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Messages - TKXII

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31
important article on the "knees out...external torsion" that supple leopard endorses: http://dsstrength.com/2013/11/11/supple-leopards-vs-the-world-my-take-on-the-knees-out-debate/.

i've found all that to be very true in my own experience. the knees-out cue is fine as far as it goes but past a certain point i feel much less stable and also much more stressed in the knee.

so... what's the verdict? This article pretty much rips apart the idea of getting knees out:

" All I can say is that when I have athletes demonstrate a balanced foot position and proper pelvic alignment, while allowing the knees to track naturally, it seems to improve symptoms."

From MY experience, my knees started to move out naturally from using good form. No external hip rotation exercises needed other than working on externally rotating the hips a little during a squat to keep the knees tracking properly over the toes. Every now and then when I do sumo deadlifts or heavy lunges emphasizing the hips more I can feel myself NATURALLY externally rotating the hips more when I sit or move around. My knees WANT to move outwards but not outwards in an awkward way.

I feel like much of this stuff is common sense. If your knees don't track out properly during a squat, forcing yourself to do that during max attempts is likely to get you injured.

32
Pics, Videos, & Links / Re: Bobsled training and 60m times
« on: November 13, 2013, 10:40:08 am »
@LBSS - i said for all sports the avg speed is higher except teams in T&F and by that I meant like a 4x1 team (100m relay) for example. Or the USA sprinting team something like that.

@acole14: Time your 30m or 60m dash with:
a) a three point stance with your foot behind the line, but your finger and arms in front of the line
b) bobsled start - with your heel on the line, standing like a wide receiver, and use some extra momentum as the guy in the video demonstrates.

Your times wil be different by at least 0.3s in the 30m, and up to 0.6s in the 60. my 40yd dash times are different by 0.5s with a one step hopping start

So it's very believable.

Take Fogt's 6.26 and do the following:
a) add RT - 0.15s - 6.41s
b) add difference between standing and a block start - 0.3s at least.
You're looking at a 6.7s 60 there.

33
Pics, Videos, & Links / Bobsled training and 60m times
« on: November 12, 2013, 11:34:15 am »
Bobsledders are the fastest athletes in the world. American football players are fast too but the average speed of a bobsled team is much higher than that of any other team for any other sport except teams in Track and Field.

In the Bobsled combine athletes must perform a one rep max in the clean and the squat as well as a 60m sprint. Their 30m time and their 30m fly times are recorded electronically. Athletes start with their heel on the starting line (their foot in front of the line effectively), standing. I'm not sure how deep of a squat these athletes perform because I have seen some youtube videos of half squats performed by bobsledding athletes.

Here is an example of a bobsled athlete testing his 60m:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqMHfxHAzrM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqMHfxHAzrM</a>

They are scored out of 800 points. An athlete may receive a maximum of 100 points in eight categories: 15m time, 30m time, 60m time, 30m flying time, squat, clean, shot toss, and broad jump.

Point awarded to athletes are based on how well they perform. These numbers are found here after clicking on "Combine Test Score Sheet": http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Bobsled-Skeleton-Federation/Results/Combine-Test

Here are the results of the 2013 USA Bobsled Combine:
https://www.teamusa.org/~/media/USA_Bobsled_Skeleton/Documents/Results/Combine%20Test/2013_COMBINE.pdf

The fastest man there is Chris Fogt, who was a former sprinter. Many sprinters do become bobsledders, like Lolo Jones, Craig Pickering, and Chris Fogt.

Here's a cool vid showing other training they do:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBYPhjhy6a4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBYPhjhy6a4</a>

34
ADARQ & LanceSTS - Q&A / Re: wide BSS questions?
« on: November 11, 2013, 10:22:06 pm »
Start with the weights on the ground, then you can adjust your stance so you're in the best position before picking up the weights. It just takes a bit of adjustment but you should find a good position after a few attempts.

my god, i had never thought to do that before. genius.

I start with them on the ground for my single leg deadlifts (back foot on bench), makes more sense. Usually have to adjust my foot once by moving it forward.

Not sure what you mean by wide stance. how do you wide stance a BSS? you mean move your foot out forward more?

36
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: THE DREAM JOURNAL
« on: November 08, 2013, 08:24:37 am »
most complex dream ever....

Ok it started at the farmer's market, I went there with my dad and sister. I was really excited to show them this farmer's market, it was huge. They also had lots of candy, and once time in a dream I went to this farmer's market and ate candy here, i think, but I wanted sugar. I told my sister about the organic twizzler's but she said she hates twizzlers. So anyway, they go off and I do my own thing. I try out this free drink sample, it's some energy drink, but all it has in it that I can see is cacao powder. So I drink it but it's really gritty.

I decide to go to Trader Joe's real quick, to pick something up, so I take the metro there, it's only two stops away from where I am now. The first stop has a really foggy/scenic/eerie landscape, I was awed actually. The next stop was my stop, so I got off, got my thing, forget what it was though, and then just decide to go home. I get home and call my dad to tell him I'm home, but they arrive at the same time basically.

I now go to the backyard, it doesn't look like my house anymore either, and it's dark outside. A deer comes out of no where, then another, then another, except they are cat-like. I decide to hunt one of them to eat it later. I throw a tiny rock at one of the cats (these cats are larger than household cats), but I missed. I take a bigger rock and throw it and it almost falls down, as if losing consciousness. Then I throw one more but I miss. I attempt this one more time and I strike it again, causing the animal to stumble again. I decided to lay of the rocks and kill it quickly so it doesn't have to suffer anymore. I take a stick, that I will use as a knife, and get closer to it. But then it gets on the offensive, but since it's tired, I was not afraid. It lunges at me while hissing, with it's fierce bright yellow eyes angry. I slash the stick at the cat once and it's down now for good, but still moving. Then I take the stick to the neck, and try to kill it that way, but i went a bit too low. Regardless, the stick cut through the animal, so I decided to keep slashing it until I cut it's head off because it was in pain. So I finally did that, but I only severed like 80% or so but I assumed it was dead and I cut the main cords so I stopped.

Unfortunately, the meat did not smell appetizing at all. It smelled bad, had a sulphury smell I'd guess now, in my dream I wasn't sure what the smell was but not too appetizing. I have never hunted before so I wasn't sure if that was normal or not. Also after I killed it I thought about how I would skin it, I had never done that before but I thought i'd figure it out.

Anyway, I went inside to wash up. I went back out to check on my animal, but the cleaning lady of the house behind us took the animal and let it rest on a fallen tree in their yard, even though it was dead. There was a huge puddle all over the ground, from the rain, even though I don't remember it raining, and she said it was the blood of the cat. I said no, it was already there from the bat. I have no idea what bat I was referring to but there was a bat there that died and contributed to the pool of dark water in the backyard.

I am getting scared now as if i'll be in trouble, because she says the owner of the house will come out to examine this soon, I'm like high school age i think in this dream, or maybe my age, but i'm not confident. My friends are here, 6 friends, 3 males, 3 females. 3 couples actually. We're in the basement but in some hallway, that someone can see from the floor above. For some reason they decide to have sex, it's cool, we're all having fun.

The owner of that house comes in to look for us, but I think it was my dad too at the same time. He just misses us, my friends were still having sex but basically he couldn't see us from the floor above for some reason. We froze in complete silence as they searched for us. My friends were all naked and inside of each other...

Now it's time to escape. My friend Eric is here, and he tells me I can use his bike. I go to the backyard and there is this really nice mountain bike waiting for me. It's blue and black, and it's not an ordinary mountain bike. Both the front and back wheel can turn. I take it up and just escape from everything. I zoom through the trees in the side yard of my house, in near-darkness, i can barely see the floor but it's just good enough. Using the special wheels that both turn, I am able to skid and make sharper turns in the dirt. But then I realized I forgot my phone so I sprint back to the house, before realizing it's in my pocket. So I keep biking... i'm at the edge of the driveway and in my head I know it's my friend David's house. Have no idea how that happened, the side yard turned into Dave's house. And his dad is the one I was afraid of now. He's this big puerto-rican guy and my friend Dave always hit things from him to avoid getting in trouble.

I make a right turn with my bike and pedal fast. It's late at night now, around 8PM or so. All of a sudden the spedometer says 60mph, I have no idea how i'm going so fast. I make a left turn into a parking lot, a large parking lot with a building hosting the event I'm going to. (I did not plan to go to this event but I did at the same time...). Some semi-black girl is also riding a bike and asks me how I'm going so fast. I'm like I dno.

So I park my bike in the parking lot and the conference begins. I never got off my bike, it simply turned into a chair that can move around in any direction, and elevate itself off the floor somehow. It's a super-chair. I'm also indoors now somehow. My girlfriend is here at the conference, she's closeby but I'm not sitting next to her. The presenter is my TA for biomechanics class. He always acts a little pissed off which I find hilarious. He yelled at me though to move my chair, so I did, and got closer to my girlfriend. This place was packed by the way. I give her a kiss, it's a bit sloppy because i'm whispering in her ear at the same time how awesome she is, and that we got through everything that happened, but she made a upset-face because the kiss was sloppy but then I woke up.

37
"72% of the elastic energy restitution action comes from tendons, 28% - from contractile elements of muscles."

Author didn't seem to recommend the depth jump with the barbell.. but the reasoning didn't sound right, the reasoning was because the athlete did not jump as high.

I wonder how doing jump squats affect elastic energy restitution in muscles and tendons versus classic shock training with depth jumps.

From anecdotal experience, doing heavy jump squats improved my drop jumps, I felt like I could land from a greater height with more ease. But perhaps practicing drop jumps consistently could help with that too the same way. I didn't try that.

38
Article & Video Discussion / Re: Vertical Jump Work 5 days a week?
« on: November 02, 2013, 05:44:08 pm »
And to comment on the idea that you can improve your vertical jump 10 inches in say 8 weeks...those particular numbers might not be likely, but 8 inches in 8 weeks is possible - the upperlimit imo is 1 inch per week. The problem is maintaining these results so that you can get say 20 inches in 20 weeks. That's what I've found not to happen to me in real life for a variety of reasons. After about 8 weeks it's difficult to maintain that upper limit.

Kelly Baggett's flying in four program aimed to improve vert 4 inches in 4 weeks. It works if you're consistent. If you're trying to train single legged jumping, running vert off of two, and standing vert, it gets complicated. That's been a big problem for me. Now i'm sprinting + jumping, which means I don't spend much time jumping at all. So i'm more in maintenance mode without admitting it to myself, and I don't have the neural drive or energy to attempt max jumping while sprinting and lifting as much as I do (not that much but enough). 

It's been nearly 5.5 years I'd say since I started training and I still haven't reached my goal (40'' running vertical off of one and two), which I very well know I CAN. I've gained maybe 6-10 consistent inches total on running vert (b/w 28/30 - 34/38inches), and maybe 4 on standing, but it's fluctuated depending on how much jumping I do. There are also mental blocks in my head, when I go to the rim I don't automatically expect to be able to get my whole hand over it (which puts me at a 37-38'' vert), mainly because I never do it often enough, mainly because I don't have the aggressive drive to do so.

I got very close to dunking off of one foot by just bounding and doing deadlifts in high school, at around 17-18yrs of age (22.5yrs old now). I was no where close off of two legs however. Then I decided to train two legged jumping since that was my weakness.

In my first two months of training, I gained 8 inches, in 8 weeks, or an entire hand's length, so maybe 7.5 inches. All I used was a deadlift machine in the gym (not even real deadlifts, but it's most similar to a trap bar deadlift), and I did 3x3 each time pretty much. No jumping at all. my SVJ skyrocketed, it was awesome. THen I decided I didn't want to get too "strong" since my lifts had gone up to 360lbs on that machine, so I stopped strength training and did more jumping again, and decided to do running vert and ditched standing.

The point is, be as consistent as possible, perhaps even narrow minded in your training.

Writing all this has been a nice reminder. Because every year I told myself, I'm dunking this winter . . . this spring . . . by August . . . and it hasn't happened, even though I have gotten my hand entirely ABOVE a 10ft rim on multiple occasions. It's mostly mental I'm sure, fatigue + just not enough self-motivation, and life getting in the way.

I also strongly believed I could reach my goal in a month's time, gain 2-4 inches in say 1 month. But over the years fatigue from school had me forget that aggressive drive. I still think if I focus on it entirely, I'll add 2 inches in the next 4 weeks. But with all the sprinting I'm doing, and focusing on strength, the vague idea I had in my head was, training this way will improve vert without jumping. I think it's mainly the lack of energy that has me stop being consistent.

it did a little, but jumping more often should have been and should be now my primary focus. I want to jump at least 2x a week, but I don't have the neural drive too, and I don't want to fatigue myself for my lifts, so I don't . . . see the cycle here?


39
Article & Video Discussion / Re: Vertical Jump Work 5 days a week?
« on: November 02, 2013, 05:16:56 pm »

you're a teenager, you're fucking invincible and your body is literally on steroids right now. take advantage while you can.


This statement could not be more true.

I Totally agree with LBSS.

Yes this is true.

The program you have should be fine, but I would like to raise a serious issue regarding practicing jumping in lieu of training jumping.

LBSS's recommendation here cautions against your training to include entirely plyometric workouts without any jumping.
The question here is if practicing jumping can actually be your plyometric workout, and substitute for those jumping exercises.

My answer is yes, and no, depending on a couple of things:

Absolutely without a doubt yes: if your jumping form needs work, AND if you have not been training consistently for more than any arbitrary number of months that indicates your inexperience with this training... say more than 6 months, 3 months maybe.

Here, practicing jumping will do two things, it will help you to execute the jump properly, applying forces efficiently, and make it hella smooth, while preventing you from getting too slow from the heavy squats. Next, it will be proving a training stimulus, to improve everything needed about the muscles, bones, tendons, needed to jump like an animal.

Yes sorta: if you're just a beginner, but also know how to jump.

Not really: If you've tried jumping already to improve your vertical and haven't seen much gains (or have plateaued quickly), if you jump regularly or play basketball or other sport that involves running vertical jump or single legged vertical jumps, and you're clearly deficient in strength.

So should you jump as much as LBSS recommends? It probably won't hurt, but if you already know how to jump well, practicing running vertical jumps simply will not be enough of a training stimulus to improve it, unless you overload the jumps, by taking more steps (5 steps instead of 3) to increase the speed of the runup or wear a weighted vest, but still there are better exercises you can do, like bounding, and single legged depth jumps which overload the stiffness of the leg, and elasticity and stuff like that better than just jumping.

The exercises that provide more overload should ideally be ones that you cannot perform with as much volume as regular jumps.. so if you can practice 20 jumps in a row without seeing a decrement in your jump height, it's not a good training stimulus. If you can only do 10 depth jumps off of one leg without noticing a decrement in your jump height, it's going to provide a greater training stimulus.

With bounding for example I noticed after a while I have to add more speed for there to be a stimulus, otherwise I can bound for literally 100m without feeling any fatigue in my legs (alternate bounding from a standing start). When I reach this point, I've also plateaued most likely (haven't truly tested this) in my ability to improve running vertical by just jumping. At this point, my legs are just bouncing along the ground easily, with minimal effort, like a bouncy ball or something that has great elasticity. That factor needs to be overloaded, with more intense shock training.


40
pretty long rant of an article. He seems to be criticizing most vertical jump programs, rather than the concerted effort to improve a vertical leap. He also defines the vertical leap as a standing vertical leap.

Let's not overcomplicate things. If you want to dunk, train to jump higher, once you're there, practice the skills necessary to make dunks look beautiful. If you improve your running vertical jump off of one leg, or two legs, you will be more likely to throw down a powerful dunk.

I do agree though that standing vertical jump training may not be necessary to improve your ability to dunk off of two feet in a game, and the two aren't always related. Many times they're not.


41
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: October 28, 2013, 02:56:52 pm »
 Just to continue the convo about being relaxed at maximum effort: in both squatting and sprinting I have seen an improved ability to relax during 100% maximal efforts.

It is hard to explain, but I went from needing to be really psyched up in the beginning to going in the rack or the starting line casually without any fear or hesitation and being able to activate only what is necessary in order to execute the lift. I felt like on the eccentric of the squat, my legs just folded easily and effortlessly; coming back up was always difficult but from repetitive practice, my form became consistent.

Also I think the antagonists need to be relaxed properly, hip flexors, abdominals, if they are tight they will inhibit the extensors.

42
yea I guess, 2 inches of the wrist above the rim will help produce a SLAM dunk as opposed to just a dunk that barely gets in.

43
continuing the train of thought from T0dday's journal, here are my ideas, even though I think a consensus has been reached:

If you can squat down and up fast you SHOULD be able to jump high.

This may be true for an SVJ, but not as true for an RVJ. Jumping high for LBSS as discussed in T0dday's journal will involve a greater RFD and much greater movement efficiency. Greater movement efficiency will require greater speed in the approach, which requires greater ability to absorb that speed. Squats have a minimal effect on rate of force absorption. Even fast squats, primarily because the squat require force absorption at a below parallel position, which almost no one does an RVJ from, and squats aren't ever fast, unless we're talking about jump squats, which still can be slow, and require less force absorption than actual jumping.

From personal experience I have this one test of force absorption: the drop landing, to show why squats won't help much with RVJ, based on when I used to do the following
185lbs jump 1/2 squats - dropped in a 1/2 squat position comfortably (my max squat was below 275lbs)
335lbs back squat (full squat) - have to drop into a deep squat position from same height drop. Strength from back squatting did not improve force absorption ability.

I think this makes sense and isn't a unique finding to my body type.

I think both of these comments put an over-emphasis on the weight room for the athlete.

agreed.

Then maybe he should spend more time in the strength-speed rather than speed-strength spectrum. Maybe he's not as good at high speeds yet, so maybe it's a good idea to train at just SLIGHTLY faster speeds than the usual squat (think power cleans, speed box squats etc) and after he gets better at these THEN transition into more intense plyometric stuff.

agreed-ish, start with a slightly faster exercises, for 4 weeks as Raptor suggested, then move on to even faster stuff, for another 4 weeks, check results, repeat, while reducing squat volume.

Yeah well I don't remember him doing anything specifically targeting the posterior chain (granted I'm too lazy to look in his log to search for it) - but I haven't seen RDLs, hip thrusts etc for HIGH volumes. I'd even do unilateral stuff (dumbbell BSSs, one-leg deadlifts, one-leg explosive box squats like Lance said).

disagreed. I think the emphasis should be on the speed of the exercise rather than what muscles are involved. Heavy deadlifts will have a negligible effect on his vertical jump - my hypothesis. However, reverse depth jumps (landing backwards requires more from the hip), top speed sprinting or longer sprints, single legged jumping, will help more.

Maybe a split that has him squatting 2 times per week, one day full squats and one halves , some form of DL in the one day and some sort of lunge in the other one. Best jumping day would be between the halves and the fulls, closer to the fulls to take full advantage of the halves potentiation effect.
Just a couple of extra thoughts.

and that brings my to my exrx.
Reduce squatting to 2 days a week, one day being a regular squat day, the second being a jump/explosive squat day from anything above a 1/2 squat position.

I have seen LBSS in person, and when I trained with him he paused squatted 275 in the back squat easily for 5 reps for sets, and he has a 2xbw squat. That's not bad at all. The question that makes us hesitant to reduce the back squat is... how high could he jump if he squatted 405 paused...? And we have evidence that this works from Kingfish and Rutgers dunker and many more that this could work for LBSS. But he can already backsquat 2xbw, and hasn't seen much improvement, so that evidence isn't that compelling anymore.

This is why I recommend first learning to jump correctly, then emphasizing weighted jumping exercises, and let go of numbers in the weight room. Perhaps creating a new thread on DLRVJ form will help, because the coordination required in a RVJ is not easy to master. I still struggle with it but have seen my jump height improve from learning the correct form.

Jumping more, with incorrect form, will not help.

LBSS needs to lower his COM/hips during the penultimate step of the DLRVJ much more than he is now to reduce braking forces in the knee, and well, to jump higher. Learning to DLRVJ properly is the most important thing for him right now, more important than depth jumps, pogos, or any other plyo.

Favoring explosive exercises in the weight room such as jump squats may help a little with improving DLRVJ form, or even just 1/2 squats. They will help with "expressing" strength and improving RFD.  I wouldn't recommend box squats however, the amortization needs to be trained with weights.

44
hahahahaha, thanks man.

45
Anybody else thinks the last jump on the video is even higher? It is wrist-at-rim level but with a serious hand angle. That's a typical RVJ PR situation too, overextending trying to catch a bad lob.
Keep it u scoob, awesome stuff lately!!!

The head to net position looks about the same.

Nice job scooby. I'd say with 3-4 more inches that'll be a slam, head should be closer to the middle of the net by then.

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