Two Important Factors of Vertical Jumping

If you want to increase your jumping ability then you need to do vertical jump training . Two terms that you need to know are RFD and reactivity. These two factors will help you fully understand the concept of vertical jump training.

RFD or rate of force development means that the muscle has the capability to produce the force to jump high. You might say that you swill bend your knees to be able to jump higher, but that won’t be possible in real time as you need to act quickly. Say, you’re in a game, doing that will just slow you down. The longer it takes to jump, the less power it produces since the muscle gets tired from all that bending activity. Having a high RFD helps you to produce a huge amount of force in just a short period.

Reactivity refers to how fast you can do the motion without letting the performance suffer. It simply means that ability to absorb the force fast. This way, you can jump again with the same jumping power. A lot of games need you to do just this. You might see those guys jumping in the professional basketball jumping so high and be able to bounce back as if it was nothing. That is reactivity in motion.

These two terms are important in sports, and can be useful to a common person if they are place in a difficult situation, wherein they need to jump high to escape something or someone.

Basically, the exercises focusing on developing your quickness increases your RFD. Plyometrics is a good example of exercise that you can do to increase your RFD. Reactivity activity like depth jumps strengthen your joins and ligaments. As you jump higher, your ligaments gets ready for the impact of the landing, minimizing the injuries that you might suffered from.