Started by NoHiddenCosts, June 10, 2014 · 10 Replies · 10,989 Views
It is known that only two people who have come to work with Coach Sommer have ever out-jumped Coach's athletes... I'm curious if any basketball players have ever come to his workshops, seminars, etc, to test their verticals against Coach's athletes. I'm wonder how a good basketball player (or at least one who is good at dunking) would compare to a good gymnast!
Does anyone know?
I thought the topic said 'ballet' when I first read it. 
But that would be an interesting comparison as well.
thecolin said:I thought the topic said 'ballet' when I first read it.
Same here, haha. But yeah, I'm interested in both comparison and hope Coach will give us an answer.
the average vert in NBA is only around 28inches. best vert at draft combine was 38/36.5/32inches only (2012/11/10).
i guess footballers, especially lighter running backs and wide receivers own most basketballers when it comes to vertical jumps.
DieKatze said:
i guess footballers, especially lighter running backs and wide receivers own most basketballers when it comes to vertical jumps.
But can they do the splits in mid air when they do it? 
The last time I asked about this I got flamed. I said that the statement "my athletes have jumped higher than all seminar attendees except 2", whilst perhaps true, is not worth bragging about / making noteworthy IF the athletes who are actually renowned for their jumping ability aren't typically the type of athletes who would attend such a seminar in the first place (which another poster confirmed is generally the case).
On the other hand, if the statement was "my athletes are stronger and more developed as a whole on the rings than all seminar attendees", then not only is that worth making noteworthy, but is also a meaningful statement by context of the situation, since the people attending are people who are training for rings strength, and so would put up a good challenge and hence make a valid comparison between methods of training.
Anyway, back to topic. NBA players generally have poor vertical jumps when compared with NFL players. IIRC, the average standing vert in the NBA combine is only 28", whereas in the NFL it is 38", and usually it is the case that these NFL guys are 200+ lb.
I've only heard coach talking about box jumps, and not specifying the ground/floor used in the tests (I have seen parkour/gym guys in gymnasiums trying to jump iover high objects on the bouncy floor, which if you ask me defeats the purpose). It is also important to note that in a box jump, especially if you have high levels of flexibility (which would be the case for a gymnast), you can gain a lot of height by getting under youself, thus making it an inaccurate measure of how you can really jump. For this reason people can have impressive box jumps e.g almost as high as their head, but still have a bad vertical jump on the grand scheme of things.
For reasons above, I too would be intersted in standing/vertical jump test results under the same conditions as that of an NBA/NFL combine.
Some volleyballers jump pretty high.
Highest I got playing college volleyball was 37". Leonel Marshall who plays for Cuba has 50". Priddy who played on Olympic team was 42". Taylor Sander for BYU official is 42-43" probably higher during the game. Lot's of high flyers in volleyball, but coaches/recruiters are more interested in approach vertical touch, meaning how high can you hit the ball, 10'8" - 11'6" for NCAA Division 1.
I've seen a few charts around the internet comparing the vertical jumps of athletes in several different sports, but never have come across any collected data on high-level gymnasts. I would be interested to see that, as well as vertical jump stats for olympic weightlifters.
Basketball players can jump pretty high, I don't think that 26" average is accurate anymore especially with how much more athletic the game is today. Michael Jordan had a 44" vert and the highest recorded is 46" by DJ Stephans at the draft combine.
When gymnasts dismount rings and stuff they have to provide a lot of upwards force otherwise they'll crumple on the ground. Additionally, all the blocking they do on floor means they have to have strong legs to provide the force for the rebound. It's expected for them to have good vertical jump (aka rebound capabilities).
I'm quite interested in how far they can jump, though I doubt it would be that great nor do I think they even care about their long jump anyway.
Like most discussions of this sort, it'll probably depend on the gymnast and on the basketballer, on the time you are doing the measurement and on the way you are doing the measurement.