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^Bingo! Jumping is a skill just like shooting. Volume repetition with good mechanics is a necessity!

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.

That's interesting man. I am still experimenting with this atm so my thoughts are in flux. Today I found that until i tightened up my upper back (and i think this automatically carries over to the whole body) my form was ad hoc and powerless. But when I work really hard on the upper body tightness and then subsequently riding the whole body wave of tightness that comes with it on the descent, i have a good strong bottom position. Mentally I have to be very focused on these reps, I can't be relaxed and get the sets. On the front squat, it's different though but i dont really care about that lift atm.

some n=1 personal advice: when we talk about "athleticism," in most of our cases we mean jumping and/or playing basketball or some other sport. in other words, a specific skill set that degrades with neglect. KF got good at SVJ by doing SVJ. sprinting 200m will help keep you in shape and build some of the physical characteristics that make for good jumping, but it will not really help you hold on to your basketball-specific jumping ability. this has been my stupidly obvious lesson of the past year: nothing can replace skill practice. so my advice is: sure, sprint a few times a week. hell, if nothing else it's just flat-out fun to do. but don't limit yourself to one day a week of jumping. i'm trying to practice jumping at least three days a week and even that's not enough, but it's what i can manage at the moment. those workouts don't have to be draining, either. 15-20 jumps doesn't exactly take a lot out of you.

I jump about once every 3 weeks, sometimes as long as 6 weeks between jumps. Not very frequently. I don't lose my jump, it seems to stick around. I can progress my jump by doing it as little as once a week, i think, but i'd have to look that up. Or maybe that was just an artefact of losing weight when I was doing that? Dunno. Either way, at least 1x a week is a great improvement if I can manage it

Training
FS 1x130, 4x116 (PR)
BS 4x125, 5x2x120

FS notes:
After my back injury ive struck trepidation on those those heavy singles, today my depth wasn't my usual ATG. IDGAF but i'd like to slowly work my FS back to PR territory even though that's not my current priority.

BS notes:
blah

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Upper body work omitted on account of injury.

With week 1 behind me, i'm not looking forward to week 2. I think i might have over-done it this week but doing the bare minimum as rx would not have prepared me for week 2. 3 sleeps ought to be enough to be nice and ready. looking at friday's workout next week is pretty daunting, 6 sets of 5x120kg is ridiculous. but i haven't been taking caffeine, or sleeping well, so maybe I will have that in me. Lets see, should be the first real test of this program. oh and injury, hoping 3 sleeps fixes that too.

Training
FS 1x130, 1x132.5
BS 6x2x120

FS notes:
Slowly working my confidence back on heavy front squats. I went over 130 today, which was totally fine. When I set the PR of 136kg I used a bunch of small change (100kg + 4x5kg plates + 4x2.5kg  + 4x1.25kg + 2x1/2kg) plates. I'm not using those loadings now, it's (100kg+2x15kg), so i've got 3 big plates on each side. I think this is better. If my goal was only 140kg i could stick with the former but since i have to add a lot of weight to the bar yet (150kg goal), i should really just embrace the bigger plates.

BS notes:
Not much to report, just noticed I don't hold the bar symmetrically on my back. It might be because my floor is slanted. Or maybe it's just a force of habit or something. I tried to fix it as i went thru the sets, got better even approaching symmetric on the 5th set. I should really do something about the floor.

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Been waking up with a noticeably higher body temperature when I touch my forehead. Not sure why, but feel like i haven't been sleeping very well. Oh and still off caffeine. Not sure if i'll use it for fridays, will see how it goes. 6x5x120kg looms ever so forbidding.

Training
FS 1x130, 0Fx133.5
BS 6x2x120

FS notes:
Just going thru the motions. I should have been strong enough to do a convincing 135kg single today. But life had other plans.

BS notes:
Ok. RSR has already proven to be a revelation to me. I will definitely be incorporating this sort of training always even after i've finished this present program. It's just that good. Nothing else has worked as well as this, my form is immaculate and my body is strong in all the positions.

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One of the worst days to train, sluggish and heavy headed. ive been sleeping like shit and been sick for the last 2 days. Hopefully it's nothing and i can still hit 6x6x120kg on wednesday! I'm skipping upper body work cause I need full recovery for legs to get 6x6x120kg.

some n=1 personal advice: when we talk about "athleticism," in most of our cases we mean jumping and/or playing basketball or some other sport. in other words, a specific skill set that degrades with neglect. KF got good at SVJ by doing SVJ. sprinting 200m will help keep you in shape and build some of the physical characteristics that make for good jumping, but it will not really help you hold on to your basketball-specific jumping ability. this has been my stupidly obvious lesson of the past year: nothing can replace skill practice. so my advice is: sure, sprint a few times a week. hell, if nothing else it's just flat-out fun to do. but don't limit yourself to one day a week of jumping. i'm trying to practice jumping at least three days a week and even that's not enough, but it's what i can manage at the moment. those workouts don't have to be draining, either. 15-20 jumps doesn't exactly take a lot out of you.

For the most part I agree with this advice; but there is one caveat that's important to remember when it comes to sprinting.  Obviously the old concept of "base-work" mileage is pretty silly.  However, I think a lot of athletes/coaches go a little too far the other way in designing their sprint programs.  Sprinting any distance fast will have great benefits to body composition, general fitness, etc.   But if you want the benefits of sprinting to carry over to a different activity the most direct carryover is likely sprinting -> single leg jumping.   When going for the carryover most will follow the line of thinking that the effective length of the basketball court is about 20 meters (the farthest you run most of the time) and the approach of a single leg jump is a lot less.... so therefore it makes sense to practice a lot of 10m and 20m sprints.   This sounds correct but it is wrong.  Practicing non-resisted 10m and 20m sprints doesn't have much use (if your already an athlete) IMO.  The greatest gains will be made as you learn better acceleration technique and stride patterning (in other works learn how to run much differently than you do in basketball/jumping).   

The way I think of it is you are capable of taking off on a single leg at ~ 90-95% of your max v.  Any faster and you simply can't jump.  Same goes for more sports specific skills... ie catching a football, finishing a fast break.    This is why I think athletes will reap better carryover if they work on running fast rather than short sprints.  Max velocity work is almost most foreign to basketball players and as such you will be able to get gains faster.   Now this doesn't mean 200m necessarily.  But certainly longer runs 40-100m and flying runs would provide more carryover than they are given credit.  If you want anecdotal evidence look at Carl Lewis sprinting and jumping.   Poor acceleration and always last to 50m but incredible pickup and max velocity.  Also the second best long jumper of all time.   In fact jumpers are often serviceable members of 4x100m teams despite being poor in the open 100m.... their weakness is their acceleration NOT their max velocity. 

Training
FS 1x130
BS 6x2x120

FS notes:
No sleep + zero caffeine => really tough front squats. ALL warmups were challenging I almost fainted holding 147.5kg, had this banging/ringing sensation thru my skull, so weird. It did make 132.5kg feel lighter on the rack, but i couldn't get it up. Get it up, haha.

BS notes:
Ok. Form was satisfactory.

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Progress Summary:
Halfway thru this thing..


Next workout will be the hardest of the whole program. Bring it on. All i need now is 2 good nights of sleep. I haven't slept properly since tuesday. And not at all since the last workout :/ I get about 4-5 hours a night, brokenly, if that, just don't seem to be able to sleep. nNext up is - 5x5x127.5 -- i'm not really worried for some reason, i think after getting 6x6x120, my confidence has accumulated. Form is good right now too.