Hang Time - Is There Such A Thing?

Hang Time - Is There Such A Thing?

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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". Many people may not believe this, using their favorite player as an example 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 makes it seem as if they are floating in the air.

Heres the details of what is happening when a basketball player jumps (but any other sport where jumping is involved applies as well).

Coming down the court, a player jumps and Newtons third law of physics comes into play. 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 pushes against the floor and the floor exerts a force back against the foot. This action/reaction causes the player to leave the floor. The more force the player uses when pushing 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 running during the jumping process, 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 stayed 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 back down and that brings it back to where it normally is. 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 the result is during part of the time, the head stays at the same height, but ,during the entire flight the center of mass goes up and down.

In essence, the players head is the key to why our eyes believe in hang time.

When we look at another person, we dont usually look at the person's center of mass. We usually concentrate on 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 what happens; the head is staying constant for an unnaturally long time because the person 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 that person JUMPS 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.

About the Author:

Tom Beagle is writer for EInfoHound. He does extensive research in many areas to "sniff out" and report the information you are looking for on the internet.

Check these out for Vertical Jump Program Reviews or to find out How To Jump Higher.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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