Shadowing Practice: 6 Most COMMON Jump Technique Mistakes - Learn English Speaking with Video

If you want to jump higher, your technique has to be dialed in.

A lot of you are pretty good athletes but lack the necessary coordination to get the most out of your jump.

And one of the best ways you can instantly add inches to your vertical is by cleaning up your technique.

It's not even clickbait when I'm saying that.

You can add a good amount of inches to your vert just by learning how to efficiently transfer energy into your jump.

So in this video I'm going to talk about the 6 main mistakes I see 2 foot jumping athletes make

when going into the jump.

Mistake number 1, galloping into your penultimate.

So what is galloping?

It's when you're doing this.

how I popped up a little bit higher during my penultimate.

So if you're to look at my hip level at your angle right now, my hip level is lowering and gets at its lowest during this part when I'm about to spring up.

If you do the gallop, it ruins it.

So it goes down and gallop, you do a little bit of a curve.

The purpose of the penultimate step is to carry all the horizontal momentum you built up during the approach

and lower your hips as you get closer to takeoff.

That way you're able to convert horizontal momentum into vertical momentum a lot more efficiently.

When you're doing that hop, you're leaking a lot of energy because this slows you down.

So when you're dropping down and lowering, you get into that lower position a lot more smoothly, a lot quicker, and you're able to just spring off of this position.

Instead of jumping upwards, you still have to lower down to get the most out of your jump, which will take a lot more time, will lengthen ground contact times, and will have you jump slower and lower.

In other words, a smooth descent equals stored elastic energy, a gallop equals breaking and leaking energy.

Number two, the block foot making contact with the floor, heel first.

This is how it's supposed to look.

So notice how my block foot, my heels try not to drop.

It's pointing inwards, internally rotated hip and knee.

And I'm making contact with the floor, forefoot first.

Notice how I'm making contact heel first and then I'm springing up.

The purpose of the block foot is to redirect all the horizontal momentum you've built up with the approach

and convert that and transfer it into vertical.

When you're making contact with heel first with the block foot, that's going to kill all the momentum you built up prior

because you're slowing yourself down instead of converting the speed into the jump by doing this.

Not only that, but look at these two jumps right here.

Looking in both side by side, which one is slower?

When I'm not letting my heel drop, I'm able to spring up faster.

When I'm letting my heel drop and make contact first with the floor, my ground contact times are higher, leading to a slower jump, leading to a lower jump.

So the main cue you want to focus, you don't want to treat this block foot like a regular step.

You want to treat it like a jab.

You should be hearing that squeak.

It should go into the floor directly and not up and down, if that makes sense.

So jab, not like this, or not like this.

You want to jab it into the floor.

Try not to let the heel drop so that you're able to convert all your energy into the jump.

Step number three, stuttering your steps.

And when I talk about stuttering your steps, I talk about doing this.

You want each step to build off of the previous step and you want to be smooth and intentional with each step.

Instead of that, you want to look like this.

Notice how there was a gradual buildup with each single step and each step had a purpose.

Most athletes stutter because they're not comfortable with their full approach.

One, because they haven't gotten enough reps in and two, no other reason.

They haven't gotten enough reps in or practice.

Since they're not comfortable with it, they're second guessing.

They're hesitating to jump because they don't know the perfect time or how many steps they need.

And when I talk about each step having a purpose, the purpose should be to get faster from the previous step and also to lower my center of mass, aka my hips.

Remember when I said with galloping, you want the hip level to drop as you get closer to takeoff.

That's the purpose of each step.

So if you look at my hip line, what you also don't want to be doing with your approach is skipping throughout the approach.

So notice how my hip level is undulating.

It's going like boom, boom, boom, and not a linear trend downwards.

Because when you're doing that, you're galloping for each step, meaning that you're breaking the momentum you're building with each single gallop.

So basically the approach becomes useless when you do that.

For athletes struggling with the stutter step and their full approach, I always tell them to work backwards from it.

So what does this mean?

It means get comfortable from a standstill first.

Standstill, penultimate.

Get comfortable with that, get better at doing this jump.

I'm looking like this.

Standstill, right left jumper, boom, boom, right?

I work backwards.

So I add a step, take a step back, left, right, left.

So that's probably the approach volleyball players want to master.

So as I get better with the three-step, I take another step back.

Boom.

One, two, three, four.

Right?

And notice how I'm getting farther and farther away.

But notice how my steps were still short.

You could also lengthen the distance with that four steps.

So instead of me doing it here, I can start off the four-step approach from right here.

force myself to develop more speed

and then you do that so on and so forth until you get comfortable with a full approach

a full approach is typically five steps maybe sometimes six sometimes seven

mistake number four more block foot mistakes so i'm going to be talking about internal rotation

or people lacking internal rotation during the block foot

and also having too much knee flexion with that block foot

so let's go over internal rotation i talked about

that already another mistake people make with their block foot is

that they plant with their plant foot and their block foot is pointing towards where they're jumping.

If they develop a lot of approach speed and they plant like that, they're just going to keep flying forwards instead of redirecting forces upwards.

In volleyball, you just fly into the net.

If you're trying to dunk, you just fly underneath the hoop.

So you'd have to reach back in order to dunk.

They should be pointing inwards.

So if you're a right left jumper, your left foot should be pointing slightly to the right side.

If you're a left right jumper, right foot should be pointing a little bit to the left side.

So when you're doing that, you want to plant also a little bit out in front of you, internally rotated.

And this leg should be more elastic than this leg.

It should get into a stiff knee bend and it shouldn't drop anymore

because when you drop and you get it to excess knee flexion with this block foot, you're going to be spending more time absorbing the momentum and converting it upwards.

Notice how all of these jumpers I'm showing on the screen

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have little to no added knee flexion as the block foot hits the ground.

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They strike the ground and they quickly bound out of that position.

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That's what gives you a short ground contact.

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Of course, short ground contacts isn't the main thing with two foot jumps.

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You need enough time to produce force onto the ground.

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There's a lot of jumpers like myself who thrive off a deeper knee bend during the block foot.

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But most of the times for most jumpers, keeping that leg straight, stiff

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and resisting knee flexion with this foot as it plants is the best cue to think about in your head.

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Although a lot of people can get into this position because of their hips.

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So you want to do a few mobility movements to get better at internal rotation of the hip.

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So my right foot is pointing forwards.

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If you can't do this, that might be something limiting you from your genetics or just lack of mobility.

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And if it's genetics, there's only so much you can do.

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You can do a few mobility stuff.

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So let me show you an example of what not to do.

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So the excess knee flexion and also the toes pointing forward, they kind of tie in together.

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So when you do this, this, your block foot is really close to your plant foot, what you want to do, boom, instead of this, right?

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And doing that, you do this, this, so that you're able to jump up instead of forwards into the hoop.

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So this is what you want to do.

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The main goal though, is that once that block foot plants, you want to already be at your most knee bent position.

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You don't want to block and get into a deeper knee flexion.

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Otherwise you'll spend more time sinking lower and leaking energy to ensure that you're at your lowest during that part, the purpose of the push off,

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the penultimate, is to lower down so that you're already at that lowest position, which is why I want to go back to the galloping part.

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If you gallop, you're not at that lowest position, so you got to spend more time getting to that low position.

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So you want to boom, boom, spring out.

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Mistake number five is having a stiff arm swing.

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You're constantly adding tension to your arms and you're swinging it back.

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You're like flexing your arms really hard.

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That's not what you're supposed to do.

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So instead of flexing your arms like this, keep it loose and swing the arms like this.

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Keep them loose.

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Jump.

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That's how you should perform the arm swing.

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Stiff arms equals no momentum from the upper body.

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As you know, your arms contribute a lot to your jump.

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So keeping them stiff can sacrifice inches from your vertical.

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The purpose of the arm swing is to whip them back as far as you can and keeping them loose.

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Notice how they're kind of floppy.

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Ragdoll-y, right?

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When I whip my arms back really hard, a stretch reflex happens in the shoulders and the pecs where they whip forward faster, then you can consciously move them.

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If you keep the arms stiff and flex, you can't use that reflex.

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You're gonna have to rely solely on your muscles to swing them back up, which is a lot slower, meaning less extra momentum you're getting from your upper body.

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Mistake number six, starting too fast or not getting fast enough into takeoff.

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One of the other main goals other than lowering is to speed up as you get closer to takeoff.

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So remember, the purpose of each step is to speed up and build off the previous step into takeoff.

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The purpose of the penultimate step is to be your lowest and your fastest getting closer to takeoff.

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The block foot purpose is to redirect all that speed that you've built up into the vertical jump.

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If you start too fast, you're going to fizzle out into the jump.

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Let me show you what that means.

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I'm going to sprint into the jump.

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Oh, fuck.

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There you go.

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You can't handle that much speed into the jump

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because that's a lot of momentum that that block foot has to convert upwards.

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Let me show you a better example.

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So notice how I started too fast and when I got into the jump, I was too fast.

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I couldn't control myself.

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So I slowed down as I get into the penultimate step.

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When I slow down during the penultimate, instead of the penultimate acting as the fastest part of the jump, it acts as a break.

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So I break all the speed I built up during the initial sprint.

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If you start fast into the jump and you feel comfortable with that, you better get faster as you get closer to takeoff.

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So if I'm doing that, the sprint, in the initial sprint, then I better get faster during this part.

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And that's tough.

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And even harder, you have to be able to convert all that speed with that block foot vertically.

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Most of the time, athletes can't handle that much speed.

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So you know what happens when they do that?

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They sprint faster, faster, faster.

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This can't handle all that speed and I just fly forwards.

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The purpose of a two foot jump isn't to sprint into it.

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Look at this.

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That wasn't that fast at all, but I was able to jump pretty high.

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So how fast should you go?

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It all depends on you and how much speed you can convert vertically.

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If you notice that you keep flying forwards and you keep blowing past that block foot, then you got to decrease your speed.

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It start out slow and build up speed as you get closer to takeoff.

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However, a lot of athletes start slow and they stay slow.

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They don't get any faster throughout the approach.

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They're not building a lot of momentum.

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If you start fast, you don't have a lot of room to speed up.

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If you start slow, you do.

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If you don't get fast enough and you stay slow throughout the approach, self-explanatory, you're not going to jump that high.

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So to summarize that, the block foot, it has to be able to essentially handle the demands of the approach.

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If you go really fast in the approach, that's a ton of momentum that this leg has to redirect upwards.

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And if you're weak, then you're best believe you're just going to fly forwards.

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Also, the longer the approach typically means the higher demand into takeoff.

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So if you're doing a penultimate step, that's not as much momentum as doing a five-step approach.

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And this also ties in with working backwards.

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When you practice being able to handle short approaches, this leg practices how to redirect eccentric forces vertically.

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And as you keep building steps, you're basically progressive overloading on the eccentric demands of this leg.

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And these are the six most common mistakes I see two foot jumpers make going into the jump.

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So to somewhere is that they're galloping into their approach.

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Their block foot is making contact with the ground heel first.

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They're stuttering their steps.

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Their block foot is pointing forwards instead of internally rotated.

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And also the block leg is getting into excess knee flexion.

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Your arms are too stiff.

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And number six, you're not getting fast enough or you're starting out too fast into takeoff.

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So if you notice that you're doing any one of these six mistakes, fixing at least one of them will do wonders for your vertical.

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Also want to point out if you want professional advice on me breaking down your technique

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and what exactly you need to fix Then hop on get

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a vertical with the link in my description I'm currently doing a holiday sale 40% off of everything

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and i'm not going to do it for long

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because i'm starting to fill up

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And I can't handle these many athletes as you may

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or may not know get up is just me I'm the only coach you're talking to making your programs So

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if you hop on just know you're going to get to know me I'm going to get to know you

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and i'm going to help you specifically one-on-one me

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and you I've helped hundreds of athletes get their technique better

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and inevitably getting their vertical higher So many athletes are making breakthrough progress.

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Just look at the guys I'm showing on the screen.

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It's crazy.

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So if you want that level of individualization with your training, your programming, calls, and your technique, hop on Get Up Vertical with the link in my description, and I'll reach out to you if you're a good fit.

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This was a fun video to make, and gladly, I was able to record this whole thing with nobody in the gym.

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Let me know what you guys want to see next.

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I like making these videos.

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I'm going to keep jumping for you guys.

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Later.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: 6 Most COMMON Jump Technique Mistakes - Learn English Speaking with Video

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