip dominant movements. If you choose to squat, go for a low bar squat. Also do posterior chain assistance work where the emphasis is on the hip extension part of the deal. Think glute-hams, hip thrusts, reverse hypers etc. If you have enough money, buy a kettlebell (say, a 24 kg one) and do KB swings daily in your home. Make sure they are hip dominant, basically a hip hinge swing, not a squat swing (or else you're defeating the purpose of the exercise itself).

In terms of plyometric work, I would go with hip dominant plyos. What are these? They are bounds. It doesn't have to be 1-leg bounds. For you as a two leg jumper, you could go with 2-leg bounds for length. Just do these. They are more hip dominant than depth jumps (which are quad+calf dominant) and will teach you over time to use the hips better.

After you get good at 2-leg bounds for length, you can alternate in between 2-leg bounds for length and 2-leg bounds for height. The hip potentiation you get from doing the bounds for length will carry over a bit in the 2-leg bounds for height.

Check this post out by Lance:

http://www.adarq.org/lancests-performance-blog/some-jump-plyo-explosive-strength-workouts/

So, if I were to personally train you, my program for you would be this:

2 strength days, 2 plyo days

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Monday: Strength 1

Low bar squat: 3x5 (use a weight that makes the last rep of the last set difficult. the other reps should be medium-difficulty (definitely not slow grinders) - increase weight when the last rep of the last set is still pretty fast);

Hip thrust: 3x10 (use the same weight rules as for the squat);

Calf raises: 3x12 (same weight rules);

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Tuesday: Plyo 1

Dynamic warm-up

50m accelerations x 3 (gradually build up speed in a relaxed manner, don't go all-out)

(Double leg bounds for length + Double leg bounds for quickness) x 3 x 20m - Do one set of bounds for length, then do a set of bounds for quickness (where the length is not that important, but the ground contact time is - so shorter bounds, but less time spent on the ground). Repeat this cluster 3 times. Rest as long as you need in between sets.

Donkey ankle bounces: 3x15

Stretch

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Wednesday: Active rest - go play some ball, do some easy running, even try some jumps if you're fresh enough, BUT DON'T GET FATIGUED. Remember, it's REST day. So go and play around a bit but at the first sign (or even before) fatigue, go home and stretch and recover.

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Thrusday: Strength 2

Deadlift: 3x5 (work up to a heavy set of leg-driven deadlifts (don't use your back to lift it, it won't help your athleticism) and then take 10 kg or so off the bar and do 2 more sets of 5);

Natural glute-ham raise: 3x6 (put a lot of padding under your knees (aerobic mats, spounges etc) and use as much assistance with the arms as needed);

Calf raises: 3x10 (use a heavier weight than on Monday, advance when the last rep of the last set is still fast, DON'T BOUNCE by the way - do them completely under control, slow eccentric, fast concentric, pause at the top and bottom);

Stretch

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Friday: Plyo 2

Same as Plyo 1, except you measure your 2-leg bounds instead of doing them for 20 meters - you do 6 2-leg bounds for length (per set) and put a cone on the ground, and measure the distance. Note that distance and the next time you do Plyo 2 the next week measure the distance again and put that cone back there at your measured PR. Try to beat that PR as you advance through this program.

So you will do:

Dynamic warm-up

50m accelerations x 3;

(6 2-leg bounds for length + 20m 2-leg bounds for quickness) x 3;

Donkey ankle bounces: 3x15

Stretch

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That's all.

If you do this, which is a much more hip dominant workout than what you've done over the years, you should see some improvements. You just gotta keep at it and believing in it. It also has a low enough volume (vs what you've been doing lately) to allow you to actually adapt to the stimulus instead of getting injured. In terms of stretching, stretch the quads and hip flexors daily, preferably a few times per day if you can. This will allow you, over time, to engage the hips better.

But if I see you say in 3 days that you're doing something else (assuming you agree to do what I layed out here in the first place) - then all my time spent to write this has been in vain.

Finally, every 4th week cut the strength work to 1 set instead of 3 for the squat and the deadlift, and for the plyo days go and try to dunk. I don't care what. Tennis balls, whatever. See if you made progress in your jumps.

As time goes by doing this program, you're going to get more specific and try to dunk more often (hopefully with a more hip-driven jump) while decreasing the amount of plyometric work (bounds).

Are you right now at the level where you can "break in" copyrighted software and crack it (if you were to put your mind to that)?

Maybe you should alternate in between the best (4 steps in LBSS's case) run-up and the "little bit worse" run-up, 5 steps in LBSS's case. So that you can kind of progress towards the longer, more reactive run-up (hopefully).

I'm of the same opinion about depth jumps. I would use a box that gives you the best jump, but also use a SLIGHTLY higher box (maybe by 10% or so) so that I can get used with the higher stimuli.

So I would alternate say a 20 inch box with a 22 inch box depth jump. Go with a 4 step run-up 5 times and with a 5 step run-up 5 times, repeat etc.

But in scooby's case, definitely what LBSS said about progressing is the best way right now.

Yeah, what I meant is that you're still getting some benefit. Of course you should work to get the maximum amount of benefit with the minimum injury risk from the bounds, but it takes time to perfect them. It's good that now you're aware of what to do.

Do you purposefully keep the belt that high? I've read about keeping the belt that high for deadlifts somewhere, but I forgot where. Maybe it was in a video by babyslayer or something.

But how do we define "reactive ability"?

To me, reactive ability means the ability to:

1) Do quick consecutive jumps without too much muscle contribution (explosive muscle isometrics, tendon contributions);
2) Coordinate yourself at high speeds generating high amounts of power;
3) Generate good triple extension in a jump after a significant prestretch has occured;
4) Generate a ton of power quickly (same as 1) - quick voluntary power generation + accumulated involuntary power (tendon deformation + additional neural activation) = a high jump = a powerful movement = win);
5) Not collapse in high speed plants (quickly lock up, similar to 1)) / make use of your calves;

And there must be others but this is what came up in my head in 20 seconds.

If you can show me how squatting accomplishes 1), 2), 3), 4) and 5), then yeah, go for squatting only.

If not, but you want to focus on strength training now since it's winter anyway, then at least do a bunch of plyos/jumps before the strength work, and stop beating yourself to death with maximal failed attempts. That's all I'm saying.

Anyway, I've talked way too much already so... whatever you choose to do, good luck.

And to add to that - what you're doing in the weightroom does not really promote hip extension and DOESN'T promote hip hyperextension AT ALL. And these two things are paramount to jumping and being athletic (and even healthy).

Could you do stuff for the actual hip extension and hyperextension in the gym? Well, yeah, you could do hip thrusts, you could do KB swings, you could do cleans and snatches.

But you could also do hip dominant plyo work (bounding, off both one and two legs) and jumping and sprinting in general. These also promote actual triple extension instead of the deceleration that occurs with squatting at the top.

So, the thing with the squat is yes, it's the best muscle builder exercise. But it's not THAT specific to jumping. It's an assistance exercise to jumping, running, sprinting etc. These are all displays of reactivity.

You don't get athletes going to a spot, taking 10 seconds to pause and take a standing vertical jump in a real life, based 100% on their squat strength. If you were training like Kingfish specifically for the standing VJ (although I don't know why, but still) - then yeah, squatting alone would kinda make sense.

But if you want to be an athlete, if you want to be able to USE all that strength in a "functional" manner - that is - jump and dunk in games, get past your defender, be able to change directions etc etc etc - then you gotta do reactive work. It's not that complicated to understand.

This is very interesting as well:

http://inno-sport.net/Get%20Your%20Bound%20Out.htm