mekka okereke :verified: on Nostr: More sports stuff that you didn't ask for, but that I get to say anyway: People that ...
More sports stuff that you didn't ask for, but that I get to say anyway: People that jump high, don't just jump up. They jump down.
🙂🙃
Imagine that you jump as high as you can off of two feet, and I record the highest point that you can touch on a wall. We'll call this "height A." Now I get a chair, and ask you to stand on it. I ask you to jump down from the chair to the floor, and then jump immediately as high as you can again. Let's call the height that you reach doing this chair jump, "height B." For strong, athletic people, height B is higher than height A. 🤔
It's easy to understand why when you look at a person using a pogo stick. To jump high on a pogo stick, the jumper needs to generate enough height on previous jumps. The pogo stick's spring converts kinetic energy into potential energy that is released and combined with a well timed jump by the athlete. The more potential energy stored from the previous jump, the more that can be released. The athlete jumps when the spring is maximally compressed, to accelerate their mass upwards. The stored kinetic energy then adds to this acceleration.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p5K2sj-4WA0
If you asked a pogo stick jumper to jump as high as they could on the first jump, they would have to drop their weight and pull the pogo stick handle down forcefully, to try to load the spring.
For a basketball or volleyball player or a sprinter, their achilles tendon is the pogo stick spring. 😬
If you stand up with your heel on the floor, your calf muscle is relaxed and elongated, and your Achilles tendon is short and not under significant load. If you then stand on your tiptoes, your calf is now shortened, but your Achilles tendon is still not storing much energy. Now imagine a heavy weight pressing down on your shoulders, so that your Achilles tendon stretches, until your heels touch the floor. Your calf is still fully contracted, but your Achilles tendon is now storing over a thousand lbs of force!
You jump higher with the chair jump, because gravity helps you load your built-in pogo stick with energy. Practicing the timing of the chair jump makes you jump higher, and makes you sprint faster.
You can see the NBA slam dunk athletes loading up their Achilles tendons:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuIFlPgqt6I
🙂🙃
Imagine that you jump as high as you can off of two feet, and I record the highest point that you can touch on a wall. We'll call this "height A." Now I get a chair, and ask you to stand on it. I ask you to jump down from the chair to the floor, and then jump immediately as high as you can again. Let's call the height that you reach doing this chair jump, "height B." For strong, athletic people, height B is higher than height A. 🤔
It's easy to understand why when you look at a person using a pogo stick. To jump high on a pogo stick, the jumper needs to generate enough height on previous jumps. The pogo stick's spring converts kinetic energy into potential energy that is released and combined with a well timed jump by the athlete. The more potential energy stored from the previous jump, the more that can be released. The athlete jumps when the spring is maximally compressed, to accelerate their mass upwards. The stored kinetic energy then adds to this acceleration.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p5K2sj-4WA0
If you asked a pogo stick jumper to jump as high as they could on the first jump, they would have to drop their weight and pull the pogo stick handle down forcefully, to try to load the spring.
For a basketball or volleyball player or a sprinter, their achilles tendon is the pogo stick spring. 😬
If you stand up with your heel on the floor, your calf muscle is relaxed and elongated, and your Achilles tendon is short and not under significant load. If you then stand on your tiptoes, your calf is now shortened, but your Achilles tendon is still not storing much energy. Now imagine a heavy weight pressing down on your shoulders, so that your Achilles tendon stretches, until your heels touch the floor. Your calf is still fully contracted, but your Achilles tendon is now storing over a thousand lbs of force!
You jump higher with the chair jump, because gravity helps you load your built-in pogo stick with energy. Practicing the timing of the chair jump makes you jump higher, and makes you sprint faster.
You can see the NBA slam dunk athletes loading up their Achilles tendons:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuIFlPgqt6I