Best Resources for Understanding Plyometrics
 

Hey guys I am trying to get a better handle on how plyometric training effects the body and how people have programmed it effectively for athletes.

As traceur it seems obvious parkour is highly plyometric in nature so I always feel leary about adding in more rebounding high impact activities but I feel like understanding plyometrics how their used and how the work with greater depth would help me program parkour training more effectively to produce the adoptions I am looking for.

Any good resources you can recomend beyond the usually here is basic plyo program that will make you jump good.

If you're interested in buying a book, here's the sole Amazon review for Dr. Yessis' recent book called "Explosive Plyometrics." The review also mentions 2 other well known books on plyometrics.

I forget whether or not I've flipped through Chu's books. I can't really recommend them one way or the other, but I have a slightly negative vibe about them (too academic for what you are -- probably -- looking for).

If you want to develop lower-body power for jumping, I highly recommend Kelly Baggett's "Vertical Jump Development Bible". It's available here: http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/ . Incidentally, this is probably in my top five or ten training books of all time. Seriously. It is well worth the money ($40). KB also has a large number of free articles to either get your started or to evaluate if you like his style.

Best,
Mark

I don't mind academic I am about to go through Zatsiorsky again and will try to tackle siff and verkoshansky after that. Something like practical programming but for plyo's would be perfect.

The goal is not to build a plyo program but to clean the princeples of adaption behind plyometric methods so I can apply to programming parkour training more effectively.

Donald Chu is a well-respected researcher. I'm pretty sure he does some coaching as well. Anyways, most large bookstores carry his book, so you can flip through it.

All the Ultimate Athlete Concepts books are in the $45-65 dollar range, so they're somewhat pricey. I don't have the "Explosive Plyometrics" book, so I couldn't tell you what I think of it. Many of Yessis' more specialized books have gotten bad reviews.

Verkhoshansky is a tough read. He has his own vocabulary, so sometimes, it's difficult to tell what he's talking about. The translations are also not always great. I've only read his "The Block Training in Endurance Running" E-book, which was translated by his daughter. It was actually a great translation, but again, unless you're familiar with his lingo, it's tough to figure out what he's saying. I am imagine the Charniga translations are pretty bad. I have two of Verkhoshansky's older books that Charniga translated, but I don't think it'd be the best use of most people's time to tackle those until they've done a lot of other reading. It's too bad he never got around to updating his "Special Strength Training Book" before passing away. It appears that his daughter will publish some of his unreleased work though.

In his updated version of "Supertraining", he wrote much about shock training and I think plyometrics. Since he is the father of shock training, you might want to get that book. You should know that everything in that book is not up-to-date though, such as the section on energy systems. It's also more of an encyclopedia than anything. I'd say Zatsiorsky's book is about 10x more practical than "Supertraining." "Supertraining" could be good bathroom reading though.

Shock training is plyometrics.

Not that this really matters much, but here's something from the Supertraining list:

There are people who debate the semantics of all this: shock training, plyometrics, "true plyometrics," etc. I don't think it's a big deal though.