How to Jump Higher: The Joel Smith Jump Training Q and A

Based on Episode 89 of the Just Fly Performance Podcast, a listener Q&A with host Joel Smith.

If you want to know how to jump higher, Joel Smith’s answer is not a single magic drill. Smith, the host of the Just Fly Performance Podcast and a longtime strength and track coach, spent this listener Q&A working through the questions people actually ask about jumping: how to split the training week, how to free up stiff ankles, how many plyometrics is enough, and which strength numbers really carry over to the runway or the rim. The thread running through all of it is that the nervous system, not the sport, drives a bigger vertical.

Key Takeaways

• Train the nervous system, not the sport. The body only knows force, power, and joint physics, so a smart strength and plyometric base transfers to jumping without sport-specific gimmicks.
• Build a jumper’s split that potentiates. Smith pairs heavy lifting days with plyometric and sprint days so the weights prime the fast work, and he trains the nervous system far more often than the old hit-hard-then-rest model allowed.
• Stop static stretching your ankles. For more usable ankle mobility, use loaded calf holds and rocker jumps so the Achilles lengthens under tension instead of going slack.
• Cut plyometric volume as you age, keep the sprinting. After 30, the joints take the hit from plyo volume first; fast sprinting stays the closest thing to a fountain of youth.
• Chase usable strength, not max numbers. A double bodyweight squat, a 1.3 to 1.5 bodyweight power clean, and a 30-foot standing triple jump are solid jumper standards; strength beyond that rarely shows up in the jump.

How to jump higher: train the nervous system, not the sport

Asked for easy ways to build power for field sports, Smith pushed back on the whole idea of sport-specific power work. The body does not care what game you play.

The nervous system has no idea what sport you’re training for. It just knows force and power, and it knows joints and physics, and it knows sensation.

His practical menu is almost boring on purpose: basic weightlifting (trap bar deadlift, squat, a Bulgarian split squat, some Olympic movements), then simple power work (plyometrics and medicine ball throws), then learning to run and move with the joints instead of the stiff, square, front-to-back mechanics he says get coached into athletes. For a coach, the takeaway is to stop hunting for a tennis program or a basketball program and instead build force, power, and clean movement; buy-in aside, that is what raises the jump.

The best training split for jumpers

One listener described a Monday and Thursday legs day with running, jumping, and plyos on Tuesday and Friday. Smith likes that shape for a neurally driven jumper, because the lifting sets up the fast work that follows.

The weights will potentiate the plyometric work and the speed work the next day, and then you get a day off, and then you do it over again.

The bigger lesson is one he had to learn himself. He used to believe in hitting it brutally hard and then resting for days. Breaking that habit changed his training.

I can train neural four times a week, or I can even train neural six times a week, and be fine.

The catch is what you put on the leg days. Five sets of ten deep squats will fry the next day’s jumping and sprinting, which is the part that matters. Keep the lifting at an appropriate level and the split holds up. Smith adds that this is a Special Preparation Period tool for him, not a year-round prescription, and how often you deload (he ran two to three hard weeks, then a deload) depends on how you recover.

Plyometrics for a higher vertical: variety over a magic drill

On how much to vary jump training, Smith’s rule is that the plyometrics are support work, not the main event, so there is no single exercise to fixate on.

No plyometric is magic. You get so hung up on one thing, like you get really hung up on depth jumps. Depth jumps are great, but they’re also very demanding.

He keeps roughly two to four plyometric drills in a program at a time and rotates them on a three to eight week window, swapping when an athlete gets stale or sore. Locking onto one favorite, he warns, trains a narrow band of joint angles; depth jumps in particular lack the angular motion of a real running two-leg takeoff. His favorite source of built-in variety is dunk training, where every attempt loads the joints and fascia a little differently. The application: pick a few drills, push them with maximal intent, and treat them as auxiliary to sprinting and lifting rather than the program itself.

Ankle mobility exercises that help you jump, not the kind that hurt

For a stiff ankle limiting the vertical, Smith’s first instruction is what not to do.

Don’t statically stretch your ankles. It’s one of the worst things you could ever do.

His reasoning is the rubber-band one: a passively stretched Achilles adapts to being passive and loses elasticity. Instead he wants the tissue lengthened under load, with weighted calf holds at the bottom position followed by an explosive drive up, plus Chris Korfist style rocker jumps that load dorsiflexion ballistically with the hips kept neutral. He also borrows a diagnostic from a recent guest: decide whether the restriction is in the joint itself (a hard block you feel in the ankle bones) or upstream, because heavy anterior pelvic tilt can wreck a squat from the top down. The fix there is breathing drills to find a less extended position. For a coach, that means screening the cause before prescribing the same ankle work to everyone.

Knees over toes, fascia, and loaded stretching

Asked about aggressive knees-over-toes split squats and decline squats popularized by ATG coaches, Smith was enthusiastic, and he framed the benefit through the fascia rather than the muscle.

A lot of injuries, or even pain, is actually found in the fascia and fascial trains, way more than you would think. Pain is not in the muscle. Pain is in the fascia.

Full range, loaded work, he argues, gives the fascia extensibility and strength in that lengthened position, almost like loaded stretching that pulls a criss-crossed collagen matrix back into line. He calls the rigid 90-degree, knees-behind-toes dogma one of the worst habits in strength and conditioning and track and field. The practical guardrail is progression: get into the uncomfortable ranges, but load them gradually rather than going zero to a hundred in a day. Smith says he gets the same effect from Jay Schroeder style extreme isometric holds, so coaches can pick the tool that fits their athletes.

How to keep jumping after 30

For a trained 30-plus team-sport athlete, Smith’s main adjustment is volume. Plyometrics take the first cut because joints, tendons, and fascia are what wear down, but he refuses to give up speed.

It is the fountain of youth, moving as fast as humanly possible, so I think sprinting is awesome. If you can spike up, get out on a track and just let it rip, that’s where it’s at, whether you’re 20, 30, or 40.

He warns against the older-athlete trap of compensating for lost speed by chasing heavier and heavier lifts. Drifting away from jumping and sprinting, even while lifting diligently, costs coordination, tendon stiffness, and swing-leg mechanics fast. The advice is to keep a minimal but maximal-intent dose of plyometrics, keep sprinting, and bring real emotion and competition to the fast work so it stays sharp.

Strength standards: the KPIs Smith looks for in jumpers

On the numbers that matter for track-and-field jumpers, Smith gave concrete targets and an honest ceiling on how far strength helps.

Usually you’re looking at a double body weight squat or better, but once you get beyond 2.1, 2.2, I don’t think a lot of that strength is really terribly usable.

He puts a useful power clean at about 1.3 to 1.5 times bodyweight, again with diminishing returns if chasing the number costs foot torque or adds dead muscle. His simplest field test needs no barbell at all.

I think doing a standing triple jump over 30 feet’s good for anybody. If you can do that, that’s solid.

Elite track jumpers, he notes, often clear 33 to 35 feet on the standing triple jump. For a pure force jumper or dunker, squat and trap bar deadlift max carry more weight as KPIs; for an elastic jumper, the squat matters less than how well the joints work. The application is to test the standards, then stop grinding for strength once an athlete is past the usable range.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best exercises to jump higher?
Smith keeps it simple: basic strength work like the trap bar deadlift, squat, Bulgarian split squat, and Olympic lifts, paired with plyometrics, medicine ball throws, and maximal-intent sprinting. He treats the plyometrics as support work and rotates two to four drills rather than chasing one magic exercise.

How do you improve ankle mobility for jumping?
Avoid static stretching, which lets the Achilles go slack. Smith prefers loaded calf holds at the bottom position with an explosive drive up, plus rocker jumps that load dorsiflexion ballistically. First check whether the restriction is in the joint itself or driven upstream by pelvic posture.

How often should you do plyometrics?
There is no fixed number; Smith keeps about two to four plyometric drills in a program at once and rotates them over a three to eight week window. As an athlete ages, he cuts plyometric volume first while keeping the sprinting.

What muscles make you jump higher?
Smith stresses the two-joint (biarticular) muscles that transport energy between the hip and shin, not isolated single-joint work. Training like a bodybuilder with leg extensions and curls, he warns, can turn those muscles monoarticular and cost you jumping coordination.

Does steady-state cardio help your vertical jump?
Slow, steady road running does little for jumpers and can dull the fast system. Smith does endorse short, hard, variable trail runs, where the foot inverts and everts over rough ground, as frontal-plane and fascial training, as long as it does not replace the real power work.

About the author

Joel Smith is the host of the Just Fly Performance Podcast and the founder of Just Fly Sports, a former collegiate strength and track and field coach who focuses on speed, power, and jumping. Listen to the full Episode 89 Q&A on Just Fly Sports.