We have all heard of “Hang Time”, but is it factual? To get directly to the point, scientific laws manage this, there is no such entity as “hang time”. Some people will maintain that this can’t be – exclaiming how they have seen one player or another hang in the air longer than another. But, in reality, any basketball player (including “Air Jordan” himself) just makes it appear as if they are floating in the air.
Read below for details on what really happens when any player jumps.
As he is coming down the court and jumps, scientific laws start to pertain. These laws say that each action has an equivalent and opposed reaction. What this means in layman’s terms is that the player pushes against the floor and the floor exerts a force back. This action/reaction makes the player to leave the floor. If the player exerts a greater amount of force on the floor, the floor exerts a larger amount of force back. This causes the player to go higher in the air.
If a player is running in the course of the jumping process, his/her center of mass follows a parabolic path, which in essence looks akin to a rounded off mountain peak. A persons “center of mass” is located close to their midsection. This means that, if the person were to stay in precisely the same position for the duration of the entire jumping act, his/her midsection (and consequently, full body) would go along this path. Typically though, a player does not stay in the same position. He will bend and twist.
One thing that players regularly do is raise one (or both knees) while he is jumping.. He does that on his way up. On the way down, of course, he lowers his legs back down and that, in turn causes the center of mass to come back down. This in effect raises his head in relation to the center of mass. The head does not follow the parabolic path. The head stays at one height.
If you can envisage it then, the head follows a smooth course up and down though the person’s center of mass does not.
In essence, the player’s head is the key to why we believe in hang time.
When one person looks at another, they tend to not look at the middle of their body. Instead, we typically look at the other person’s head. What happens at that instant is a bit of an “illusion”, but it actually is happening. The head stays in the same place for an unusually long time because the person changes his center of mass.
Well, if “hang time” is not real, how is it that one person can stay in the air longer than another person? The only choice left is that he can JUMP HIGHER! If you can’t increase your hang time then, you have to learn how to jump higher! How can you do this?
To get the most out of your vertical jumping exercises, you ought to think about a vertical jump training program. Check out these Vertical Jump Program Reviews to get more info.
Tags: hang time, jump higher, vertical jump