Is there such a thing as “Hang Time“? To get straight to the point - it is a matter of science - there is no such thing as “hang time”. Many people may not believe this, using their favorite player as an example and exclaiming how he can stay in the air longer than anyone else. But, in reality, any basketball player (including “Air Jordan” himself) just makes it seem as if they are hanging in the air.
Here’s the details of what is happening when a basketball player jumps (or any other sport where jumping is involved).
Coming down the court, a player jumps and the laws of physics comes into play. This law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What this means in layman’s terms is that the player pushes against the floor and the floor exerts a force back. This action/reaction causes the player to “jump” up into the air. The greater the force the player exerts when he pushes against the floor, the greater the force the floor pushes back with - resulting in the player going higher into the air.
If a player is in motion (running) during the jump, his/her center of mass follows a parabolic path, which basically looks like a rounded off mountain top. A persons “center of mass” is located around the middle of their body. This means that, if the person were to stay in exactly the same position during the jump, his/her midsection (and therefore, entire body) would follow this path. But as a player that is running jumps, the center of mass is lifted — and manipulated.
By raising his knees, he raises his center of mass in relation to his head. He does that on his way up. On the way down, however, he lowers his legs and that brings the center of mass back down. This effectively raises his head in comparison to the center of mass. The head does not follows the parabolic path. The head stays at one height.
So what you get is during part of the time in the air, the head stays at the same height, but ,during the entire flight the center of mass follows this parabola.
In essence, the player’s head is the key to why our eyes believe in hang time.
When we look at another person, we don’t usually look at the person’s “center of mass”. We usually look at the head (or at least the upper part of the whole body) . What happens then is somewhat of an “illusion”, but it really is happening; the head stays in the same place for an unnaturally long time because he/she changes his center of mass.
Well, if there is no such thing as “hang time”, how is it that one person can stay in the air longer than another person? The REAL answer is that they can JUMP HIGHER.
If you can’t increase your hang time then, you have to learn to jump higher! How can you do this? Check out these Vertical Jump Program Reviews for more information.
Tags: hang time, how to jump higher, improve vertical jump, jump higher, vertical jump