Is there such a thing as "Hang Time"? To get straight to the point, scientific laws control this, there is no such thing as "hang time". Most people may not believe this, pointing to their favorite player and at the same time exclaim how he can stay in the air longer than anyone else. But, the fact of the matter is, any basketball player (including “Air Jordan” himself) just looks like they are floating in the air.
Here’s the details of what really happens when a basketball player jumps (but any other sport where jumping is involved applies as well).
Coming down the court, a player jumps and Newton’s third law of physics takes over. This law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. What this means in layman's terms is that the player's foot exerts a force against the floor and the floor exerts a force back. This action/reaction enables the player to leave the floor. The greater the force the player exerts when he pushes against the floor, the more force the floor exerts back - this results in the player jumping higher into the air.
If a player is 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 their midsection. This means that, if the person were to stay in exactly the same position during the entire jumping action, his/her midsection (and therefore, entire body) would follow this path. But as a player jumps while running, 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, in turn brings the center of mass back down. This effectively raises his head in comparison to the center of mass. The head no longer follows the parabola. The head stays at one height.
So what you get is during part of the flight, the head stays at the same height, but ,during the entire time in the air the center of mass follows this parabola.
In essence, the player’s head is the key to why we 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 a person's 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 manipulates 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 someone else? The REAL answer is because they 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.
