Jumping For Javelin! Why Plyometrics increase your throw

Your jumping primarily helps 2 areas of your

throw, your penultimate and block. Reason beingis because lateral jumps will help you practice the penultimate and the ability to gain ground laterally / horizontally right before the throw takes place. The reason I say “laterally/ horizontally” is because you are moving down the runway forwards in a linear fashion, but at the time of the penultimate you are closed off. I like to think

horizontally because that is the direction we end up facing and ultimately throwing forward, but our take off foot and hips are not fully facing forward at the time of the penultimate. So your foot that is causing you to jump forward is turned to the

side and so are your hips, but then you open up forwards. So that is why some may think of it as similar to a lateral broad jump. This helps you create power and launch yourself forward, setting up proper back foot contact and getting you into the right position to throw starts with building the ability to produce and absorb force correctly. At the end of the day, training all types of jumps will help you in the long run. Unilateral vertical jumps are especially important because they teach you how to produce and absorb force in the block position. When you look at the javelin throw, we release in a unilateral stance — very similar to the thrower’s stretch that our other guides discuss. Jumping in a unilateral stance helps the body adapt to producing and absorbing force on one leg while keeping your center of mass stacked between the front and back legs. We will also use dumbbells to add load and increase overall power output, reinforcing strength and explosiveness in positions that directly transfer to the throw.

Hurdle Hops

Hurdle hops are a great way to improve overall athleticism and work on your ground

force contact in a way that is more explosive than the pogo hops we talked about earlier

in this guide. Right when you make contact with the ground, you jump again using

quick ground force contact, but now tucking your knees and jumping over an obstacle.

Another way to work on overall power output and triple extension is the broad jump.

These translate extremely well to overhead medicine ball throws and olympic lifts.

Vertical jumps and broad jumps definitely help you improve your overall power output

since it is much easier to produce force in a bilateral stance than unilateral stance. For

example training the vertical jump traditionally will give you a higher ceiling for your

unilateral vertical jumps and training the broad jump traditionally will give you a higher

ceiling for your lateral broad jumps. In terms of what actually helps javelin throwers, think

about the lateral broad jumps to improve your penultimate and unilateral vertical jumps to improve the block.

To watch exactly how we implement these jumps into our training, watch this video below

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