Q: Please elaborate on your personal opinion between Cal Dietz’s perspective on emphasizing a floating heel during training means vs Dan Pfaff’s emphasis on utilizing heel contact in drills, rudimentary series, dribbles, jumps, etc. Thank you.

——————————-

A: I want to preface this by saying, I cannot speak for Cal nor Dan.  This is MY interpretation and application of certain methods/exercises, so I will only speak on what I do and why.

Why/when I use/implement:

Floating heel –

For me, this is used after we’ve already strengthened the soleus via isometrics for a period of time.  Most of our athletes are very weak in this area, so it takes 4-8 weeks to improve this before flatlining on bodyweight isometrics alone.  Just by utilizing soleus isos, we’ve seen insane improvements in verts.  We’ve added weight to the isos, but haven’t noticed much of an improvement past bodyweight, so we just progress to bodyweight competence and move on.

Once we stop seeing improved competency for a couple of weeks, then we go to more floating heel dynamic work.  This isn’t typically loaded.  Just different jump variations: reactive 90s, 180s, 360s, & jumping from/on unlevel/unstable surfaces.

We do this to allow the athlete to learn how to apply realized strength from isometrics in a way that would be applicable to sport.  Our way to increase force with this exercise is through sprints.  Faster speeds = higher force/power.  Why that? It’s more task specific vs just adding weight.

Rudiment series –

I use this as a way to teach athletes how to jump, land, decelerate and change direction in a submaximal fashion as well as improve rhythm, low intensity reactiveness and connective tissues associated with movements.  It’s very simple.  We start off with one jump, then two, then three then rebounds, then add weight with rebounds.  Once we show competency with that, then we’re typically at a higher DOD plyometric, reduce the volume/load of rudiment series and just expose for maintenance purposes.  It’s a great starting point of which we can/will build our more intensive plyos.