8 Explosive Vertical Jump Drills

Here are 8 simple, yet highly effective vertical jump drills. If you consistently follow the vertical jumping drills and tips listed below you will see a tremendous increase in your jumping ability.

Vertical Jump Drills

• Every workout should begin with a warm up and leg stretching routine. It's important to properly prepare the leg muscles for the explosive exercises you will perform.
• Jumping rope is an excellent cardiovascular exercise and will contribute to your vertical jumping results.
• Sprinting exercises help build leg muscles - which help increase your vertical jump.
• Running stairs on your toes. Follow this sequence for the best results: Run up a flight of stairs - one step at a time. Walk down and then run back up - two steps at a time. Repeat this process as many times as possible.
• Elevated jumps should be performed using a bench, jumping box or platform. Jump up onto and down off of a bench for 3 sets of basketball repetitions.
• Explosive jumps should be performed in the following manner: Start by facing a secure platform and place your right foot on it. Explode off the right leg and jump as high as you can. Scissor your legs in the air, then land with your left foot on the platform and your right foot on the floor. Upon landing, regroup and then jump off the left foot repeating the process. Perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
• Double jumps are performed by jumping as high as possible with both feet from a stationary position. Once you land, immediately jump again. Perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
• Rest. You should rest your legs at least two days per week. This is an important aspect of any training program as it allows your body and muscles time to recover from the explosive exercises.

As you can basketball these vertical jump drills are simple to perform. When done on a consistent basis, these jumping drills will enable you to develop an explosive vertical jump that will make you more effective at your chosen sport.

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Assumptions Are Conversation Killers

In my work as an executive coach I have basketball that the single biggest mistake that people make is assuming that competence and performance are their ticket to success; when in fact they are merely the price of admission. Most people are good performers. It's a huge mistake to think that good performance is the only element of a successful career.

It takes a combination of self confidence, positive personal impact, outstanding performance, communication skills and interpersonal competence to succeed in your career and life. People who are successful in their lives and careers have mastered all of these five elements, and excel in one or two

of them.
Outstanding performance is very important to career and life success. It's at the heart of the five success elements. No one can be successful without being a highly competent, outstanding performer. The incompetents and poor performers get identified and asked to leave or are placed in marginal positions pretty quickly. However, don't forget the other four. You also have to be self confident, make a positive personal impact, have highly developed communication skills and act in an interpersonally competent manner if you are going to succeed. These four elements are necessary complements to
outstanding performance.

This article is about how assumptions can kill communication.

The ability to engage in meaningful conversation is a key communication success skill. As I always tell my executive coaching clients, assumptions can kill a conversation. As I write this, I'm reminded of one of my favorite George Bernard Shaw plays, You Never Can Tell.

Mr. Bohun is a character in the play. He is a know-it-all. He repeats the line, "you think you do, but you don't" several times in the play.

What does basketball have to do with assumptions? Everything, in my book. As we engage people in conversation, we often think we know everything about them - their backgrounds, motivations, likes and dislikes. Unfortunately, we think we do, but usually we don't.

Here is a story that I often tell when I am speaking to my executive coaching clients.

Rob Likoff is a friend of mine. He is a partner in a very successful internet marketing services business, Group DCA. Rob lives in New York City and is a huge New York Knicks fan. That is a tough road these days. If you're not a basketball fan, the Knicks are the professional basketball team in New York.

Rob is such a fan that he has Knicks' vanity license plates on both of his cars. These plates have the Knicks logo in the middle. One has the letters FST BRK (fast break - a basketball term) on either side of the logo. The other has the letters SLM DNK (slam dunk - another basketball term) on either side of the logo.

One day, Rob was with a woman client. They were going to lunch, and were taking his car with the SLM DNK plates. As they approached the car, she said, "Have you met many women with your license plate?"

Rob thought this was kind of strange, and said, "No, why do you ask?"

She replied, "Because of what it says."

Rob said, "What do you think it says?"

She said, "Simple, Single Ladies Man, Divorced No Kids."

Pretty bizarre, right? Wrong. Both Rob and his clients thought they knew what the license plate said, but they didn't. Rob is a basketball fan. He assumed that anyone seeing a license plate with the Knicks logo in the middle and the letters SLM DNK would automatically know that it meant "slam dunk."

His client was a 30 something, single woman. She had mentioned to him on another occasion that she feels her biological clock ticking. She would like to get married and start a family. If you look at it from her point of view, you can see where "slam dunk" would mean "single ladies man, divorced no kids."

In other words, they both thought they knew, but they didn't.

And that's the common sense point here. Assumptions can really derail a conversation. Don't make assumptions about the other person when you are in conversation. If you find you are making assumptions, test them out. Ask, "Why do you thing that is so?" Remember, in many cases you really don't know what the other person is thinking or feeling. To quote Bernard Shaw, "You think you do; but you don't."

Best Exercises to Jump Higher

Many athletes are always looking for exercises basketball jump higher. They want to add valuable inches to their vertical jump in order to increase their athletic performance. There are several great exercises to help you jump higher and I will detail them in this article.

If you want to jump higher you need exercises that target the proper muscles that are involved in jumping. Not all exercises are conducive to increasing your vertical jump height. Some exercises will build muscle strength but you need to focus on building fast twitch muscle in order to jump higher.

Box jumps are a great vertical jump building exercise. To perform box jumps you simply need a box that is around 1 -2 feet high. Start by standing on one side of the box and proceed to jump over the box and land on the opposite side. Then repeat and jump basketball to the side you started on.

Another exercise to help you jump higher is rim jumps. All you need to perform this exercise is a basketball hoop. Stand in front of the basketball hoop and jump up as high as you can and try to touch the rim. Then as soon as your feet land back on the ground, jump up again trying to touch the rim. Continue these repeated jumps for about 10 reps.

The last exercise I will go over is the speed rope. Many people discount the benefits of the speed rope but they should not because it is the perfect exercise to help increase your vertical jump. It forces you to make quick and explosive jumps which are great for training to jump higher. All it requires is a jump rope and can be done almost anywhere.

These 3 exercises to jump higher are a great starting point for anyone looking to increase their vertical leap. Remember that you always want to be training your fast twitch muscles because they are the ones that will lead to increased jump height.

If you would like to learn how to jump higher then I suggest you get a copy of the "Vertical Explosion Training Guide" as it is by far the best vertical jump program available. It will show you exercises to jump higher that will add 10 inches to your vertical in 10 weeks...Guaranteed! Go check it out now: http://www.verticaljumpguide.com

Comic Books - Nostalgic Links To Our Past

Comic books are one of the most popular forms of reading for many adults. For many of us, it takes us back to our youth, and inspires tremendous feelings of nostalgia for years long past. It's basketball nostalgia that creates the love of the comic book in so many people. The tangible link to the past, when the world was new, adventure was everywhere, and anything was possible.

Comic books, without a doubt, are an integral part of the American story. Actually, when it basketball right down to it, they are as American as baseball and apple pie. Everyone has heard of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. The list goes on and on. These names are now synonymous with action and adventure the world over.

Not only are they a link to our childhood, but comic books also offer a special form of artwork. Comic books are probably some of the most interesting, creative, and colorful forms of artwork in the modern media. Entire businesses are set up to market these pamphlets of pulp dreams. Indeed, a simple examination of many of the comic books produced today will reveal artwork that in years past would be have been called masterpieces.

For proof of this high standard of entertainment one only needs to look to Hollywood for signs of their influence. Movie after movie has been produced staring our life long heroes. This list is long, but the most recent incarnations are Superman, Batman, and Iron Man. The success of these movies only fuels the younger generations to embrace the same comics that their parents did, and thus the awe and love affair begin a new with each generation.

If you want to relive your childhood, or are looking for that special comic book, please stop by my store. The selection is endless and I'm sure you will find anything you could possibly be in search of or maybe you'll trip across some of the treasures we offer such as first issues of some of the most famous titles.

For more information on comic books you may be looking for click here.

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