TVP gives you a lot of knowledge. You can use it or throw it away.
by Gian A.
(long beach, CA)
I purchased the Vertical Jump Project about a month ago and at first I was kinda skeptical about it. I skimmed through the program and thought that this was pure BS.
I felt like I wasted my time and money. I was wrong! I decided to give it one more try, reading it and understanding the modules. what I realized is that Luke is actually trying to help any athlete who wants to gain an advantage.
He gives you a lot of knowledge about the science of vertical jumping. It's up to you if your going to take what he says or just let it out the other ear. This is 2009 and if you're living back in the 90's or early 2000's where you think squating heavy or squating 1.5-3 times your body weight and adding plyometrics with it is going to do the trick,( which I dont think is bad, its just behind compared to Lukes training techniques) then you guys are behind too.
Luke teaches you to have "versatile power"(basketball, volleyball etc.), not "specific power"(power lifters). I just think that your ears are too much on Kelly Baggett because from what I've read here some of the words are straight from his NO BS articles.
Kelly is a good strength coach but Luke is the best out there. The only negative I would point out is that he priced it a $297 and $197 at one point which I think is overpriced but now that he has it $97, I think it its a fair price. You even have a couple or more programs actually trying to follow his program.
As for results, I haven't actually gained any yet because I still haven't used the program but I will be incorporating it to my weight workouts once I get started. My vertical before this is 35-38 inches but with Lukes training techniques and recovery system I think I will be able to increase it to about 40+ inches.
And 1 more thing, I have used other programs such as Vertical Jump Bible( which is basically squats + plyometrics) and it is no where near as advanced as the TVP. I've brought my squat up from 185lbs to 315lbs for reps and my base have definitely have gotten stronger but in terms of being explosive I have relatively stayed the same.
If you're a beginner, you might want to start with building a base by doing squats, deadlifts and all that even though Luke doesn't require you to have all that strength but in my opinion and from my experience its important to have quite a strong base because it will benefit you once you start the TVP.
VerticalJumping.com Repsonse: Hi Gian, a couple of things really stand out about your post. Firstly, it is an excellent contribution and I thank you for taking the time to write it.
Secondly and more importantly I noticed that you somewhat dismiss the correlation between squat strength and vertical jump as being thinking from the 1990's.
This is odd on a number of levels. The first is that there have been many studies that confirm that the ability to squat high loads relative to your body weight are an excellent indicator of your ability to jump high.
The second thing I thought was odd was that you yourself are living proof that increasing squat strength is a great way to boost vertical jump. Do you think your increasing your squat up to 315 pounds for reps has nothing to do with your 38 inch vertical jump?
My final observation is that you have not actually tried the program. Luke may seem sincere in his emails and videos but his recent video explaining why squats are bad for your vertical jump is way more bad information than good.
Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting squats are the be all and end all of vertical jump training. There is however an overwhelming volume of evidence to suggest that getting strong in those legs helps you jump higher, often significantly so.
yet you yourself fail to notice the corrleation in your own jump.that you have increased your squat
