Chances are you have probably heard of the term Visualization but have never really understood it or known anybody to use it effectively. Visualization can be thought of as a secret weapon in your quest to jumping higher.

The problem with vertical jump training is you can only do so much. Your body needs to rest and recover and you should not be performing thousands of jumps a day because this would cause overtraining and possibly injury.

So, instead of repeating endless jump after jump on the basketball court 7 days a week for hours a time, you’re going to practice the technical aspects of your jump in your mind 4-5 times a week. Now don’t worry, it’s not going to take much if any time to do this and is really not part of the “program” so to speak just a bonus addition that will really help you out.

To understand how visualization works, realize that EMG studies show that the muscle activity when you think about something is exactly the same as when you actually do it. The main difference is that the amplitude of the EMG signals are lower with imagery then they are with the actual tasks. This means that with imagery your muscles are learning the same recruitment and firing patterns that you’ll need without the endless stress of jump after jump after jump like other vertical jump programs. Specifically, you are going to break down and repeat all of the different components of the movements it takes to dunk a basketball or to jump out of the gym. Don’t worry, you’ll still be practicing this on the court as well because research and experience tell us that the combination of mental imagery and actual practice has the best cost/benefit ratio. Performing endless jumps leads to overtraining but without practice you never get a chance to perform what you visualize. By combining the two, real life and imagery, you save wear and tear on the
joints and muscles and actually teach your mind and muscles to optimally work together. These are the core principles of Vert Shock training.

Want evidence that this works? Consider a study done on basketball players shooting foul shots. The study took one group of players and for 2 weeks had them practice shooting foul shots every single day. The 2nd group was not allowed to touch a basketball but instead, they were required to get together for 30 minutes everyday and
practice shooting foul shots in their mind. At the conclusion of the study both groups had their free throw percentage evaluated. The 2nd group, the group who hadn’t even touched a basketball but who had just gone through the shooting motions in their mind, actually did better then the first group at the end of the study!

This is the exact same stuff that the top athletes in the world use everyday – Kobe, Jordan, Durant etc.

Frequency - 4-5 times per week
Duration - 5-10 minutes or 30 repetitions of actually dunking

Directions – Find a quiet place where you can completely relax and be alone. Clear your mind. Take several deep breaths and create the surrounds in your head – the gym, the floor, the ball, the basket. Try and make the surroundings as vivid as possible by including senses like sight, feel, sound, smell. Really put yourself in the environment.

It is important that you complete the actions as if you were in real life. A lot of time people make the mistake of visualizing themselves as it they were on the outside looking in, like a movie. This is wrong. It’s paramount that you visualize as if you’re performing the movement in real life, in first person.

Initially, you may want to visualize in slow motion to get used to imagery, but you want to work up to real time imagery as fast as possible. As mentioned before, the EMG patterns are the same, so unless you plan to actually dunk a basketball in slow motion, you need to visualize in real time.