5″ increase on my vertical jump

One of the linchpins of the Z-Health system is assess/re-assess.  Because unless you are assessing, you are just guessing!  And remember, you can use just about anything you can objectively measure as your assessment protocol. Some things will work better than others, but really just about anything is fair game.

About a month ago, I was working on some vision training, and decided on that day to use my abysmally bad vertical as my assessment test. After about a half dozen drills, there was absolutely no change in my vertical. However, the trainer I was training with had a 3″ increase in her vertical — which just goes to show that the nervous system really is individual.

Fast forward to last night. In the past month I’ve been doing A LOT of work on my feet, teaching a lot of classes, training a lot of clients, and generally just doing large volumes of work. I was doing some parkour practice last night, and my jumping was feeling pretty good. So, for fun I decided to retest my vertical.

There was a 5″ increase!

The bummer is that I can’t definitively tie it to any one thing (this is the downside of waiting so long between assessments), although I’m fairly confident that the primary driver is all of the footwork I’ve been doing. Regardless, a 5″ increase in a month is some pretty serious progress — particularly given that I wasn’t specifically working on it and have had no technique training.