The Horacio Anselmi method is an organization of plyometric training different from that proposed in the numerous programs on the market on improving vertical jump and that works more aspects of reactive strength, in addition to vertical jump itself. In addition, your program contains a much lower volume of work, something that your legs will undoubtedly thank you for. If someone wants to test what I mean, they just have to do the complete Air Alert 3 program.
Horacio Anselmi is an Argentine physical trainer, who has worked with elite athletes: judokas, tennis players and above all, soccer players. I recommend any of your books published in the Spanish language.
Particularities of the Anselmi method
- Short work sessions.
- Funny.
- Distributed in levels, according to the qualification of the athlete.
- Clear goals before moving to the next level.
- Strengthens joint structures (ankle and knee) at various working angles.
- It incorporates a coordinative work in each session.
Reactive force in different positions of the body
Let’s stop for a bit at this point, which can lead to confusion. We try to be reactive not only in jumps with the knees almost extended, but in any other position that can occur on the field of play, even in changes of direction, incorporating a lateralization component in his method.
Reactive force evaluation
First of all, emphasize that reactive strength is trainable, and therefore can be improved. To do this, we will have to carry out a series of initial evaluations, which will serve to know the level of the athlete, and how he should train.
These tests were developed by Carmelo Bosco .
On a professional level, these jumps are measured with jumping platforms that are quite expensive. This platform records the flight time , and the contact time . Using these 2 values, the height of the jump is obtained with the formula: h = g / 2 x (t flight / 2) x (t flight / 2) , where g is the acceleration of the weight (9.81). It is necessary that the center of gravity is at the same height at the time of take-off and landing, which requires the athlete to land in the same position as take-off.
We have other ways to calculate jump height, although they are not as accurate. For example, jumping parallel to a wall and marking the height reached with the extended arm with a chalk, and comparing it with the mark made without jumping, also with the raised arm. Although with this method we will not know the flight time or the contact time. For those iPhone users (I do not know if there are similar applications for Android), there is the My jump application, which in addition to measuring the vertical jump, measures the flight time . Personally I have used it sometime, and it is very good.
Jumping tests to perform
Although there are more tests, we are basically interested in the squat jump (SJ), the c ounter movement jump (CMJ), and the drop jump (DJ). In all the tests, the hands are placed on the hips, to avoid the participation of the arms in the jump.
Squat jump (SJ)
It consists of jumping as high as possible with the hands on the hips and starting in position with the knees bent at approximately 90º. This test measures the quality of the “non-plyometric” vertical jump and the ability to develop strength in a very short time ( fast force ). It informs us about the force with which the athlete pushes the ground. This value can be improved with resistance training.
Counter movement jump (CMJ)
It is a countermovement jump, since it allows the athlete to flex the legs (remember that the hands remain on the hips during the jump) before taking off upwards through the triple extension of the ankles, knees and hips.
This jump is the one related to the reactive force . The muscle stretching-shortening cycle comes into play, and an eccentric phase appears that precedes the jump (concentric phase). Due to the added prior inertia and leveraging of the myotatic reflex, the CMJ will be greater than the previous squat jump. It can be 20% greater than the SJ . If so, we can say that the athlete has a high level of reactive strength.
Drop jump (DJ)
It is a jump made immediately after falling from a box, bench or any other element. It is the method used to calculate the optimal fall height , which is the one that will give us the optimal contact time . We are interested in minimum contact times with the ground . When this test is carried out with a contact platform, the athlete is thrown from various heights, until obtaining the one in which the shortest contact time is recorded, and which will be the one that will later be used in plyometric training as we will see later. . To give us an idea, while this height for athletes with a low plyometric level is 25-30 cm , in elite high jumpers, they launch from heights of 100-110 cm. Trained people are able to get 10% -25% higher drop jump marks than squat jump. In the following video you can see the evaluation process, with various jump heights used.
This process can also be done with a box attached to a wall, letting yourself fall from it, and immediately jumping up. As long as the height of the jump is greater than the height of the box, we will continue to increase the height of the box to find a new optimal drop height. When the height of the jump is less than that of the box, we reduce the height of the box, until we find by trial and error, the optimal drop height . This method was used by the great Verkhoshansky in his day. Anselmi also proposes as an evaluation alternative, jumping on a box, and being able to land on it with legs extended . By the time we have to flex them, the height of the box is excessive. It should be noted that Verkhoshansky (triple jump jumper trainer in the former Soviet Union several decades ago) proposed this method to obtain the height of the fall when practicing drop jumps , but that it is also valid as an approach for box jumps, as used by Anselmi in your method of obtaining the optimal drop height.
Regarding the optimal height of fall that we have commented that you can walk between 25-30 cm, it improves with weight training (squats basically) and with reactivity training.
Multi-jump test
It is the least important test of those mentioned, but it gives us some extra information, such as the resistance to jumps that the athlete has. That is, how many jumps in a row the athlete can chain, without losing quality in jump height or contact time. Normally it will be 8-1o consecutive jumps that the athlete can perform without losing quality. That is why in the series of jumps 10 repetitions are used per series.
Once the tests have been carried out, we are in a position to know the level of the athlete, and what phase of training of the Anselmi methodology (level 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4) should begin. But we will see this in a 2nd part.
Sources :
- Updates on Power training , Horacio Anselmi
- Manual of Plyometry , Gilles Cometti
