one thing t0ddday told me about when we trained together a couple months back was "earning" the steps. so for high jumpers, they're only allowed to take a run-up out to the number of steps where they get diminishing returns. if you don't jump any higher from two steps than one, you only get two. when your two-step jump is better than your one-step jump, you get three, and so on.
Brilliant, just brilliant!!!
Is springiness a quality that can be learned? Or is it just based on how high you jump? Ex: A person with a over a 40'' vert will always look springy.
Yes it is trainable quality. It is arguable to what extent it is, but it is. Plyos and explosive lifts ( jump squats, speed squats, o-lifts ) is the way. And obviously ( but very often neglected ), if you want to improve your RVJ efficiency you need to train your RVJ itself more than anything. Some great stuff about plyometric ability, how much it can be improved and how, here:
http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/plyomyths.htmlNo, i don't believe it is directly related to the inches you can jump. Your 40+ example is extreme, indeed i doubt that you can reach 40+ without having your bounce up to par, unless you are some kind of freak that can just power-jump 40+ ( inb4, kf ). But to get down to the real world, you can see entropy looking terribly slow and clumsy while he jumps ~35'' ( rough estimation ). Myself and LBSS have reached 35'' too at some point, but our runups looked bad ( mine VERY bad ). So n=3 already. Agree with LBSS, keep improving what you can, that's the only way.
Edit:
About rutgersdunker, not doubting his bounce at all, but if i could choose to have a quality of his, it would not be his bounce:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKmw4hGCbwA