Here is a way we have found to help boost vertical jump in the weight room.
Here are some take-home points when doing this lift:
*Tyler goes into a quarter squat position before exploding up.
*Notice how he lands “soft” with a bend in his knees to lighten the impact when landing.
*Tyler is doing sets with 95 pounds, around 20% of him max squat – Go LIGHT and focus more on speed of movement.

Try this exercise and tell me you don’t feel more explosive after!

Here is Tyler going deep with 315 – Notice the flat back and the depth.

PS – When we say “deep”, it means the angle from the hip to the top of the knee is parallel to the floor.

Your Turn!
Do you consider that a parallel squat?
What is your gage of parallel?
Do you squat this deep?
Want to know why it is important to squat “deep”?
Let us know…

What are the glaring weak points in the incoming freshman that you see?

Poor technique, pure and simple. I work with a lot of female athletes and it is even more apparent in them. Coaching at the younger levels has to go back to teaching fundamentals and not worrying about win- loss records. I heard something the other day at a conference and I do not know if it is true or not, but no major league pitcher has won a Little League World Series as a pitcher. Isn’t that interesting. High school phenoms strive in other sports like basketball but not baseball pitchers, why? Because they get hurt! They did too much (curveballs, breaking balls, sliders) too soon and did not master the fundamentals (fastball, change-up) which will allow them to add to a strong foundation when they are mature enough to handle it. Same thing in the weight room the question should not be how much can you squat, it should be how well can you squat.

– Thanks Brett! Always good hearing form you, and always quality content.