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INTRODUCTION
So you want to jump higher –
congratulations! Looking to dunk over the
competition, blow by the defenders and own the
air above the rim? You are well on your way by
taking the most important first steps already
taken by thousands of athletes to improve their
athletic performance. As you have most
certainly already noticed, your ability to jump is
central to your success in your athletic career.
Athletic Advantage The Complete Vertical
Jump Program will provide you with all the tools
you will need to dramatically increase your leg
strength, speed and vertical leap over the
coming weeks. You can expect this program to
enhance your athleticism in the following
aspects:
 Increase your vertical 8” to 14”
 Increase your first step quickness
 Increase muscular endurance
 Increase muscle fiber recruitment
 Decrease your 40yd dash time by
0.2 to 0.4s.
Athletic Advantage The Complete Vertical
Jump Program is a very powerful tool with all
the resources you will need except one.
Commitment. Even the best program will do
you no good if you don’t stick with it. Imagine if
Michael Jordan decided to just quit when his
high school basketball coach cut him from the
team. Because he was committed he pulled
through and became one of the biggest
legends of the NBA. In order for you to obtain
all the gains this program has to offer you must
be committed to following each part of this
program to the letter.
No one part of this program is more
important than any other. Each part has a
special aspect to offer that none of the others
do. This program incorporates power weight
training, dynamic weight training, plyometric
training, nutrition and positive mentality.
Without power weight training you will not have
the strength base for any of the other stages of
this program. Dynamic weight training
incorporates speed with strength to break the
power plateau reached in power weight
training. Some very strong athletes do not
possess the power to dunk a basketball or
sprint a fast 40 yard dash. This is because
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most athletic movements require a time factor
much smaller than the time it takes to
maximally contract a muscle. This is where
plyometrics come in! Plyometric training
provides the environment for eccentric
contraction which has been proven to build
muscle and power faster than any other
contraction. Nutrition is the glue that holds it all
together. Your body is a hormonal
rollercoaster. No, this is not the ‘sex talk’, I’m
talking about the hormones responsible for the
muscle growth and body chemistry needed by
every athlete. Without proper nutrition, you will
not achieve maximal strength gains and the risk
of injury is greatly increased especially during
plyometric training.
Before we go directly into Athletic
Advantage The Complete Vertical Jump
Program, we will quickly visit other programs
and see why this program has so much more to
offer than most programs out there. Also we
will work through a detailed description of what
happens behind the scenes when you jump
followed by a technical look at muscle variety
and how it affects your vertical jumping
potential.
WHAT’S IN A PROGRAM
KEY IDEAS: Most programs fall short of
their promises for one of the following
reasons: They over train causing injury.
They lack variety to properly change up
training to avoid workout adaptation. They
do not allow proper rest periods leading to injury. This
program incorporates 5 main parts including power weight
training, dynamic weight training, plyometric training,
nutrition and positive mentality.
Why this program? You may be asking
what makes this program different from every
other program out there. To answer this
question, let’s first start by taking a look at what
other programs have to offer and why they
cannot necessarily be as good as promised.
Most programs out there offer a single phase
program with only one means to train your
muscles. These programs generally have you
jumping ropes or running stairs until you cannot
move anymore or until you over train. These
programs tend to produce a dramatic increase
in your vertical over the first few weeks but
plateau quickly or produce over training and
injury. This is because doing 500 repetitions of
6 to 10 different exercises 5 days a week
causes your muscles to adapt to the work outs,
adaptation is the number one reason for
plateaus in your vertical gains and can only be
remedied by changing up work out routines and
exercises every 4 to 6 weeks.
One component of training that is almost
always overlooked is rest. Contrary to popular
practice in vertical jump programs, rest is just
as important as the work outs you do. It takes
48 hours to rebuild the damage caused by
power weight training and plyometric training.
Without proper rest your routine will
progressively tear your body down until, finally,
you will either reach plateau stage or over train.
These are only a few of the reasons why most
programs out there aren’t as good as they
claim or are at the very least lack the variety to
truly tap into your body’s vertical leaping
potential.
Any program that says it is the ultimate
without some element of weight training is
wrong. It is true that purely plyometric
programs can yield astonishing results but
studies and experiments have shown time and
again that vertical jumping ability is enhanced
most when a training regiment incorporates
plyometrics and weight training.
Don’t be mislead, though, this program
does incorporate many exercises and possibly
lifts that are found in many other programs. It
is the order and implementation of these lifts
and exercises that makes this program so
successful and powerful. Exercise should
always be done working the largest muscle
groups first and working through to the smallest
muscles repetitively cycling through all muscle
groups. This allows your muscles to be pushed
to failure more efficiently. That is where this
training program differs from all the others.
This program incorporates superior-inferior
cyclic training techniques which train the
quadriceps first, the largest muscle group, and
work down to the calves, the smallest of the
basic jumping muscles repetitively.
This program features a three tiered work
out schedule that is broken into three sections.
Each section incorporates the 5 main parts to
successful training: power weight training,
dynamic weight training, plyometric training,
nutrition and positive mentality.
Power weight training will provide a strength
base for your training program. Most of your
gains will be delivered by this part of the
program for the first few weeks if you are a new
comer to weight training and will be responsible
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for some of the extra gains you will experience
over and above other programs would offer.
The second component of proper training is
not introduced until a bit later in the program,
after a sufficient strength base has been
established. This is the dynamic weight training
phase in which some of the lifts in the power
weight training phase are replaced with
weighted jumps or explosive lifts that focus
more on speed than weight while the lifts that
are still present are increased in weight and
decreased in repetitions.
Plyometric training is the part of this
program that you may be most familiar with if
you have looked at other programs out there.
During this part of the program you will be
jumping using different muscles a lot. You will
be using your different muscle groups to failure,
which studies have shown to produce maximum
strength and power gains. Each exercise
focuses on a different muscle group until you
have fatigued them all.
Nutrition is our next stop in this program.
This is the part of the program that may take
the most self-control. You will be eating a
controlled ratio of protein, carbohydrates and
fats along with proper hydration to put your
body in the optimum hormonal and metabolic
zone for growth.
Last is positive mentality. Even though this
part of the program has no physical
development, it is an important element in your
training because confidence and mental
preparation are a big piece of the puzzle. This
benefit can be seen in pep talks from coaches,
listening to music or watching your favorite
athlete in action. Each of these 5 parts of the
program are compliments of each other and
their combination is the key to your jumping
success!
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU JUMP
KEY IDEAS: Jumping is a complicated
combination of movements incorporating
three muscle contractions, eccentric,
isometric and concentric. These three
muscle contractions form the stretch-shorten
cycle which is responsible for our jumping ability.
Neuromuscular memory is your body’s way of learning to
jump.
When you jump you may not give a second
thought as to what happens in your muscles,
you just run to the rim, lower your body and
jump. Simple enough, right? Wrong! Jumping
is a very complicated series of biomechanical
events that require coordination, neuromuscular
memory and a great deal of power.
Let’s begin with the run up. When you run
up to jump it serves the purpose of adding
energy to the system. Having momentum
going into the jump gives you extra energy to
incorporate into the jump. When you begin the
jump you lower your body; this might seem
backward. If you want to go up why go down
first? To stretch the spring! When you go
down you stretch your quad, hamstring, and
calf muscles putting increased tension in the
muscles. This is known as an eccentric
contraction, one of three types of muscle
contractions. Eccentric contractions may seem
hard to understand because it is a contraction
that lengthens the muscle instead of shortening
it. It is easiest to think of it as the equivalent to
curling so much weight that even if you try your
hardest your arm goes down and lengthens
your muscle. Just after you stop going down in
your jump you stop to reverse direction. This is
known as an isometric contraction, which is a
contraction in which the muscle doesn’t
lengthen or shorten. Isometric contraction is by
far the contraction with the most muscle
tension. This is also the contraction that is
most responsible for a quick takeoff. The
faster you can switch from going down to going
up, the quicker you will leave the ground. The
third and final type of contraction happens
when you begin to go back up. It is known as
concentric contraction and is when the muscle
contracts and shortens. This is the type of
contraction weight lifters use to body build.
These three contractions in rapid
succession such as happens in jumping are
known as the stretch-shorten cycle. This cycle
goes as follows. The muscle lengthens in the
eccentric phase. Little sensors in your muscles
feel the quick stretch and alert your brain “this
stretch my be potentially dangerous, contract!”
So your muscles contract hard trying to reverse
the stretch, passing through the isometric
phase into the concentric phase. If this
transition from the stretch to the shorten
happens within 0.2 seconds the energy stored
in the stretch gets converted in the shorten
cycle and that is why you jump higher with a
little run up. If, however, the stretch-shorten
cycle takes more than 0.2 seconds, the energy
in the stretch is lost. This is why it is so
important to do each exercise and lift with
maximal speed. This is the main function of
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plyometric training, to put a much greater strain
on the muscle than would otherwise be
possible.
What do you think about when you jump.
Most people would say, ‘nothing’ they just jump.
This is because when its time to jump your
body relies on something called neuromuscular
memory. This is what it is called when your
brain learns to jump. Through this program you
will develop new neuromuscular memory. You
will program you legs to just jump, but this time
they will learn to do it quicker and with more
force causing you to jump higher.
MUSCLE MAKE-UP
KEY IDEAS: Human muscle comes in two
types, Fast Twitch Type IIB and Slow Twitch
Type I. Most people have nearly a 50/50
concentration of both types. Type IIB
contracting nearly 3 times faster than Type I
allows speeds in excess of 25mph in sprinting athletes
and is the chief muscle fiber trained in plyometric training.
When you look at professional basketball
players or Olympic jumpers, their legs are
skinny. Have you ever wondered why they
jump so well with such thin legs? The answer
is simple if a bit hidden. It’s not the size of a
muscle but the type which determines the
ability of an athlete to jump. This brings up the
important reality that jumping potential is largely
a genetic issue. Notice I said potential not
ability. Training will help you increase your
vertical dramatically, in this program by 8-14”!
This earlier stated fact just shows that genetics
has a great deal to do with how a person with
or without training will jump.
There are two types of muscle present in
the human body, fast twitch type IIB and slow
twitch type I. Slow twitch type I muscle is
aerobic meaning it uses oxygen to function and
is capable of burning fat as fuel. This is why
running distance is such a good fat burner.
Fast twitch type IIB muscle on the other hand is
anaerobic meaning it does not use oxygen to
function and uses chiefly carbohydrates as a
fuel source. Fast twitch type IIB muscle
contracts at a rate approaching 25 milliseconds
whereas slow twitch type I muscle contracts
much slower at about 75 milliseconds. People
with a higher percentage of fast twitch type IIB
muscle will make better sprinters or jumpers.
For example, running at speeds in excess of
approximately 8.5 mph utilizes almost
exclusively fast twitch type IIB muscle. Speeds
in excess of 25 mph can be reached under
propulsion of fast twitch type IIB muscle as is
achieved in the Olympic 100m and 200m
dashes. The majority of people have an about
even makeup of fast twitch and slow twitch
muscle fibers with gifted athletes tipped slightly
toward fast twitch. It has not been proven that
training increases the number of fibers in a
muscle, all we know is that plyometrics is
proven to increase the dramatically the size of
existing muscle fibers. These fast twitch type
IIB fibers are the type you will be building
during this training program.
STRETCHING
KEY IDEAS: Warming up and then
stretching your muscles prevents injury and
can actually increase your vertical leaping
ability in only 20 minutes a day.
Before every workout, whether it be
plyometrics or weight training, it is very
important that you properly warm up and then
stretch. You can properly warm up by jogging
or jumping rope for 5 minutes. This gets the
muscles warmed up properly and gets the
blood flowing. Besides just warming the
muscles up, warming up and stretching can
increase your vertical by 1 to 3 inches in 20
minutes as compared to jumping cold. You
should then spend 15-20 minutes stretching all
major muscles. Here are is an example of a
proper stretching routine.
QUADRICEP STRETCH
Sit on the floor in a hurdler position, one leg
extended forward and the other knee bent with
the ankle back near your buttock. Lean back
until you feel a stretch in the top part of the leg.
Hold this position to the count of 15. Do this to
each leg three times.
HAMSTRING STRETCH
Sit with your legs in front of you apart with your
knees locked. Reach for one foot until you feel
a stretch in the back of the leg. Hold for a
count of 15. Do this for each leg three times.
BUTTERFLY STRETCH
Sit with your legs bent and soles of you feet
together. Place your palms on your feet and
elbows on the inside of your knees. Using your
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elbows push you legs down until you feel a
stretch in your groin area. Hold for a count of
15. Do this three times.
CALF STRETCH
Lean against a wall putting one foot back. Hold
that foot flat and lean forward until you feel a
stretch in your calf. Hold for a count of 15. Do
this three times to each leg.
SHOULDER STRETCH
Put one arm horizontal against a wall, shoulder
on the wall. Rotate your body away from the
wall with the arm still flat until you feel a stretch
in the chest-shoulder area. Hold for a count of
15. Do this three times to each shoulder.
POWER WEIGHT TRAINING
KEY IDEAS: Power weight training provides
a strength base for the rest of this vertical
leap program. This section contains mainly
Olympic lifts as well as upper body lifts as
nearly 10% of jumping power sources from
upper body impulses.
As was outlined earlier in this program,
power weight training is the key to a sufficient
strength base for true improvement in your
vertical leap. This is true not only in vertical
leap training but also in all sports. Power
weight training will be responsible for the bulk
of any mass gain during this program. These
lifts consist mainly of the Olympic lifts of power
cleaning and squatting also including bench
press, shoulder press, bicep curls and
hamstring curls. You may wonder why there
are so many upper body exercises incorporated
in a vertical training program. About 10% of a
vertical leap is generated by arm and upper
torso movements, therefore considerable
attention is given to upper body power.
Following are descriptions of the power weight
training lifts.
POWER CLEANS
Position the weighted bar directly in front of you
with your feet shoulder width apart. Bend at the
knees keeping your head up and back straight
and grasp the bar at shoulder width. When you
begin the lift, lift with your legs keeping your
back straight. As you straighten your legs,
shrug your shoulders and flex your calves to
pull the weight higher, faster. Concentrate on
speed. When you have shrugged your
shoulders, drop down under the weight
snapping your arms under the bar, elbows
forward. Stomp your feet as you stand upright
in one motion. You should end with the bar
resting across your chest, collar bone region,
supported by your arms. This is one repetition.
SQUATS
Position the bar on your shoulders and grab the
bar with your hands. Lower the weight keeping
your back straight until your thighs are parallel
to the ground. Be sure to go down far enough.
Then reverse and stand back up. This is one
repetition. Concentrate on slow down and
quick reverse and up fast.
LUNGES
Position the bar on your shoulders and grab the
bar with your hands. Step forward with one leg
and lower the weight until your knee almost
touches the ground. Bring the weight back up.
Do this again stepping with the other leg. This
is one repetition. This exercise can also be
done with dumbbells.
HAMSTRING CURLS
Lay stomach down on the leg curl machine.
Put your heels under the lifting pad and curl the
weight through the full range of motion until
your heels touch your buttock. Straighten you
legs out in a controlled fashion. Concentrate
on speed. This is one repetition.
BENCH PRESS
Lie on your back and grip the bar at about
shoulder width and lower the bar until it touches
your chest. Without pause lift it back up to the
top concentrating on speed. This is one
repetition.
BICEP CURLS
Hold the curl bar or dumbbells at your sides.
Curl the weight through the full range of motion.
This is one repetition.
Do bench press and bicep curls in a
superset fashion. This is when you do one set
of each back to back with no rest. Weights
during this phase should be such that you can
only do the prescribed repetitions. If you can
do more reps than prescribed increase the
weight and vice versa.
DYNAMIC WEIGHT TRAINING
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KEY IDEAS: Dynamic Weight Training is
the link between Power Weight Training and
Plyometric Training incorporating lower
weights with quick movements.
Quickness! This is the key to vertical
jumping. What good is an athlete that can
squat 500 lbs. but doesn’t have quickness?
Nothing! Dynamic weight training is the bridge
between power weight training and plyometric
training. It is the work out that loads weight
with speed. During your dynamic weight
training phase of this program you will be
introduced to a few different lifts that now focus
on speed with lighter weight. These include
step-ups, jump squats, shoulder raises, dips
and chin-ups. Here is a description of these
lifts:
STEP-UPS
Stand with the bar on your shoulders. Grab the
bar with your hands. Place one foot on a step
or stool 8-12” high. Step up onto the stool with
one leg and drive the opposite knee up then
step back down. Repeat this with the other leg.
This is one repetition. Use approximately ½ the
weight that you used on power cleans.
JUMP SQUATS
Stand with the weight on your shoulders.
Grasp the bar with your hands. Bend at the
knees to a ¼ squat (thighs at 45°) then
explode up, jumping as high as possible. This
is one repetition. Attempt to do jump squats
and squats as a superset if equipment allows.
Use ¼ the weight of squats for jump squats.
CHIN-UPS
Hang from a bar both palms toward you. Pull
yourself up until your chin is even with the bar.
Go back down. This is one repetition
DIPS
Suspend your body from your arms on the dip
box. Lower your body, bending at the elbows
and shoulders until your upper arms are parallel
to the ground. Come back up. This is one
repetition.
SHOULDER RAISES
Sit down on a chair with lighter weights in each
hand. 5 -15lb. dumbbells will do. Bring
dumbbells out wide and to your sides. In a
quick motion bring them up diagonally and
touch them together. Bring them back down.
This is one repetition.
ABDOMINALS
You have surely done ab crunches before. You
will be doing many repetitions and to ensure
that you evenly work all abdominal muscles,
you need to do more than one type of ab
exercise. The 4 main exercises you will
concentrate on will be Regular Crunches, Side
Crunches (Crunches on your side), Leg Lifts
(Legs straight, hands on your stomach) and
Crossovers (Crunch touching opposite elbows
to knees). Do all repetitions evenly between
these 4 exercises.
Make sure you do dips and chin-ups in
supersets as you do the bench press and bicep
curls. Weights for this phase are to be lighter.
About ½ to ¼ of power weight training weights.
PLYOMETRIC TRAINING
KEY IDEAS: Plyometric Training is a
relatively new concept in the US responsible
for dramatic improvements in all sports. It
concentrates on developing starting strength
and explosive strength through quick elastic
exercises.
Plyometric training is probably thought of as
a training technique that had been around as
long as people have been lifting but in the
United States plyometrics is a relatively new
concept. The first to use plyometrics in the US
was Fred Wilt, a former Olympic runner in
1975. It was first used in the Soviet Union for
Olympic jumpers as far back as the 1950’s.
Plyometrics was partially responsible for his
dramatic improvement in the 100m dash when
he went from 13.0s at age 14 to 10.0s at age
20. Plyometrics gets its name from the greek
roots plio and metric meaning ‘more’ and
‘measure’.
Plyometrics concentrate on two key aspects
of training: starting strength or instantaneous
recruitment of as many muscle fibers as
possible and explosive strength or maintaining
that recruitment through a resistance. These
two aspects, especially the first one, are the
main determinants of vertical jumping ability.
Plyometrics is the training consisting of loading
muscles quickly and firing them just as quickly.
This type of training will be the primary means
of vertical gain after the first four weeks. As
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plyometrics causes excessive strain, it is
important to warm up thoroughly before every
session and to only do the prescribed
repetitions and sets and no more to prevent
injury or overtraining. Following are the
descriptions of the plyometric exercises used in
this program.
LATERAL JUMPS
Start on one side of a cone or obstacle 18-24”
high. Jump laterally (side to side) over the
cone continuously. When you touch the ground
instantly jump to the other side. Concentrate
on speed, the less time on the ground the
better. Each time back and forth is one
repetition.
ANKLE JUMPS
Using only you calf muscles, flexing at the
ankles and keeping your knees straight,
bounce up and down concentrating on getting
off the ground as fast as possible and as high
as possible. Each touch on the ground is one
repetition.
RIM JUMPS
Stand under a rim or against a wall. Jump as
high as you can touching the wall or backboard.
As soon as you touch the ground jump back as
high as you can concentrating on hitting the
same spot on the backboard or wall each time
and getting off the ground quickly.
STEP JUMPS
Put your right leg on a chair or platform about
18” high. Using only the right leg jump as high
as you can scissoring your legs in the air
landing with your left foot on the platform now.
Do the same with the left leg. Each jump is one
repetition.
SPLIT JUMPS
Stand with one leg a few feet forward of the
other. Lunge down until your front thigh is
parallel to the ground and back knee is almost
on the ground. Jump using both legs as high
as possible. Scissor legs in the air landing with
legs in the opposite position. Jump again. This
is one repetition.
SKIP FOR HEIGHT
I’m sure you have skipped as a child before so
now do the same except skip and get as high
as you can on each rep. Concentrate on
driving your knee on each skip.

CALF RAISES
Stand on a step with one heel over the edge.
Lower your body on that foot and then raise
your body as high as you can on that leg. Do
the prescribed reps for each leg.
BOUNDING
This is just a pronounced stride except you are
concentrating on getting high as well as far
driving and holding each forward knee. You
may use either a single arm approach as in
running or a double arm approach in which both
arms go forward at the same time each time
you bound.
SINGLE LEG HOPS
These jumps are similar to rim jumps only with
one leg at a time. Each rep, go down to a ¼
squat and using your arms jump as high as
possible. Reset and do it again. Do the
prescribed reps for each leg. These cause
extreme muscle fatigue and will not be done
every time.
ACCELERATIONS
Sprint, accelerating to ¾ max speed then
accelerate to full speed and back to ¾ max
speed. Each time you hit max speed is one
repetition.
Many of these exercises you will be doing
will involve a large amount of reps. It is very
important that you continue to perform them to
the last rep and with as much force as you can,
especially toward the end of the program.
There will be many times when you will feel like
you are only getting a few inches off the ground
and it is doing you no good. It is not
necessarily the height you jump but the amount
of muscle fibers you recruit when you do.
These exercises will be increasing your vertical
even when they feel worthless.
NUTRITION
KEY IDEAS: Nutrition is the fuel for
competition and recovery. A 3 to 4 ratio
of protein to carbohydrates is optimum
with protein needs dictated by the
amount of activity an athlete undertakes.
Why nutrition? What is so important about
how you eat? The answer may be quite
surprising. Everything! Have you ever heard
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the saying “you are what you eat”? Well it’s
100% correct. Your body breaks down from
training and attempts to rebuild itself using what
it’s given. If it doesn’t receive a proper balance
of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and
fat) it will not rebuild properly or function
properly. Eating correctly puts your body in the
metabolic and hormonal ‘zone’ to build muscle
and perform as it’s trained to. Sports
nutritionists have determined that the most
important ratio in your diet is that of protein to
carbohydrates. It is thought that for every 3
grams of protein you need 4 grams of
carbohydrates. So how much protein is
needed? There is a relationship between
activity and protein needs which is outlined in
the table below:
Less than 1 hr. exercise daily 0.7 gram s per pound
1 to 2 hrs. exercise daily 0.8 gram s per pound
More than 2 hrs. exercise daily 0.9 gram s per pound
As is shown in the above table, you will
need to know your lean muscle mass. This is
what you weigh minus the weight of body fat.
You can have your body fat tested at many
fitness centers or even possibly at your own
high school or college. If you do not have
access to this test it is a good approximation to
assume the average athlete has between 10
and 12% body fat. Lean body mass is
calculated as follows:
(Body Weight) x (100% - Body Fat %)
Example:
With an athlete that weighs 185lbs. and has 10%
body fat
(185lbs.) x (100% - 10%)
(185lbs.) x (90%)
167lbs. lean muscle mass
In this program 0.8g/lb. lean muscle mass is
enough. Protein requirements are found as
follows:
(167lbs) x (0.8g/lb.)
133g Protein daily
 And using the 4 to 3 ratio of carbohydrates
to protein, carbohydrate requirements are
found as follows:
(133g) x 4/3
178g Carbohydrates daily
Fat is used to build hormones and other for
other vital body functions but is not as linked as
protein and carbohydrates are so
monounsaturated fat intake is arbitrarily set at
1
/3 of carbohydrates. Using this multiplier we
can find the fat intake as follows:
(178g) x 1/3
59g fat daily
Carbohydrates should be mostly from
fruits and vegetables not breads and grains.
Breads and grains should be treated like
condiments because they have a high glycemic
index which when eaten will spike insulin levels
taking you out of the optimal ‘zone’ for growth.
If you are interested in finding the caloric
intake of your diet you can find it using the
following table:
Protein 4 calories per gram
Carbohydrate 4 calories per gram
Fat 9 calories per gram
If you have decided that losing some weight
is in order, you should take the extra calories
from monounsaturated fats and leave your
protein and carbohydrate intakes alone. The
caloric intake of this program is rather low
already and therefore there should be no need
to reduce your intake any further.
If this nutrition regiment proves to be too
few calories for you (you find yourself fatigued
easily or have a lack of energy) revert to a
2000-2500 calorie diet composed of 30%
protein, 50% carbs and 20% fat.
POSITIVE MENTALITY
KEY IDEAS: Confidence, Belief in
Yourself, Goal Setting, Visualization and
Motivation are the five components of
positive mentality that use your mind as
a powerful training tool to achieve your athletic goals.
The final component of this program is one
that is limited literally only by your imagination.
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Positive mentality is the icing on your proverbial
vertical jumping cake. Mentality is one of the
most important elements of your athletics that
you can control. You cannot always control the
physical condition you are in but your mindset
will make or break your performance, period!
Have you ever walked into a situation with full
confidence and realized how easy it was to
perform; or when you are up in a game, how
easily things just come to you. Sports
announcers call this momentum, but it all
comes down to the same thing, mentality.
Belief in your self is the key to success. Don’t
let people tell you that this program or any
goals you have won’t work or you won’t make it.
As soon as you stop believing in yourself you
will have a hard time following your dreams as
well as this program. One thing that I have
learned through the past few years is that if you
don’t believe in yourself no one else will either.
The first and most important point to positive
mentality is belief in your self.
Now that you have anchored your dreams
firmly in the rocks of confidence, you need to
find yourself a goal. In this program goal
setting will help you have a sense of purpose
and give you something to measure progress
against. There are two limitations you should
impose on yourself while goal setting. 1) Don’t
set your sights too low. 2) Don’t set your goals
too high. If you set your sights on increasing
your vertical 4 inches over the course of this
program you are making it too easy on yourself.
You will either slack off because you think you
are right on track or you will reach your goal too
early and endanger your chances of reaching
your potential. On the other hand don’t set
your goal as increasing your vertical 24” in 15
weeks. Plyometric training is a miraculous tool
but 24” in 15 weeks is just plain ridiculous.
Setting your goal too high will instill a false
hope in you as well as set you up for
disappointment when you don’t reach your
goal. No program in existence will give you
results like 24” in 15 weeks so don’t think this
program is sub par. A good goal to set for your
self is 12” in 15 weeks. This will put you in a
range where you will have to work for your
goals but will yield reinforcing results steadily
throughout your 15 week program.
The next mentality tool you will need is one
of imagination. Visualization is a process in
which you use your imagination to trick your
subconscious, the place where confidence is
based, into believing you have done something
repeatedly that you may have never actually
done. Visualization is something that takes
nearly no time at all and can be done lying in
bed before you fall asleep. Alright here’s the
Athletic Advantage visualization exercise:
1) Lying in bed close your eyes and
visualize a rim in front of you.
Imagine the feel of the floor and
everything around you.
2) Position yourself in front of the rim.
In your mind imagine a mark a
couple inches above where you think
you can touch.
3) Visualize yourself jumping up and
touching that mark. Visualize the
muscles in your whole body firing in
order quickly and your body rising to
that mark. Do it again 10 more time,
more vividly each time.
4) Remember the feeling of exhilaration
from doing this and say to yourself “I
did it” 10 times. Repeat steps 2 and
3 a few times.
Do this exercise every night before you fall
asleep attaching a number to the heights you
imagine jumping. This exercise has a parallel
with hypnosis and will help you boost your
confidence and motivation.
The last piece of positive mentality is
motivation. There are going to be times during
your training that you won’t feel like doing your
work out or you will feel lazy. These are the
times when having a source of motivation will
help you press on. Good examples of
motivation are basketball games, highlights,
dunking contests or athletes excelling at
anything you enjoy. Next time you are feeling a
little lazy or unmotivated pop in a tape of Vince
Carter highlights and imagine yourself doing
some of those same things in a few weeks.
You will find motivation to be your best friend
some days.
FOLLOWING YOUR PROGRESS
KEY IDEAS: Testing your vertical leap
weekly when fresh will allow you to track
your progress as well as give you
confirmation that this program is actually
working.
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During the course of this program you will
be testing and retesting your vertical leap to
track your progress. This will continually
reaffirm that you are making gains regularly in
your vertical leap. Every week on Monday after
the weekend of rest and before you do any
training, you will test your vertical leap. This
can be done more than one way. There are
vertical testing machines that you may have
access to in which you set to your reach height
and then you try to jump as high as you can
touching multicolored strips at certain heights.
If you do not have access to one of these, here
is a method that works very well. Stand in front
of a wall or backboard. Using masking tape,
make several small tape loops, about a half
inch long or so, so that you have a loop that is
sticky on all sides. Stick one loop to your
middle finger on the hand you will be reaching
with. First you need to make a mark at the
maximum height you can reach without
jumping. So reach up as far as you can
flatfooted and slap the wall sticking the tape
loop to the wall. Now take another tape loop
and stick it to that same finger. This time
without a step, jump as high as you can and
slap the wall again, depositing the tape at the
height of your jump. Do this three times.
Measure the distance between the lowest tape
mark and the highest tape mark. This is you
vertical leap.
INJURY
KEY IDEAS: Injury is always a possibility. If
you sustain an injury stop training
immediately and consult a physician.
There is a chance that during this program
you will sustain an injury of some sort.
Because I am not a doctor I will not give much
advice about injury except that if you think that
you have sustained one, stop the program
immediately and consult a physician. If you
develop pain in your muscles or bones after a
few weeks in this program, chances are you
are suffering from over use. This can be
alleviated by rest and icing. Don’t be worried
about stopping the program because you have
an injury. You will sustain far less damage to
your vertical leap by stopping and correctly
treating your injuries than by trying to train
through them and hurting yourself severely.
For the first week or so of each phase of this
program you will experience soreness. Proper
stretching and warming up before and
stretching and icing afterwards should take
care of it. If, however, you experience
continued soreness through the next few
weeks, stop immediately and consult a
physician.
Disclaimer: As with any training program,
this program incorporates repetitive
exercises that have the potential to cause
injury. Athletic Advantage and its creator
bear no responsibility for the condition
and health of the athlete(s) using this
program.
RESULTS
As in any sport or discipline the old saying
‘practice makes perfect’ rings truer than ever.
You must remember this. If you do and
practice what you preach you will reap the
benefits that you dream of achieving. If you
continue with this program and follow it to the
letter you can expect to be dunking over your
competition in no time. This program will have
you high flying above the rim giving you an
extra 8-14” on your vertical in 15 weeks. I have
no doubt in my mind that if you are still reading
this you have what it takes to put to use the
valuable resources you have in front of you and
inside you. You will be hands and shoulders
above the competition soon. Good bye and
good luck with your new and improved athletic
abilities.
LET’S GET STARTED
Now it’s time to start training. The next 15
weeks will be an intense series of muscular
break down and rebuilding. Make sure to drink
enough water and stay energized. Athletic
Advantage will teach your muscles how to jump
over the next 15 weeks. You will do so much
jumping that your body will reprogram what is
called neuromuscular memory. This is your
brains learned, almost subconscious memory of
how to jump. This program will get so intense
that there are two extended breaks in which
you will take a complete break from all training
incorporated in the program to encourage
muscle rebuilding and recuperation. (Weeks 7
and 12).
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Attention: Because of the extreme nature
of this program it is recommended that you be
at least 12 to 14 years of age before beginning.
HOW AND WHEN
Staying energized will require you to follow the
nutrition phase of this program closely and get
at least 8 hours of sleep. You will have best
results if you break your meals into 3 meals
and 2 snacks daily with plenty of water. Try to
train a couple hours after a good meal. This
will ensure enough energy to complete the
exercises each day.
When doing your weight training remember to
use weight that allows you to do only the
specified number of reps while at the same
time concentrating on speed of each rep.
Power Weight training is to be done twice a
week on Tuesdays and Thursdays except on
weeks 7 and 12 when you will not be lifting and
on weeks 14 and 15 when you will only be
lifting on Thursday. The lifts should be done in
the following order: Warm Up and Stretch,
Power Cleans, Step-Ups, Squats and Jump
Squats, Lunges, Hamstring Curls, Bench Press
and Bicep Curls, Shoulder Raises, Chin Ups
and Dips, Abs, Cool Down and Stretch skipping
over the lifts you don’t do in a particular week.
Plyometric training is to be done 3 times a week
on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays except
on weeks 7 and 12 when you will be resting.
During plyometric training you should take no
more than 2 minutes rest between sets for the
first 6 weeks and no more than 3 minutes rest
between sets for the last 9 weeks. The
exercises should be done in the following order:
Warm Up and Stretch, Single Leg Hops,
Lateral Jumps, Calf Raises, Rim Jumps, Skip
for Height, Step Jumps, Split Jumps, Ankle
Jumps, Bounding, Accelerations, Cool Down
and Stretch skipping over the exercises you
don’t do in a particular week. Single leg hops
are to be done only on Fridays of the weeks
they are assigned except during week 15 when
you will be doing them on Mondays as well.
Your workouts are outlined in this book, Athletic
Advantage The Complete Vertical Jump
Program, as well as on your separate Jump
Program Card. Follow the workouts exactly
and in 15 weeks you will be amazing everyone
with your insane dunking skills.
After you have completed this program you will MY VERTICAL LEAP IMPROVEMENT GOAL
want to retain your gains. You can do this by
doing the workouts for Week 8. Take a week During the next 15 weeks I intend to increase my
off before this as Weeks 13-15 are designed to vertical leap by ____ inches! My goals also
give your muscles maximum breakdown. If you include ________________
plan to do this program again it is
____________________
recommended that you wait several weeks.
This will allow your body to recuperate properly ____________________
for the next 15 weeks of intense jump training. ____________________
Congratulations on your new ups and good ____________________
luck! .

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