This is my response to my first review

by Gian A.
(long beach, CA)

TVP doesn't require you to squat relatively huge amount of weight and that's why I advise building a base first before using it. The program still has a strength building phase done once every 2 weeks but in my opinion if you still want your strength to be up, then lift heavy once a week on his strength building phase.

If you're just an average athlete/person where you have a lot time to recover, you dont play too much sports, if you do, maybe only every once in while, then its best for you to start a program that involves strength training and plyometrics.

If you're a versatile athlete( basketball, volleyball or you play multiple sports), this is going to take you to the next level. let me explain: If you're a college basketball player or play for an elite high school, you know you have to work on your game almost everyday to stay on top of the competition. Your're running, jumping working on your skills, doing individual skill sessions and team practices.

If you think about it you dont have a lot of time to be lifting all that much cause if you do you'd be overtraining. If you stop working on your game and decide to just lift, you definitely would be a better athletic specimen but your skills is going to dwindle down if you take it half-heartedly.

Like Kobe said, "you can be the strongest guy in the world, jump the highest but can't play a lick."

This is where TVP comes in. If you follow his training principles, I guarantee that you'll get the best both of worlds. You can work on your skills as much as you want while still remaining powerful and explosive. If you just do strength training heavy weights high intensity which is the norm nowadays, you'll be strong as an ox but you wont be as explosive as you should be. Why?

Because when you hit the squat rack, when you descend and explode back up it wont be the same as when you are fresh. You're actually lifting it in a slower rate because you're drained from all the practices and even if you start before your practice it'll still be the same because you are still recovering from yesterdays practice.

When you descend you are actually teaching your body to move slower with a heavy weight. Thats the negative part of it. This is why it is important to work on all aspects. So what you are actually working on here is strength but not being explosive.

Thats only one aspect. The other aspects are Starting Acceleration and Progressive Acceleration which I think is very beneficial for any athlete. I dont want to get into too much detail about this because then I'd be giving away his program. Basically, it teaches your body to go straight up instead of going all the way down then go back up.

In any athletic sports, that's too long, you already missed a rebound, a split second too late blocking a spike etc.

With that said, I think I explained as well as I could of what the TVP is about. To those who have the TVP or any other program regardless if its for increasing vertical jump or a cook book, the important thing to remember here is PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS! Those little things are going to combine to that big vertical jump.

VerticalJumping.com Response Hi Gian, there is so much wrong with your rationale that I was nearly not going to post it. However as you have taken the time to write it all down I will return the favor and explain why I believe your rationale is flawed.

A few things. You talk about squatting heavy all the time. Nobody who trains explosive athletes suggests just squatting heavy and doing zero plyometric and jumping work.

Secondly there are benefits to training heavy in terms of increasing RFD. As long as your intent is to move the weight as fast as possible, then even though the bar is actually not moving that fast due to the load, your RFD will improve so that you will be able to move lighter loads (such as your body weight) quicker.

Thirdly you talk about athletes who regularly play sports such as basketball and volleyball being perfect for TVP and not heavy lifting due to the way it fatigues you. In fact the opposite is true. Lots of jumping and explosive work ON TOP OF the basketball and volleyball games and practices will not improve your vertical by that much but will more likely wear down your CNS, not to mention your joints.

If you are participating in a lot of explosive sports then a better option is to perform moderate to heavy lifting for low volumes so as to maintain your strength. The low volume should preserve your CNS.

Lastly

"Basically, it teaches your body to go straight up instead of going all the way down then go back up."

Well I don't even know what that means. It doesn't make any sense what so ever. Any jumping exercise where you try and get maximum height teaches your body to go straight up.

In short the Vertical Project is not a particularly great jumping program because the principles upon which it is based are quite frankly terrible.