Revisiting Old Thoughts: Jumping and Skies
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Loading ...Talked about this a good while ago here, but you probably never read that one.
Do you like catching the frisbee? Do you enjoy stopping others from doing so? Would you enjoy doing both more consistently in the air?
Work on your jumping form. A couple things to keep in mind when you go up for the sky:
- Accelerate into the jump. Part of jumping is redirecting your horizontal velocity into vertical velocity–this is why most people can jump higher off of a run than from a standstill (and those who can’t should be able to with a bit of plyometric training). Leave yourself space on a floaty disc to really accelerate into your jump and attack the disc at your highest point.
- Lower your center of gravity. This occurs on the penultimate (second-to-last) step, and helps with the redirection of velocity (it also allows for more complete utilization of your plyometric ability, as the slight dip engages your stretch-shortening cycle to explode upwards on the next step).
- Use your arms to help with takeoff. You’ll usually see some kind of windup going into a jump by the best jumpers–the extra force you can generate from your arms will help with redirecting your momentum as well as provide a bit more force to propel your body upwards. If you’re on the run, this will typically be a one-arm windup (whichever is in the backswing phase of your run); if you’re doing a two-legged takeoff, you should be able to get both arms into it a bit more (I find one-legged takeoffs far more common in ultimate, however. this may just be my own bodily preference made manifest, so your mileage and results may vary).
- Reach for the disc with the arm opposite your takeoff foot. This will vary depending on the specific situation, but as a general rule you can reach higher with the opposite arm. Keep this in mind when you practice your jumping and it will become more natural for use in-game.
- Absorb the impact of landing in your hips, bending your knees. This is more of a recommendation for the weight room, but landing stiff-legged will lead to a lot of force being applied to one’s joints. The more you can absorb on landing via squat (incidentally, the muscles you use to take off are also the ones that should be used to slow you down on landing–you’re simply using them eccentrically, to slow movement in one direction, rather than concentrically, to create movement in the other), the less likely you are to have aches and pains accumulate.
Keep an eye out for these things in these clips. Really, watch anything, observe the pros. You can do a lot worse than imitating the best.
Also note the comments. As Dusty points out, your athleticism can only carry you so far–also think about positioning and preventing the other guy from doing the sorts of things that let him comfortably make a jump to make a play on the disc as you try and set yourself up for success. Remember, if you’re on defense, all you have to do (barring multiple receivers or unpredictable winds) is keep your man from catching the disc to get the turn.
