Figure skating strength and conditioning expert Matthew Blair Davis continues his series on jump power training. In the first video of the series, he demonstrated a fancy setup for gathering detailed data for monitoring a skater’s progress and providing motivation. In the second video, Matthew shared a low tech off-ice drill to help develop jumping power. In the third video he shared another drill that is simple in concept but very valuable in terms of results. In this video, he offers yet another off-ice jump power exercise.
The basic concept of the exercise is a single repetition of holding a 2-4 pound medicine ball, then jumping forward off two feet over a one foot high barrier, and then immediately jumping straight up off two feet while extending the arms upward while continuing to hold the medicine ball. Matthew uses an electronic jump mat to measure the height of the final jump. He uses the jump mat so he can have a good idea of how high the skater is jumping.
Matthew notes that the purpose of this exercise is to address something called amortization. He explains, “Amortization is the time spend on a landing until the next jump that you do. You want to have a very short amortization phase.” He notes that this is related to combination jumps on the ice (especially combos with loop as the second or third jump). He continues, “You want to be able to train the initial landing on the jump mat to be able to jump up into your vertical jump as quickly as possible.”
Matthew takes a moment at the end to explain how to do this exercise without a jump mat but still get feedback regarding the performance.
![]() Sorry, this content is for members only.Click here to get access.
Already a member? Login below… |
![Favorite Favorite](https://skatingimage.s3.amazonaws.com/redheartblackborder.png)
![Loading Loading](https://icoachskating.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-favorite-posts/img/loading.gif)