Jack Woodrup Interview (creator of Vertical Mastery)

Hey guys, here is our short interview with Jack Woodrup, the author of Vertical Mastery, that took place before we started our summer vertical jump competition.  It contains a lot of good information so make sure to check it out.

How did you become interested in vertical jump training and end up creating Vertical Mastery?

I first got into vertical jump training about five years ago when my son was born. He was an 11 pound baby which is quite large and a lot of my friends thought it was very funny he was so big, and a few suggested that he would be the first member of my family to dunk a basketball.

I took that as a challenge and started training my vertical jump. I’ve been into exercise my whole life and been training people for quite some time but never really for an athletic performance based goal such as vertical jump. In fact when I started I spent the previous 10 years training for muscular size and at the start of my vertical jump training I weighed nearly 90 kg at 5’9” inches tall.

Of course the first thing I did when I started training was to go online and buy a few programs. And I knew enough about training to realize that most of the programs available were not designed around the things that I needed to improve i.e. they were not tailor-made from my individual needs.

In fact, at best they were glorified cookie cutter programs, at worst they were poorly designed scams. And this got me thinking that there had to be a better way. Based on everything I had learned as a trainer, and everything I have ever read about training athletes, the best way to get results was to determine what the individuals weaknesses were with regards to their particular sport or activity and then focus on improving those.

I knew that I could also just write out a few cookie Programs myself and combine them into the one program that people could pick and choose which one they would like to use but this still had two inherent problems. The first problem is one that plagues all e-book versions of all athletic programs and that is what do you do when you finish the workout?

With a prewritten type program the only option is to then keep repeating that workout. This creates two problems. The first is that athletes will often get bored doing the same thing over and over, and the second problem is that when you do the same thing over and over, your body starts to adapt on the rate at which we improve starts to decline.

The second inherent problem of e-book type workouts is that the athlete still has to try and work out which is the right one for them to do. Now there are some very good programs THAT are based on an e-book format, but often with so many programs crammed IN, it can get confusing for the average athlete to know what they need to do.

So working on the principle that there is no one single best workout, but rather, the best workout is one that targets the individual needs of the athlete, and also recognizing that those needs will change over time, and also wanting to make the process as simple as possible for the user I felt the best method for delivering fully customized workouts was with a software solution.

From start to finish Vertical Mastery took nearly 2 years to develop and get programmed. The result is a software application that allows users to do their pre-tests, plug in their results into the program, and have it create for them a completely customized training program that is genuinely based on their needs as an athlete.

The software is also flexible enough to take into consideration whether or not the athlete has access to weight training equipment, as well as factoring in the total volume and nature of jump training performed when an athlete is also competing in season.

It really is like hiring your own strength and conditioning coach.

What separates Vertical Mastery from other vertical jump training programs?

I believe what separates Vertical Mastery from other jump training programs is the fact that you will never grow out of it. As you develop as an athlete it adjusts the focus of your workouts accordingly. Also due to the way the program is set up, even if one of your weaknesses is taking a while to develop it is also extremely unlikely that you will ever perform the same program twice.

What are the keys to an athlete getting the most out of Vertical Mastery?

The key to getting the most out of vertical mastery is to realize that it isn’t just one 10 week program for you to follow. No great athlete was ever created in just 10 weeks. Without exception great athletes become great because they stick at it even when things get tough.

It is only in Internet fantasy land that people are really gaining 12 inches in 10 weeks on a regular basis. These kinds of gains simply will not happen for most people. The truth that most people don’t want to hear is that for them to get a 40 inch vertical, it is most likely going to take years, not weeks or months.

Adam Linkenauger for example didn’t get his monsterous running vertical jump for example in 12-16 weeks of training. He busted his backside for years to get where he is. In my own training took my vertical jump from about 23 inches to somewhere in mid to high 30s. I did this over a period of 18 months dedicated vertical jump training.

The key to getting the most out of Vertical Mastery therefore is the same key to getting the most out of any training program, and that is consistency of effort. If the athlete uses the program for 10 weeks and then gives up because they’re not doing reverse slam dunks then clearly are not going to get as much out of it as they could.

Having seen Nate’s vertical jump measurements, ranging from a low of 26.5 inches running off of the right foot to 32.25 inches with two steps off of two feet, what is your prediction of Nate’s gains through one full cycle of Vertical Mastery, of course assuming maximal effort and dedication is applied to his training?

To be honest I don’t know. There are so many variables outside the control of just the training program that to make such a prediction is fraught with danger. Some things to consider are his genetics, outside stress in his life such as school, work, love life etc, diet, sleep, general ability to recover from athletic training, what his individual strengths and weaknesses are, and what sort of previous training experience does he have are just some of the variables that can have a big impact on his results.

Also, His 32 inch running vertical is actually already pretty good. Any time an athlete has a vertical jump in the 30s, it does start to get harder and harder to continue to make further gains.

Is there anything else you would like to say before we get this underway?

I would like to say three things. The first thing I’d like to remind readers is that no matter what Nate’s results are, they will not be applicable to you. So if Nate gains 10 inches in 10 weeks (which I don’t think will actually happen) then this doesn’t mean that everyone can expect to gain 10 inches. Likewise if Nate only gained 1 inch, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone else will only gain one inch.  Everyone is different and everyone will have different results.

The second thing I would like to say to your readers is that I actually really like Vert Freak as a program. Adam really knows his stuff and spends a lot of time helping athletes to jump higher. In my opinion you wouldn’t really go wrong using either program.

Finally, although there are certain flaws in using sample sizes of just one, I like what you are doing and hope it goes well for you guys. If anybody has any questions about Vertical Mastery, they are more than welcome to shoot me an e-mail on the Contact Us page and www.verticaljumping.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------

About This Interview

We sent Jack Woodrup five quick questions with hopes of getting just a few short answers that the readers could read and get some value from.  Instead, he sent us long and thorough responses, which is what we have come to expect from working with Jack.  He really takes a passion in vertical jump training and helping out his athletes, and has been great to work with so far.  I have to agree that the results of our personal vertical jump training will not be totally applicable to others, because everyone is indeed different.  However, Nate and myself have discussed this and if we don't gain ten plus inches the first time through (99% chance that we will not, especially with running vertical jumps in the low 30's), we plan to exhibit another point that Jack made, which was that great athletes and vertical leaps are built over a longer period, not just one cycle through a program.  Finally, we also know the inherent problems of sample sizes of one, however this contest is meant to be more of a fun event for our readers to follow, not a true deciding factor between the two programs.  We have actually been talking about ways in which we could increase sample sizes with more athletes and test a wider variety of programs, but so far we have not come up with an efficient method of doing this while maintaining the utmost level of accuracy and truthfulness in the reported results.  Hopefully one day we get this figured out, as it would undoubtedly be extremely interesting to analyze the results of large testing groups.

If you have any questions about Vertical Mastery make sure to shoot Jack an email at:

http://www.verticaljumping.com/contact-us.html

In our experience he is great to work with and always willing to help out those who inquire about his program.