When it comes to vertical jump improvement I love squats, deadlifts, kettlebell swings, box jumps, power skipping, the 123 drill, and many more. But, if you want to get the best bang for your training buck there is one exercise that you should be doing before all of these.

This particular exercise improves just about all the required athletic attributes for jumping high, and is head and shoulders above everything else at improving movement efficiency. On top of that it is also extremely sports specific which is great if you are trying to jump higher to help perfom better in your chosen sport.

So what is this magnificent vertical jump exercise that trumps all others? The very best vertical jump exercise ever is, drum roll please, practicing jumping. Surprised? Well, don’t be. It really is that simple. As is the case with most things, the best way to improve at something is to actually go out and do it.

If you are training to jump for a particular sporting application then one of the best things you can do is to go and practice jumping as you would for that sport. Volleyball spiking is a great example. You need to time the jump as well as co-ordinate yourself to hit the ball with a lot of force, all while in the air. This isn’t as simple as just jumping up straight and down in the air. In the beginning you will struggle to move everything at the right time and with the right power to achieve your jumping goals with much efficiency, but in no time you will start to see noticeable improvements.

Oddly, as clear cut as it might seem that actually doing some sports specific jumping practice, very few vertical jump programs actually include it at all. It is pure marketing that these programs don’t advise athletes to go and do more of this. They would like people to believe that they need some magical arrangement of exercises to see results.

Practicing your jumping technique will help you jump higher in a variety of ways. First and foremost though it will improve your movement efficiency! This is not to be underestimated. Poor jumping motion really drags you down (sorry about the pun) when you are trying to max out your vertical. Poor efficiency means you cannot fire your muscles in the correct order to create a smooth and powerful jumping motion.

Maximum effort sports specific jumping also increases your rate of force development and reactive strength in a manner that you can actually use. Box squats, power cleans etc also develop these strengths, but jumping itself is obviously going to help you improve these traits for jumping better than every other exercise you can do.

In essence any athletic training you undertake is designed to force your body to adapt. So if strength is your goal you need to continuously lift heavier weights. This sends the signals to your body that in order to survive it will need to develop greater strength. Increasing your vertical jump is exactly the same. Having a big vertical jump is a direct result of you telling your body that this is what it is required to do. The more regularly you send this message to the muscles and CNS, the quicker it will adapt and respond.

Just about the only thing jumping doesn’t do that well is to increase your maximal strength levels. Lifting weights is a far better way to achieve this. Getting stronger can be very important (and beneficial) if this is your weakness. But unless you have sufficiently developed your movement efficiency first, any strength gains will not necessarily carry over to an increase in jump height that well.

If your vertical jump program is full of fancy exercises and drills, but your results aren’t improving, amybe it is time to take a simpler approach and go out and work on jumping in the way you will need it. A lot of athletes don’t do any of this type of jumping practice and they are often leaving the easiest gains they will get on the table. Don’t make the same mistake.