ESPN’s Kenny Roda Interviews Jacob Hiller On How To Increase Your Vertical

Kenny Roda: I’ve always been curious, because I always wanted to dunk when I was in high school. I’m 5 11. I used to be able to dunk a volleyball when I was a senior in high school. And only one time in my life have I ever dunked a basketball in a game situation, and it was because it was a shot that was rimming out; it was probably offensive goal tending but it was a tip dunk where I tipped it back in and it kind of looked like a dunk. I call it it a dunk, makes me feel good. I’ve always wanted to be able to dunk and it’s never going to happen unless it’s on an eight foot hoop like we do at the special slam dunk contests out at Northfield Park.

But I was on the internet the other day and I’d seen all these kind of ads for “increase your vertical jump” this many inches. You can have a 35-40 inch vertical jump and I’ve often wondered, do these things really work. What’s the secret behind it, or how does someone get involved with that. So I figured I’d send an email out to one of the guys that has a routine or has a schedule for you to follow and drills for you to do that would improve your vertical jump and sure enough Jacob Hiller responded to me and so we set up an interview for you tonight to discuss with them his program if you will about being able to make you jump higher and be able to throw it down in hoops or spike it in volleyball or whatever your sport is.

Jacob how are you today?

Jacob Hiller: Pretty good, how are you doing Kenny?

KR: I’m real good, thanks for taking the time and the official title is performance enhancement coach and certified personal trainer, Jacob how long have you been doing this?

JH: Ten years, probably about ten years.

KR: About ten years. And why, what got you into this, trying to improve your athletic ability and wanting to help others do the same?

JH: I was just like any other kid at the time. I wanted to, like you, to dunk, to get faster, quicker, and I wanted to dominate my sport as well as I could. So I started to look for any ways that I could to get an advantage and hit the regular road blocks as anyone else did.

KR: So when you hit the road blocks and you weren’t getting results what things did you try and what did you eventually come up with?

JH: I tried programs like Air Alert or the strength shoes. My high school and college coaches gave me routines to do, and I did results from them, but it was nothing to write home about, and nothing that got me excited. It wasn’t until I started reading a lot research that was done and had my personal training formation and really started thinking about how to apply great amounts of strength in short amount of time, that I really formulated what kind of training needs to take place to really become explosive, and not simply able to jump at a certain height for a certain amount of time, if that makes sense.

KR: All right, so when you finally figured this out, how long did it take for you to before you got results and you said, I’m on to something here?

JH: Well, when I figured this out, I was actually on a service trip and so I couldn’t do a lot of training. So I was just training some kids that were in the neighborhood and they started putting on a few inches really quickly, in less than a month, and so I knew that as soon as I got home I was going to put my time into this. And a year later I got home and I put about three months in. And in that three months I had gained over ten inches on my vertical

KR: Ten inches?

JH: I gained over ten inches in my vertical. Now keep in mind that I had been out of training for about two years so …

KR: Okay.

JH: Some of that was muscle memory coming back so I had the advantage there but still I was able to jump far beyond I had ever done before. Soon I was doing all my dream dunks. You know, jumped a foot over the free throw line and dunked. I was getting my head to the rim, and doing all sorts of fun stuff. That’s when everything got rolling on training others to do the same thing.

KR: And that’s when you’ve come up with The Jump Manual, and there are testimonials on the website. The website for people out there who want to check it out is what Jacob?

JH: jumpmanual.com

KR: It’s real simple, www.jumpmanual.com, and you can go see what we’re talking about.

How did you get word out? How did people become aware of this and start getting involved in purchasing it, what you’re doing and all that. How did this start becoming something that a lot of people became interested in?

JH: I was just training some local kids and there was a local buzz that started. I knew that I had to put a book out there because so many people were asking me: How can I get my vertical jump, and how can I get quicker and stronger. And you know after a game you only have 15 minutes to explain to somebody, so I knew I had to get a book out there. I published the book as quickly as I could on this platform. It was free at the time, I just gave it away free, to see what the reaction was. Testimonials started rolling in, and I knew I had something exciting to give, but I didn’t know how to make a website, I didn’t know how to do all that stuff so as soon as we got all that created, testimonials started to come in every week, and they still are coming in, and ever since then it’s blown up and it’s kind of gotten out of my hands, it’s really exciting.

KR: So Jacob, I’m not going to ask you to increase mine, because I’m 45, my days of that dream of dunking are over now, I’ll blow out my Achilles or an ankle or knees or something like that, so I’m dunking doughnuts now. That’s about it. But for kids out there. I mean, can you take the average player, or even the above average player, and even if they jump pretty well right now, can your program increase their vertical jump?

JH: Yeah, it definitely can. You’d be surprised at how many people 40 to 50 years old are still gaining a significant amount on their vertical. I’ve even had a 50 year old that got back to dunking. And I have his testimonial on the site.

KR: Really?

JH: You wouldn’t believe–What’s funny is I get kids that are 23 years old and they email me and say, “Am I too old to gain on my vertical? I’m 23″ or “I’m 25″ and so it’s pretty ridiculous. But everybody can gain increases on their vertical. As long as your joints are in good condition, injury is the only thing you need to be aware of, but you can make some serious gains.

KR: All right, now without giving away everything obviously, a little bit of it, give us an idea of what takes place to help these guys, and I’m guessing girls too, to increase their vertical?

JH: Well I think one of the first things athletes need to think about is that training to be an explosive athlete is counterintuitive. Because most athletes go out there and they run stairs for hours or they do drills for hours and afterwards they’re so tired and they’re covered in sweat and they think to themselves you know what, I have to have made some gains during that workout because it was killer. But really you need to focusing on the maximum amount of explosion during your workout as possible. It’s definitely quality over quantity. That’s probably the biggest thing is that kids need to do is more high intensity and less repetitive. What they’re doing is they’re training to jump at a certain height which is not their maximum height more at a repetitive nature. So they’re training more like an endurance athlete than they are an explosive athlete.

KR: So there are drills I’m guessing in your manual that help with the quality over quantity, the more explosive stuff to create the muscle memory and increase the vertical.

JH: Right, and no matter how many times you drill that into an athlete they always think that they can do more, and what they end up doing is putting more repetitions which undermines the intensity of each repetition.

If you run the 100 meter, you’re not going to train by running the 800 meter or the mile, because it’s going to train your muscles to do a different type of activity, just as a maximum effort vertical jump is a completely different thing than a sub-maximal vertical jump. So kids are training at a lower level and are just able to this a greater number of times.

KR: Jacob somebody told me–you mentioned explosiveness before– that Beau Jackson maybe was one of the most explosive athletes ever. Fastest, could jump through the roof and everything. HIs explosiveness was off the charts. Because of the amount of I guess, the pressure, or torque, whatever the correct term is, that you put into the ground, you’re supposed to get that back up out of the ground as you’re running or jumping. Is that accurate?

JH: Right, that’s the physics of the vertical jump. You put pressure into the ground and that forces return through your legs. So the more amount of force that you can place through the ground in a minimum amount of time is going to determine how explosive the movement is. You see strong people out there, and they can squat a thousand pounds, but how quickly they do that/ the person who has the best combination of strength and the ability to produce that strength in a short amount of time, that’s going to be an explosive athlete.

KR: So your program, Jacob, is it one dimensional, is it multi dimensional? Give us an idea the way you go about approaching this to have players increasing the vertical

JH: I like to take a multifaceted approach, because you’d be surprised at how many different ways there are to gain an advantage on your vertical. First of all, increasing form alone, can put 2 to 6 inches on your vertical jump.

KR: When you say form, what exactly do you mean by form? I don’t think of a form when I jump, to be honest with you, Jacob, and played in high school and a couple years in college, division 3, wasn’t real good, but played in that, but jump, go get the ball, jump. What do you mean by form?

JH: Well think about this, are you a left footed jumper or a right footed jumper?

KR: I would jump higher off my left foot.

JH: And if you tried to jump off your right foot you probably couldn’t get near as high.

KR: Exactly.

JH: But your right foot was probably just as strong as your left foot.

KR: Okay.

JH: But what’s going on is your ability to use the strength that you have is inhibited because you don’t have proper form. Form is not only how you jump but how your body is able to use the strength it already has. You see, the more you do a certain activity the correct way, the more your body knows how to use the power and strength it already has during that movement. So some people are better jumpers than others, but almost everyone I know can increase their vertical at least two inches just from their form, whether it’s their two foot or their one foot form, and practicing that in the right way. And that’s just one facet.

KR: Interesting.

JH: You need to work on your strength for sure. A lot of programs are out there telling people that they can get the maximum out of their vertical jump just by training their quickness or plyometric ability. And that’s not true: you need to have a strength program and you need to focus on your strength. The stronger your legs are, the lighter your body’s going to feel. And the more power you’re going to be able to output.

KR: And core strength is important too, is it not?

JH: Yeah, core strength is very important. Because like you said, when you put force through the ground, that force is going to be returned through your body. And if you’re not able to stabilize that force that is transferred back through your body, you’re going to lose some of that power because you just don’t have the ability to handle it.

KR: All right, so for people out there who are listening to this that have kids that are coming up in high school or kids that are in college and they want to improve their game so that they can get more playing time at the collegiate level, how can they get involved with and get in touch with you and get The Jump Manual, what’s the way to go about doing that?

JH: The best place is to go to the website, www.jumpmanual.com. I have a contact form that you can fill out to get in contact with me. I usually return emails within 24-48 hours I get back to everyone who emails me still but the load’s getting pretty great.

KR: That’s a good problem to have, though, isn’t it Jacob?

JH: Yeah, it’s better than the opposite.

KR: And he will get back to you that quickly; he did with me as we tried to set up that interview. And basically they’re going to get a manual which gives them the program to follow. Right, Jacob?

JH: Yeah, they’ll get the program, and I also do have a coaching program where people have access to me, because you know, no matter how big the book is, people are going to have questions that are very specific to their situation. And I think that it’s important for any athlete to have complete confidence in the program. In order to have that, you need to have access to someone who can give you the answers you need.

KR: So you purchase this, not only do you get the manual, you kind of get a personal trainer to go with it.

JH: Yeah, it’s 30 days for free. That way you can get any initial questions asked. But a lot of people will go beyond that. Right now it’s kind of embarrassingly low for the monthly, but I do want to help as many athletes as I can.

KR: All right again, it’s www.jumpmanual.com, if you want to increase your vertical. I wish I knew you when I was in high school. I might have been able to dunk more than a volleyball, Jacob.

JH: You can still get it, I think you can still get it Kenny.

KR: I don’t know about that, man, we’ll have to talk off the air. And if we do, that might be the greatest testimonial you would be able to put on on your website if you get me dunking a basketball, Jacob.

JH: I’d love that.

KR: Well, I’ll be touch with you. Thanks for coming on again. Jacob Hiller is our guest. The website is www.jumpmanual.com and you can get in touch with him through the website.

Category: increase-vertical-jump-interviews
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