
Originally Posted by
STAYHUNGRY
I was looking this up on the internet and was surprised to see that the highest vertical leap of any Olympian was Nicu Vlad, who was a Powerlifter that competed in the clean and the snatch. He had a 43 inch vertical leap!!!!!! That is higher than Vince Carter, Michael Jordan and almost any professional athlete. The reason was that he combined strength and speed, which is called Plyometrics. To snatch the type of weight he was snatching took a perfect balance of explosiveness and strength. He is even in the world record book as having the highest vertical leap. It shows how sport specific training can benefit an athlete. Olympic lifts are purely Plyometric lifts that combine strength and speed. Another athlete who had over a 40 inch vertical leap was powerlifter Mark Henry, who later joined the WWE wrestling group. He was officially recorded at a 41 inch vertical leap and could two hand dunk a basketball at 5'9 and 330 lbs of bodyweight. Anyone who is looking to improve explosiveness, jumping,etc, should definetly look into powerlifting and Olympic style lifting with expolsiveness.
S-H