WAG Is it even possible? and how?

[juststartingout]

My daughter is level 4 and really wants to improve her jumps. She is super flexible. Has oversplits on both legs and center split full down. She has been working on jumps and leg conditioning at home for quite a bit now with only minor improvements. There are 2 girls on her team with amazing jumps, the rest are average. One of the great jumpers can't do splits on the ground but can in the air. So is this genetic and while my daughter will improve she will never achieve this level of jumps. Or can she get to this level with continued effort. My daughters biggest problem seems to be turning her knees up in the jump. I can hear her hips grind sometimes when she rotates them. What are the best exercises for this?

 

[Shooosh]

Yes. She will get better. It'll just take time, learned technique, and leg strength.
I am surprised to hear a girl can do the splits in the air (split jump/leap) but not on the ground?
That sounds so the opposite of how I would imagine it. Maybe the force she exerts when jumping is greater than her body weight pushing down when I'm the floor? Huh.

 

[Jenny]

It is the difference between dynamic and passive flexibility. If she is doing the right conditioning for it she will slowly improve don't worry.

 

[COz]

If you want to read more, there are heaps of thread about this if you search for "split jump" in the box at the top right of the page.
Just don't comment on any of the old threads, the moderators don't like that much

 

[Gymgem05]

Following this! We have the same problem. DD has over splits beautifully, but can barely get off the ground on her straddle jump. I believe she has weak ankles and leg strength. She wants to use her back muscles instead of her legs.

 

[Turk]

I am surprised to hear a girl can do the splits in the air (split jump/leap) but not on the ground?
That sounds so the opposite of how I would imagine it. Maybe the force she exerts when jumping is greater than her body weight pushing down when I'm the floor? Huh.

Due to various injuries and issues I could probably count the weeks I've had both splits in the last decade on my fingers, but I've had fully-split leaps throughout! I'm very strong and get a lot of height in leaps and jumps. I was quite good anyway, but once I learned to use my ridiculously strong feet to push off I got even more height. Right now I'm maybe 3 inches from my right splits and 5 from my left, but I can hit 180 degrees in the air and even more consistently in a switch leap because I get even more power from the switch action! Strength is very much the key with things like this.

 

[gothgymmom]

I actually had an idea for my DD as she has awesome splits, but her leaps suck. Seriously they do lol. I thought about getting bungies and putting them up, high enough that when she would grab them it wont pull down but will kind of lift her up, and she can jump up and work on all of her leaps. Havent done it yet, but i do plan on it. I think it will help her out as she knows how to do them, its just not working for her, so she wont be learning any bad techniques or anything.

 

[rosettasmom]

My DD uses her pull up bar to hang and then works on her splits while hanging. it's a 2 for 1 really as she's working strength as well.