Archive for December, 2009

Basics:
If you want to show off a higher vertical jump next basketball or football season, start training now. It’s no quackery, but it is pure science; hence, you can achieve a higher vertical jump. Science has proven it and this is the best guarantee. You probably have heard it all from the most audacious to the highly improbable. If they tell you that you have to take ballet lessons to achieve a higher vertical jump, there is some truth to it but you have no time to take ballet lessons for crying out loud. Forget those voodoo tales. You can get going with a scientifically backed-up plan – plyometrics, isometrics, and stretching plus good nutrition. Don’t forget nutrition too. Watch athletes during their rigorous training. High jumpers and marathon runners put on leg weights to help them increase their speed. As the body is trained to work harder and faster in spite of the additional weight, just imagine how fast one’s legs can run without the weights! In the vertical jump, the body is trained to stretch to beyond its limits and to defy gravity. The body parts that receive a lot of punishment are the muscles of calves and the hips and hamstrings, and the abdominal muscles.

In plyometrics, the exercises train the muscle to reach its maximum force. Trying jumping as high as you can and feel how your leg stretch when you are up and how your muscles return to its natural length when you land back on the ground. You may be jumping higher now than your mom – who can only lift herself up the floor with a measly two inches. There are several factors at play here. You are better conditioned from all those exercises. It won’t come as a surprise that with the proper plyometric exercises you can add 8 more inches to your vertical jump. Hey, it is not the amount of exercises you do each day. It is the way you do those exercises and you do each exercise as if your life depended on it, with powerful force. Your body will get the message that you want it to go higher when you do those vertical jumps.

Isometrics are simple quick and easy exercises that use the body’s resistance. These can be done a few minutes everyday and anywhere. With regular isometric exercises your body develops endurance and blazing speed. There are great exercises to strengthen the hips, hamstrings, and calves. Stretching is just as important. The muscles should be flexible to prevent muscle injury. With all that explosive force of dragging your body upward and controlling balance upon hitting ground, something got to give way. These stretches increases joint motions but should you feel pain when you do your stretches, stop it immediately. There might be something wrong so see a doctor before you get back on the groove; don’t stretch too hard or your muscles might get in trouble.

Summary:
The body needs more protein during rigorous exercise and helps the body develop muscles. A high protein diet in conjunction with plyometrics, isometrics, and stretches assures success of your efforts to increase your Vertical Jump. Science has proven it.

Mention basketball and great players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal immediately come to mind. But few remember the man who started it all – Dr. James Naismith of Canada.

Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario in 1861 and was educated at McGill University in Montreal where he later served as its athletic director. In 1890, he moved to America and taught physical education at Springfield College (then called the Young Men’s Christian Association Training School) in Springfield, Massachusetts.

During his stint there, he tried to find different ways to keep rowdy students occupied and fit during the harsh New England winter. What he wanted was a good game that could be played indoors and would give the boys a great workout as well. Dr. Luther Gulick, head of physical education at the School for Christian Workers, gave Naismith 14 days to create such a game.

After testing several ideas, Naismith remembered a game he used to play as a child called “Duck on a Rock.” The object of that medieval game was to throw small rocks at a duck placed on top of a large rock which was guarded by one person. That became the basis of “Basket Ball” (initially written as two words) which Naismith invented in 1891.

“In his attempt to think up a new game, Naismith was guided by three main thoughts. Firstly, he analyzed the most popular games of those times (rugby, lacrosse, soccer, football, hockey and baseball); Naismith noticed the hazards of a small fast ball and concluded that the big soft soccer ball was safest. Secondly, he saw that most physical contact occurred while running with the ball, dribbling or hitting it so he decided that passing was the only legal option,” according to the editors of Wikipedia.

Naismith wanted to get away from the game being a full-contact sport so he raised the goal up above the players’ heads thus eliminating the need for a guard. He also required the players to lob the ball – much like the duck game – in order to score points. Finally, he settled on 13 basic rules to play the game.

The first basketball game was played in December 1891 and was different from the sport we know today. Each team had nine members, a soccer ball was used and peach baskets affixed to ten-foot high railings served as the goals,

The baskets retained their bottom parts so the ball had to be removed every time a successful shot was made. Later, holes were drilled in the baskets so the ball could be retrieved with a long cylindrical rod. Players didn’t dribble the ball at that time; they ran with it and tossed it over their heads to pass it to other players.

In 1893, Naismith replaced the peach baskets with metal hoops that had hammock-style baskets. But ten years passed before open-ended nets that allowed the ball to pass through were used.

Today, basketball remains one of the most popular sports in the world and basketball players are among the most popular and highest-paid athletes in America. The sport has millions of followers and is enjoyed by people from all walks of life. Thanks to Naismith, basketball is here to stay.

For more information on basketball hoops, go to the trusted source http://www.tophoops.com/.