Stop The Box Jump Stupidity
Here’s my second repost of the same blog. Obviously not seen by enough coaches yet!
The top box in the stack is either a 36 or 42 inch plyo box.
If you have one, please put it away. In fact, unless you are training some great athletes, put your 30 inch box away too. I have dubbed the big plyo boxes “Idiot Boxes”. Idiot boxes are jumped on by young men ( it is always young men) looking to show off. I have begun to refer to them as “skin donors”. I can tell you something for sure. If CSI showed up and dusted the high plyo boxes for DNA most of these boxes would test positive. There was a time when my athletes and I were foolish just like everyone else and did these foolish exercises. After coaching a few “skin donors” I realized that what mattered was the movement of the center of mass, not the height of the box. I no longer own a 36” box but, own lots of 18’s, 24’s and a few 30’s.
Our rule is simple. Jimmy Radcliffe said it best; “jump and land from the same position”. This means that take off and landing should look identical. If you jump from a ½ squat, land in a half squat.
I could post a few videos but, don’t want to get sued. Just Youtube “box jumps” if you want to see foolishness in action.
And please, don’t stack up a bunch of stuff to jump on. That’s even dumber. I just saw an article with a multi-million dollar athlete jumping on a collection of boxes and plates. Try to explain that during your deposition.
Remember, jump and land from the same position.
Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog 
December 17, 2015 at 8:43 am
[…] renowned Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Boyle talked about it >> HERE in an article appropriately named “Stop the box jump stupidity” – ah Mike, so […]
December 11, 2015 at 11:14 am
so true… but it’s worth to consider 30″ or 36″ for depth jumps.
December 11, 2015 at 9:22 am
Foolishness indeed. There’s no reason you can’t “think” about jumping as high as you can, whether that box is 48″ or 24″. I like the tip about jumping and landing in the same position. It’s a key many coaches miss, and they don’t account for that when their athletes hit a 44″ “jump”. Last I checked, that was NBA elite.