Vertical Jump Movement Analysis The vertical jump is a body movement that is commonly associated with sports persons especially in specialized sporting areas like basketball and volleyball. The success of any sports man in these games is largely attributed to ability to do vertical jump effectively. The vertical jump has been utilized in the past to study and follow up on jumping ability trough a strength and condition program. Irrespective of the prevalent use of the vertical jump, many writers or personnel have not demonstrated a well understood mechanics of this movement. However some of the information provided such as the kinesiological analysis has become useful in this area.

A look at the anatomy of the lower extremity reveals special muscles that aide in this process. It helps the movement of the legs. Several of the muscles of the lower extremity go over more than one joint in the legs. Rectus femoris is one of the important muscles. Others include gastrocnemius, semimembranosus, semitendinosus and the long head of biceps femoris (all these three always consists as unitary muscles).

Another bunch of muscles that help in this process is found around the hip next to the proximal joints. Near the knee and the ankle has a few of muscles. The muscles around the hip are quite huge in number for the sole purpose of supporting the enormous mass of the body. This kind of muscles arrangement is very important by providing more power to the distal joints during the vertical jump.

The point of start for this jump begins with the vertical takeoff from the ground. The hip joint gets extended after which the knee and the ankle joints follow suit. Once the fest loses contact with the ground, the extensions stops. What follows after...

The activities in the muscles are largely eccentric in this stage. Gravity plays a vital role during this movement as it gives the person involved in the jump the driving force. This will be demonstrated in the photos below.
The two joint muscles play a very important role as they redistribute mechanical energy generated by the concentric movement of the one joint muscle. This enhances the optimal performance of the leg extension movement. There is a huge amount of power generated at the ankles during the maximal effort vertical jump. Although this kind of energy can be given the reason of the maximal jump, significant amount of energy present at the ankle is transferred there from the hip and knew by the two joint muscles. The vertical jump height is also enhanced by the presence of the two joints gastrocnemius.

During several of lower body movements the muscles in action such as the rectus femoris act to flex the hip and extend the knee. If the femoris is put into action it tends to take up the two roles at the same time. In a situation of taking off from the ground, the hip and the knee are all extending simultaneously. This causes some kind of straining action of the femoris as it tends to lengthen towards its end and also shortening at the other. The results effect is that the total length of the two joint muscles may not change substantially. As a result of the velocity and force applied on the muscles the two joint muscles exert high force at the point of contraction. It’s important to note that despite the force generated by these muscles; very little movement is experienced at the joints because of the minimal…