[quote author="Matt Morsia" date="1322274870"]when i say half squats i mean 45 degree squats. as a progression from deep squats i’ve just been doing in my max strength phase. joe – another benefit of doing 45 degree squats over full squats is that it allows you to fully load the upper/final part of the squat. when you go ATG you are limited in terms of how much weight you can use as the deep part of the squat is weaker and so you never lift sufficient weight to work the upper/final third of the squat which is the part most specific to jumping
I wont go into it much but i 100% disagree with this. I started years ago doing quater squats with stupidly heavy weight. Leg strength didnt go up, jumping didnt increase. Also, your knee hardly bends on take off. Might aswell load up a tonne on the bar and move an inch up and down.[/quote]
I agree with Matt and what he describes is basically how my stystem is set up. So far this season we are having great results with this progression. My tj’er recently went 13.30m from 11 stride which is a huge PR and I jumped 7.38m from 13, also a PR. JJ also had a great season last year using a similar squat progression. I feel a 1/4 squat is the most specific squat for most of the year for a jumper.
Joe, of course you can load more with a 1/4 squat but it isn’t about loading loading loading…there is far more to it than that…