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 Practice jumping from a run more, work on your lower leg strength and reactive ability.  Calf raises, stiff leg ankle hops, pogo jumps, etc.  There is usually a set distance that most people will get optimal height out of regardless, but just practicing from a little further out, being able to absorb more force in your plant and rebound out, and implementing some lower leg specific work will do the trick most of the time.

I've heard coaches say that it is good to take shorter steps in your start to keep your hips under your center of gravity.  I have also had coaches instruct me to take the largest steps possible when firing out of the hole. 

Which theory is correct?

Yea, there are two sides to that coin, defranco and many others have tested over and over the short steps vs explosively firing out and simply getting to point b as fast as possible which obviously entails longer steps debate, and the 2nd method is what they swear by.  I agree with him and have found the same, the fastest times nearly ALWAYS come from just focusing on gettting from a to b as fast as humanly possible and not cutting the stride length at the start. 

I know for me personally, I "feel" a lot more explosive taking shorter steps but that doesn't mean I'm actually moving faster. It can sometimes feel a little choppy, and that may lead to deceleration.  But the shorter steps allow me to fire out lower and not raise my torso up too soon. 

Best thing to do is test it both ways, TIME it though and run a whole 40 when you do.  Raising the torso up too soon is a habit that has to be broken, whether you take short strides or not at the start, you can LEARN to keep lower until you reach your top speed.

What do my choopy steps indicate? Is it a weakness in hip power? A poor stance?  I have a had a strength coach look at my stance and he hasn't made any changes so it may not be my stance. 

choppy steps in most cases indicate that your torso is not out in front of your lower body enough, when you start, EXPLODE out with the torso, so you have to "run under it".  When you do it right it will almost feel like youre going to face plant, but you will realize that youre not once you train it, and your times will improve A LOT.   

A note about the stance.  A lot of sprinters seems to raise their butts really high in the air. when I do this I feel like I am noce diving into the ground and I have to take recovery steps to get my balance.  When I keep my butt parrallel or slightly above my back then I feel I can drive out easier and more efficiently.  But when I look at combine videos, it seems like all the guys butts are really high in the air. 

You definitely want the hips fairly high at the start, you cant generate any power with them too low and you will immediately stand straight up.  Most of the guys youre watching also likely have a short torso, long legged build, which will make the hip height more drastic, as it will the torso lean in the squat.  Defranco has a lot of GREAT info on the 10yd dash and starts, how to set up the stance, I highly reccomend his "running the 40yd dash" book, he breaks it down better than anyone else I have ever seen. 

**Any comments or suggestions would be really helpful.

Thanks 

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lmao   

doc hartman on pendlays forum, epic....

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Catecholamine concentrations, muscle fiber composition and pennation angle, profile of mood states, heart rate variability, motor unit recruitment, etc...but mostly just Heart and Balls
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Hey Lance I'm a beach volleyball player so my jumping goal is a little different. The sand takes away a lot of my reactive advantage.  That said I still obviously descend quickly and reverse the movement like everyone else.

My current program includes jump squats. How should I do these to maximise the advantage for my sport??? I'm comfortable with either technique, just don't get which one I should use. I've been doing paused in the belief that they'll help with my RFD and that sand jumping is all about raw strength and RFD.

Thats a really good question, I have actually worked with some fairly high level volleyball players who played in beach circuits as well as hardcourt, so I can share with you what I FELT had the best carryover to the sand vs the hardcourt for them.  

First of all, the approach is different, youre looking at a shorter approach in sand vs a longer approach on hard court, so the plyos/jump drills are cut down to 2 steps or less for the majority of the training.  I definitely agree that the paused jump squat will have some unique benefits for jumps in the sand, but one thing I found that helped a lot was to still make sure and drop quickly into the countermovement.  The stretch reflex will dissipate in a VERY similar manner that it does in the sand when a countermovement is performed, BUT THE MORE YOU TRAIN THIS QUALITY OF BEING ABLE TO "HOLD" THE STRETCH REFLEX, the better you get at it, and the more you will benefit from it even though the amortization phase is longer than optimal.  Louie Simmons has spoken about this extensively, and has a ton of research to back it up, the more you practice "maintaining" the stretch reflex, the better you get at it.  Hence his quotes of "a trained athlete can maintain the stretch reflex up to several seconds."  

One other thing that helped was doing cleans and snatches from boxes or pins, setting the bar in the power position.  In a traditional hang clean or hang snatch, you can "dip" and initiate the stretch reflex, this version makes for a more static start.  Obviously, doing jumps and jump drills barefoot helps a ton as well, as the smaller muscles in the feet are often lacking in athletes who play and train in shoes most of the time. Hope that helps man, I would still do some jumping/explosive training utilizing a faster amortization phase as well, but paused lifts like the jump squats, paused squats, olys off boxes, etc., will give you some very good carryover to your sport, just remember to still descend sharply into the countermovement or eccentric, even though you are pausing the lift, you are training to "hold on to" and "maintain" the stretch reflex, and that is going to play a critical role in the successive jump height/power.


edit: I forgot to add, we usually used a higher percentage of squat max as well on the jump squats, closer to 40% and higher, when training for the sand.  Its just a little more on the strength-speed end of the spectrum rather than the speed-strength, which is similar to the effects the surface has on the jumps.

 Well, if you are just starting to use jump squats, i would start with a less advanced variation of jump squat, like a paused jump squat for a week or so, then a traditional counter movement jump squat, eventually progressing to the 1-2 jump squat. 

Set rep scheme should be something along the lines of 3-5 sets of 3-8 reps, depending on the exercise and goals at the time.

I found that only horizontal single leg hops for distance, had a significant correlation to sprint times. The other plyometric exercises I did not correlate significantly to sprint times including bounds & depth jumps (but that's just me).

Do you guys recognise sprinting as a plyometric activity?.

Single leg bounds for distance have a very close relationship to the sprinting motion, so they will always have a higher correlation to sprinting.  Other plyometric exercises can address different strengths and weaknesses, that will also benefit sprinting, but the direct correlation will not be as high. 

Sprinting is very plyometric in nature, yes.