How to improve my vert jump and arm muscles

[tri-angles]

Hi i was wondering if any of you have insight on how to improve my vert jump and how to help develop my arm muscles.

Im 14 turning 15 in a couple of months and im 5"11. my vert jump atm is approx 21 inches. I also want to improve my arm muscles because i can never get the power to hit hard enough in volleyball, i struggle to do more than 2 chinups and i only weigh about 60kg.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

[volleyballstud]

Majority of your power for your hits will come from your wrists, triceps, abdominals, and shoulders... but you want to make sure that you have proper muscle balance or injuries will most likely occur, so I suggest working on your biceps and lower back as well.

As for increasing vertical, I worked on squats and leg presses. When doing those exercises, I simulated exploding the jump... so with the weights I would push fast, then slowly bring the weight back down to do the next rep. I also did plyometric type exercises. Platform jumping ( I used the step aerobic platforms at my gym... be careful not to stack them too high or they'll fall over if you hit them at the wrong angle. ), jump rope, jumping in place with extra weight.

I found that if I want to improve any aspect of the game, the best thing to do was simulate the movement and break it down. For example: when you spike a volleyball, generally you tighten your stomach before you swing at the ball. Therefore I break it down like this...

Bring arm up and back - shoulder shrugs and arm raises
Tighten stomach - crunches
Swing arm - overhead pulldowns ( 1 and 2 handed )
Follow thru - Tricep pushdowns
Snap - wrist curls and reverse wrist curls

There's obviously more exercises that you can do. Those are just some quick examples that helped me out in the past.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by tri-angles

Hi i was wondering if any of you have insight on how to improve my vert jump and how to help develop my arm muscles.

Im 14 turning 15 in a couple of months and im 5"11. my vert jump atm is approx 21 inches. I also want to improve my arm muscles because i can never get the power to hit hard enough in volleyball, i struggle to do more than 2 chinups and i only weigh about 60kg.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

For vertical jump, I will definitely recommend plyometric exercises. Have you ever heard of 'Jump Soles'? That is what my team used in high school to improve verticals. They also have this Proprioceptor system, which helps you with reduce injuries, increase speed, etc.
JUMPSOLES boost your Vertical Jump and Vertical Leap

As for arms, just regular workouts should suffice. arm curls, targeting the major arm muscle groups.

Hope this helps!


EDIT
--
Also, i feel compelled to add that 'how hard you hit a ball' doesn't have too much to do with your actual muscle mass. Most of it comes from proper technique, approach, etc. Simulate what volleyballstud suggested. This is why you see short thin girls hitting like crazy. It's 90% technique. After you get it down, and you STILL have 'soft hitting' issues, then maybe it'll help to bulk up a bit.

[BHitterDPasser]

To expand on this, a volleyball weighs 9-10 oz which is considerably less than what your arm weighs. You do not need to be strong to hit it "hard." You need to be fast. Proper technique and repitition of that technique will help.

Originally Posted by tri-angles

Hi i was wondering if any of you have insight on how to improve my vert jump and how to help develop my arm muscles.

Im 14 turning 15 in a couple of months and im 5"11. my vert jump atm is approx 21 inches. I also want to improve my arm muscles because i can never get the power to hit hard enough in volleyball, i struggle to do more than 2 chinups and i only weigh about 60kg.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

Plyometrics and weight training! start out with the symple stuff, like push ups, and pull ups every morning, then as you get stronger move on to some weights. then throw in some symple plyometrics every 2 days. Heres a simple plyo metric workout you can try Vertical Jump Workout
Hope that can help!

[NewEnglandRT]

Here's a great page from a coach that I've worked with. It covers everything from technique to strength training.

TW's Volleyball Files

[BHitterDPasser]

Originally Posted by dballer

Plyometrics and weight training! start out with the symple stuff, like push ups, and pull ups every morning, then

I would never do resistance training on consecutive days.