First off, I know that people train for reactive ability. However, people say that 1 foot jumpers use reactive ability to get up, and that you can not improve your 1 foot jumping because it all depends on your body structure.
So what does reactive training really do? Again, this could lead into more questions so thank you to those who answer this and continue to answer the following questions after this one.
Having read Thibs stuff in his strength and conditioning methods book I think it is as follows.
Reactive training teaches the body to switch more quickly from eccentric to concentric muscle action to utilise as much of the stretch reflex as possible, maximising the level of force you are able to apply against resistance.
If you’re going to give it a go I think the aim is to switch as quicky as possible from the eccentric to concentric phases of exercises (less than 2 seconds as the kinetic energy stored from the eccentric action is lost) and keeping the bar moving as quickly as possible under control. Use low % of 1 RM for weighted exercises but stuff like box jumps, clap push ups, depth jumps followed by bounding etc. are good ones.
Other people please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!
good luck.
you can increase your one legged jump. It’s just that the correlation between leg strength and height is weaker than the correlation between leg strenght and height in 2 foot jumping.
Reactive training is kind of like training a skill. Some look at it as switching from the eccentric to the concentric very quickly, I don’t know if thats the exact answer although similar.
My personal belief is that it uses the stretch reflex, which is SLIGHTLY different. So when your doing reactive training, you are training your body to maximize this stretch reflex. Sort of how you go from learning the technique of swinging a bat to the point where its automatic and you don’t think about it.