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I got my black belt in Tae Bong Soo Do after about 4 years of training. I went twice a week with the occasional saturday class added in.

Tae Bong Soo Do.....basically the same as Tae Kwon Do with aspects of Ju-Jujitsu and Boxing thrown in.

I agree with Bleeding Lion in that sometimes dojos don't have girls that you would even consider dating. That makes it a lot easier on me to concentrate.

There is an exercise I know where you sit with your back against a wall and slide down until your legs are at a 90 degree angle. You form like a chair so I all this "wall sitting." You hold the position for a few minutes. It feels like holding horseriding position for a few minutes. Is that isometric? Afterwards my legs are shaking from it. My instructor says that the reason my legs did that was because I was training muscle fibers that have been used for the first time. Most likely fast-twitch fibers which require for all the slow-twitch fibers to be exhausted or for a stress load only fast-twitch fibers can handle for them to come into play. During your lifetime some fibers are never activated because you never face a stress that is hard enough to turn them on. Message to Aodhan: The exercise you suggested is like the visual aid in the Air Alert III link I received. It is called step-ups. Is this what it looks like doing your exercise?

Are there any people here that have tried Air Alert III and have gained inches in their vertical leap off of it? I heard that people who have tried it overtrain so their vertical is lower. Can you clear this up for me?

I heard that the benefits for having a strong core or "pillar strength" are huge. Check out this website. They say that core strength improves the efficiency of energy distribution throughout your body. Any input? https://www.coreperformance.com

Plyometrics seem like the best idea for what I am trying to achieve but this website is giving me a bit of confusion. I just want to clear things up a bit. What do you think about this website? https://www.athleticquickness.com The one book I am looking at is called "Jump Higher With Isometric Training" It involves using a resistance band. There is a 80% that this is just a money-making scheme, but there might be some truth to what they talk about. The reason plyometric are effective are because they train fast-twitch muscle fibers. You said that doing exercises that mimic the motion that you want to improve on is a good way to go. What if I used an isometric approach while still mimicing the jumping motion? Is that possible? Another question I have is that if strengthening the calf is important, I should do calf raises right? That wouldn't put enough stress on my calf muscle to recruit fast twitch muscle fibers unless I did it while holding a barbell. Should I do calf raises without weights but in high reps like 200-300 or should I do it with weights with sets of 3 and 7 reps? I heard a suggestion about putting your toes on the edge of a stair so your heels come off a little. Would that put additional pressure on my calves to grow?

A huge percentage of the muscle fibers in the calves are fast-twitch. This might be a reason they are hard to grow and develop for some people. Obviously to train fast-twitch fibers, you have to do explosive exercises like plyometrics. I just want to know though if isometrics are a good idea too. You need fast-twitch fibers for jumping so could I do isometric exercises for my legs? Do you guys have any suggestions or even better exercises for my calves pertaining to isometrics? If plyometrics are better give me plyometrics but if isometrics are better give me those instead.

I am trying to improve my vertical leap and I want to know if anyone can tell me more about: 1. "blocking" 2. plyometrics 3. calf exercises (they help the most with jumping)

Also, what is important to know about the words like "Danzan-Ryu" and "Aiki" Ju-Jitsu? Is Danzan-Ryu Ju-jitsu different than Aiki Ju-Jitsu?

How much can this improve my leap by? Is it impossible to gain more than a few inches using this technique?

I heard on another post that ballet dancers use "blocking." It has something to do with shifting your momentum. This could help me in basketball. Any other info would be appreciated.

I second that! There is a shoe from Nike called the Nike Free shoes. They are built to mimic the movement of barefoot running. They prevent the shoe from "babying" the feet and not allowing it to receive the full force of the exercise while still protecting it like a shoe should. Go to nike.com and look at the Nike Free running shoe.

I want to know if hindu squats improve the height of my vertical leap so that I can kick higher. Does anybody have any idea?