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Isaiah Rivera, pro dunker, and John Evans discuss anything related to maximizing athletic performance, and in particular, jump training. Strength and conditioning, jumping technique, weight room practices, and general fitness and health tips and advice are shared on this podcast.
What's up, guys? My name is John Evans, and I coach some of the highest jumpers in the world. This includes Azeri Rivera, Donovan Hawkins, Don Gonzalez, and the list goes on and on and on. And, obviously, I have been solo doloing the podcast for the last couple days. But after looking back at some of the videos that did really well, it seemed like you guys really liked the q and a one.
Speaker 1:So I thought it'd be fun to go back and look at questions that I got in 2020 and answer them in 2026. So this q and a is from, it looks to be 03/24/2020, so almost a full six years ago, and there are a whole bunch of questions here. It'd be crazy if some of the people still follow me and watch this YouTube channel, and maybe you'll recognize your question. So Jay Kovitz, here's the first question. It says, has Isaiah ever considered dunking more with his left hand as he jumps left right?
Speaker 1:So what's funny is at the time of this question, Isaiah almost never dunked with his left hand. He had quite a bit in 2023, but at the time of this question, he really wasn't. And his style on his left, right, left hand actually looks insane. He kinda tucks into a ball and ends up sideways, and it's probably my favorite way to watch him dunk. So yes, he has considered it and he has done it.
Speaker 1:How to enhance elasticity and development of tendons and fascia. This is from Jackson Duvaz. So fascia, I think, is a little bit misunderstood. I don't think we understand it well. It definitely doesn't seem to store and release energy the way that tendons do.
Speaker 1:And I think it's also confusing when you look at the winding filament theory, because if you look at that and you say that titan is a part of fascia, and that that's where you're getting a lot of energy stored and released, it gets even more confusing. But let's go ahead and skirt past that and move on to the tendons. I actually talked about this on my Instagram today, so if you wanna develop elasticity or stiffness, you kinda first have to define that. But elasticity is just an object's resistance to deformation. I'm not a physicist, I'm sure that Amruth, you can comment on this if you're watching it.
Speaker 1:But the more an object deforms, there's a curve that represents its stress strain. So stress, I think, is how much force, and strain is how much it deforms. And there's a curve for objects, so it's like a material science. And so when you're looking at elasticity, you're really looking at the material science of the tendon, and really the muscular tennis unit, where our whole body is a system. So we're gonna have a certain amount of deformation, but the problem, or what makes it complex, is we're not perfectly inelastic objects.
Speaker 1:So we're not like a bouncy ball that deforms a certain amount and you get a certain height out of it on the return of that energy. So when you're looking at elasticity, you have to view it in terms of the whole system and in probably the easiest way to do that is gonna be RSI, so reactive stiffness hops. Or RSI is reactive strength index, but stiffness hops are a way to measure that. And so it's a metric for elasticity and stiffness. You can actually get a metric on the MyJump2 app that will tell you the stiffness.
Speaker 1:But it's interesting because you can get stiffness different ways, or you can get a higher RSI different ways, and I've talked about this before, but you could have a really high RSI and be something more like a basketball where there's more deformation. You might get a lot of height as you throw the ball harder, you get more height out of the ball. Or you could be like a super bouncy ball where there's not as much deformation, but you get a ton of energy for the amount of deformation that you get. And the human body's interesting because you have the skeletal system, you have the muscles, you have the tendons, and then you have connective tissue like your cartilage and stuff like that. And so there's a lot of places to lose energy, so if you want to just increase elasticity or stiffness, you've got to do it across the whole system.
Speaker 1:And that is going to be training. And probably the best way to do it, I mean, plyos will give you the most immediate response, but getting more joint stiffness in terms of like the tendon and then obviously the muscles ability to be stiff is also gonna be having a really good strength conditioning protocol or program. Alright guys, my phone accidentally locked so I had pull up a different q and a. This one is actually gonna be from, it looks like, 05/17/2019. So now we are definitely way, way back.
Speaker 1:It's pretty cool some of these guys are still on the training. Okay, so the first question is how would a basketball I think it means player, train to develop how would a basketball train to develop Westbrook athleticism and explosiveness? I mean, basketball is a wildly different sport than dunking, but obviously dunking is a part of basketball. So if you wanna be explosive in jumping and you expect that to carry over to basketball, it will, but only to a certain extent. And the reason why is because the time intervals are a lot shorter.
Speaker 1:If So you're a basketball player, you definitely need to do a lot more lateral movement, forward lateral kind of movements, and change your direction laterally. And you probably need your RSI and stiffness to be really good. Does one foot jumpers do one foot jumpers get hurt more easily than two foot jumpers? Absolutely. I think so too.
Speaker 1:This question is about how much is Airstrike Elite? Airstrike Elite was the first thing that I ever released. If you guys have been around a really long time, you'll remember this. It isn't available anymore, but I wanna say it was, like, I wanna say it was, like, $80 a month at the time. Let's see where will there be specific jump days in the program, or do we do that on our own?
Speaker 1:There are always specific jump workouts in the program. If you guys have been on for quite some time, you'll know that, typically I program them in as a jump session, and we've talked about how to do these a handful of times, but it'll just say as many as possible or something like that. And I'll typically go go until my vertical drops, and that's when you know how to cut it. Should you squat with max range of motion for in game dunking? Yeah, I think you should.
Speaker 1:Can you talk about how you use a foam roller? I really don't use foam rollers. I think they're kinda over hyped, but typically you would find whatever area is tight and you would just lay on the roller and you can do pin and stretch. So you'd lay on a tight part of your leg and then you go through a full range of motion and pin and stretch is kinda like ART, if you guys have ever heard of that. Which sport has the best overall athletes?
Speaker 1:We know it's track and field. Oh, I that's a really good question. I think if you were to look at physio like, just quantitatively assessed metrics, decathletes are gonna be way up there. I think bobsledders are way underrated, but I think football probably has the best athletes. Like, you take a Lamar Jackson or something like that, he's gonna be an outlier in every single physical capability, but then also coordination.
Speaker 1:How do you warm up for a dunk session? Start really, really slow with a general warm up. Typically, for me, that's gonna be like sprint drills, Then I'll get into dynamic flexibility, and then I will build up my jumps over the next ten to fifteen minutes. Exercises to improve single leg vertical. Go out and jump off one foot.
Speaker 1:That's probably the easiest way to do it. But then also are gonna be, you know, plyos, short range of motion, squats, and things like that. Sprinting, those are all gonna be good. What if Isaiah started training like he does now at 15? This is a really good question.
Speaker 1:I would say, I don't I would never go back and, like, undo the way that he did things because, I I mean, obviously he ended up in a really, really good position. But if you were to go back and do it again, he wasn't wildly far off when he was 15. I'd say some of the problems with his training arose a little bit later on. But I think he'd probably just be overall more healthy. I think he probably gets to a similar level, but I think that he would have a lot less injuries probably if I could coach him at 15 versus what he did at that time.
Speaker 1:It'd be interesting to talk about phases in training like loading and deloading. I'm gonna skip that one. My back isn't straight, does that affect my jumping? Well, no one's back is straight. But if it's side to side, then you're gonna leak energy and it's gonna hurt your back.
Speaker 1:Does vertical jump specific training improve other power activities such as short or shot or hammer? Yeah, absolutely. Vertical jump training is being more explosive and the cleans and all of the specific aspects of jump training are gonna apply to to throwing. How do you see this is a really cool one. So this is remember, this is six years ago.
Speaker 1:So how do you see the THPS future and how you see dunking in the future will ever become a professional sport. So remember, this is from six years ago. At the time, I mean, it it's basically where it is where it was then it is now, but, I mean, Shaq just released, like, a new league for it being, you know, an an official sport. So it is kind of in the works. Now I don't know what that'll fully look like.
Speaker 1:I don't know a lot of the details. But, yeah, it seems like it is on its way to become a professional sport. Whether the logistics of it and stuff like that, what that's gonna look like, I have no idea, but it's definitely it's definitely a sport. Opinions on using HRV and OmegaWave. This is a good one.
Speaker 1:HRV, really valid for jump training. I mean, there's some credence to it because it can be a metric for parasympathetic innervation, sorry, the parasympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic innervation. So if you have more parasympathetic activity, you're technically more at rest. Omega Wave, I don't have a lot of experience with. I know Cody Bidlow has used it, and I think he's had moderate success with it, but a lot of people really like that one.
Speaker 1:What is up with your left butt cheek with cross leg lunges? I always pull my glute when I do crossover lunges. I don't know why. How does Isaiah have thin legs even though he's super strong and lifts a lot? At the time, I mean, this was 2019, so I would say his legs have never really been thin.
Speaker 1:His quads have always been really, really big, but it's just your nervous system. Cross sectional area is the number one determinant of how much force a muscle can produce, but your nervous system and how much of that muscle you produce and how quick plays a role, and then also the tendons are gonna play a really big role. At what age do you believe people's prime tends to occur for jumping? Oh, I would say, it seems like right now it's in the early thirties. It seems like most guys peak around there, but I think we're gonna try to change that a little bit with myself and Isaiah.
Speaker 1:Do you think Blake Griffin is the best game in game dunker of all time? Oh, probably. I mean, he was nasty. Maybe, I mean, it's tough, like Jaw is probably the my favorite, but Blake Griffin has some some crazy highlights. Best sources for young coaches to learn from.
Speaker 1:I think myself, Ben, you need to go actually, it's the same for everyone. The best sources are gonna be the best sources no matter what. I think whether you're a young coach or an older coach, I would say if you're really young and you don't know anything, then you need to read some textbooks. Injury and if people should re risk it, I don't know what that means. Make a dunk clear list.
Speaker 1:A dunk tier list from most impressive to. Oh, for one foot, I could do this quickly, but this would be hard, and Isaiah would be much better at this. But I would say probably the hardest dunk Double East Bay off one, and then behind the back between the legs. And then I would say any three sixty East Bay variant is probably really hard. The and then basically all of Jordan Sutherland's dunks are probably gonna fall, like, after that.
Speaker 1:So, like, behind the back two hands. Some of his I mean even behind the back one hand is pretty hard. And then probably like Tamala is in that list. I think Duncamp's done a really good job of doing it too. And then it's probably gonna fall into like, you know, two hander, windmill, then one hander.
Speaker 1:Importance of the plantar foot and cruropopliteal area strength in jumping. I mean, it's important, but is it an area that I'm going to solely focus on? No. It's not something I think you're gonna good training is inherently rehabilitative and is inherently prehabilitative. So if you have a really robust training plan, you should be addressing that stuff anyways through normal training.
Speaker 1:Even running is just gonna address that to some extent. How your track and field programming differs from your basketball programming. Track and field, there's a lot more sprints. I think that the basketball players are gonna be more in the weight room, and the reason why is because basketball players are always on the court, so they don't really have the luxury of doing too much on the track. But if I can get them on the track, I like to.
Speaker 1:They are very similar though. It's more so what do you take away from a dunker or, you know, track and field athletes program to make it be more basketball specific. Because you can never really get too specific for those guys because they're already doing so much specific work on the court. During the concentric phase of a one foot jump, is the hamstring glute the main contributor? No.
Speaker 1:I I think they're all turned on a massive amount, and it is probably maybe more the quad. Factors that predispose others to sustained tendonitis, so let's call it tendinopathy. Probably the biggest one is jumping through pain. That's gonna be the number one. I know there is some research out there about type one diabetes, and how it can impact tendons to some extent, so there's also gonna be something there.
Speaker 1:You guys can look at the research on that. Force velocity curve explanation, application to training, and transference. So we always surf the force velocity curve. You wanna start with the really explosive or sorry, you wanna start on the low force stuff and progress to the really high force stuff. And you want the two tail force velocity curve, so eccentric, isometric in the middle, and then the concentric side, and then you travel, you surf it, and you can do that however you want.
Speaker 1:How many times a week do you and Isaiah train? Right now, probably Isaiah trains four, I probably train, or Isaiah probably trains five to six, I train about four. How do you get a quick first step acceleration in basketball and football? What's interesting about basketball is I think a lot of coaches used to teach just standard acceleration mechanics, but that doesn't seem to be what they do. I think the best way to do it is playing basketball full speed.
Speaker 1:And most of the time it's actually getting change of direction in basketball is about deceiving your opponent more so than how fast your first step is, but it's definitely gonna be an element of like limb speed and positioning and being really, really low. And some of the things you do in basketball when you're driving are gonna be different than what you do in track, for example. So it's gonna be more on repositioning the limbs and being probably too far forward versus in sprinting, you would never do that, or in football, you would never do that. Five nine, sixty two kilos, 10% body fat. Should I bulk a little more?
Speaker 1:No. I'd probably just lose body fat. How to overcome adversity with teammates and bad coaches in basketball? That's a tough question. I think you've gotta I would probably change my environment, honestly.
Speaker 1:I think if you have to do it, then you've gotta, in some senses, just wear blinders and ignore them. And you've really gotta step outside of your comfort zone. That's probably the best way to do it. What's the value of upper body plyometrics? I mean, the nervous system, it's obviously, you're gonna there's gonna be a difference in the nervous system between the upper and lower body.
Speaker 1:But if you're doing upper body plyometrics, you're not really getting the same neural drive from the lower body, but there's still some benefits there and some carryover. We've seen guys that bench press a lot of weight, and then they end up having a better day on their jump session or something as a neural primer. Essentially, heavy bench press serves a neural primer for what they're doing the following day. So I think there's maybe some carryover there, but it's not it's just more so being high intent. It teaches you to be more high intent, I would say.
Speaker 1:Drills to confer from long, short, penultimate, hand speed drills. From long, short penultimate, I don't know what that means. Who's your team in the NBA? I don't really have a team. I like players, and anyone who just dunks the hell out of the ball is gonna be who I'm who I'm gonna go with.
Speaker 1:Is lower back strength important for jumping? Yes. And I mean, you're typically gonna train that just by training, and that's gonna, you know, it's gonna be the best way. I really like this guy. I haven't seen him in a while, MKG Junior.
Speaker 1:He always used to ask great questions, so I'm gonna read some of these. Top three freakiest track and field athletes of all time. What do you think they could do in practice weights? I've actually asked this question to Boo. So the ones I've seen in track and field, I mean, now people post so much.
Speaker 1:I think Kyle Garland is probably one of the freakiest athletes. Janik Clawson, in his heyday, had some absolutely ridiculous metrics in the weight room. He had an RSI over five. Michael Kenley is kind of similar to him, what Janik was when he was training all out. It's a really, really high RSI, crazy high hang power cleans, just impressive stuff.
Speaker 1:But Kyle Garland, I think, cleaned, like, I don't know, 360 pound power clean, 360 pounds. He's probably squatted ball into the five hundreds. I don't know for sure, but he's definitely a freak. And then outside of that, Javed Best was pretty crazy. I mean, he came from a football background.
Speaker 1:So just seeing his ability to be explosive in every single movement was was really fun to watch. How do you guys train your core? We really don't. We don't do that much dedicated core training, but it's usually in the form of anti rotation with bands or doing, like, walkouts and stuff like that. Does intermittent fasting stunt growth?
Speaker 1:I don't think there's any evidence to indicate that, but I'm sure if you're depleting yourself, you're gonna have some sort of in development, you're probably gonna have some sort of negative consequence, so I I probably wouldn't recommend that. My greatest inspirations to start coaching, oh, I would probably say Mike Young. He definitely showed me that it was possible to and Jim Radcliffe. They I mean, anytime you train and you get better, it's just wildly addicting, you know, to just wanna keep being the best version of yourself. And I think that they did a really good job of showing me a path to being a better version of myself.
Speaker 1:And so I would I would say both of those. Weight vest for jump training, probably wouldn't do it. You could I'd probably just jump off a higher box because you're just trying to artificially increase the load on the ground. It's gonna slow everything down. So you could do it earlier in the year, but not later in the ground or later later in the year.
Speaker 1:Sorry. How much jumping is too much, specifically for someone who had jumpers knee? If you have jumpers knee and you're jumping through it, that's probably too much jumping, and you need get on a load management protocol. How much do genetics play a role in jumping? I talked about this yesterday, but it definitely does.
Speaker 1:I think it's more so the rate that you improve, but I think most anyone can get at least a 36 inch vertical. There's very few people that I've seen out there that can't. Why don't you call people back? Coach Mueller. Maybe I'll call you back six years later, Buells.
Speaker 1:How long do you think Isaiah how long do you think Isaiah's penultimate step is? I think we've measured it. It's about 10 feet. How much do y'all work out a week? We answered that one.
Speaker 1:Creatine brands. I think the best the one I like is Owen. I really like that. Good or bad if a one leg power jumper drags toe on jump. I think it's fine.
Speaker 1:I don't think it has any any bearing if you're a power jumper. How do I make my calves grow? Where do babies come from? This is so funny, Nate Hyatt. Why does my hamstring always work?
Speaker 1:If you want your calves to grow, do more calves. Who do you love? That's a good one. I love my friends. I really love my friends.
Speaker 1:I love you guys, the athletes, and the people that support us. I think we have we're really lucky to have a really supportive community. So all of you guys watching this, definitely you guys. What do you and Isaiah think the most athletic feat is in dunking and in general? This is the last one from Cammy Dunks.
Speaker 1:I think Isaiah testing a 50.5. I mean, the these questions were before that happened. So him breaking the 50 inch barrier was pretty astounding. I think what Dak has done is is absolutely amazing. In terms of dunks, I think what Isaiah did with hitting three sixty behind the back between the legs and Kamikaze, those are probably the hardest dunks ever.
Speaker 1:So I think those are, you know, some of the the craziest ones I've seen. And then in the weight room, Jay Clark and Isaiah's power cleans, I think, are probably the most impressive I've ever seen. You know, I've never seen someone at that body weight at that height power clean that much weight. So I'd say that's some of the the craziest stuff. There was a thrower from Harvard.
Speaker 1:His name was Sam, and he could put up some crazy weights and was super explosive and weighed, like, two hundred and twenty pounds. That was probably another one that that sticks out my mind. But that's the video, guys. Try to keep it interesting for you guys and do a little blast from the past. Isaiah will be back tomorrow, so you guys will be able to hear about what's going on in his life and the training.
Speaker 1:And as always, if you're interested in coaching, go to teachbstrength.com. I'll see you guys next time.