How do you do "blocking"? I want to increase my ve

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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.

[Aodhan]

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.

Basically, it's a method of transferring horizontal momentum to upward momentum. If you've ever seen a gymnast doing their run to gain momentum then hitting the vault or similar, that is blocking. Same when a b-ball player goes up for a dunk, or a high jumper goes up.

It's kind of hard to describe verbally, but I'll give it a shot.

What most people do, is they get a run, jump with one or two feet, then try to jump up. The first landing before the leap kills most of your forward momentum, and doesn't allow it to transfer.

Instead of that last "hop", plant one foot directly out of the run, bend your leg slightly, and drive the other knee straight up and leap off the plant foot. (Almost like a run into a jump front kick). As you dip down on your plant foot slightly and drive the other leg up, your forward motion is being redirected upwards along with your leap and push.

High jumpers demonstrate it well, and if you've ever seen a gymnast do a back handspring into a back flip, watch how they "snap" their feet straight down and then spring straight up.

How much you block depends on how high or forward you want to go. Long jumpers block just enough to get airborne. High jumpers block completely. Gymnasts and b-ballers do it in varying degrees.

Like I said, it's really hard to describe verbally. The best thing I can say is to either go to a gymnastics school and have the instructor work with you on it, or watch a lot of video of gymnasts, high jumpers, etc. and watch how they plant and leap. I can 99.99999999% guarantee you won't see them taking a "hop" step into their leap, they go into it right off the runup.

Aodhan

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

[Aodhan]

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

Easily. Try this. Stand under a basketball hoop, and jump up straight up from a standing position. (You can squat down if you want to start). See how high you can go.

Now, take a little bit of a run (Even 3 or four steps), and jump up like you were going to lay up, and see how high you go. You should easily be 3-4 inches or more higher on the second jump.

That's why when you see NFL'er and NBA'ers doing their combines and team physicals, they distinguish the "standing" vertical from a moving vertical.

Aodhan