Does JHP, the Jump Training Program, Actually Work?

JHP is a 10-week program split into three three-week blocks plus a final week of plyometrics, with three sessions a week. It works the way any training program works: follow it all the way through, consistently and with proper recovery, and your jump improves. Do it half-heartedly and it won't. The honest answer is that no program jumps for you — and the only way to know whether it's working for you is to measure before and after.

Here's what's in it, how it's built and who it makes sense for.

How the program is structured

Phase 1 — Strength (3 weeks)

You start from the base: squats, lunges, calf work. The goal isn't to jump, it's to build the tissue and the strength the push will come from in the weeks that follow. It's the phase almost everyone would like to skip, and it's the one holding up everything else.

Phase 2 — Speed and coordination (3 weeks)

Box jumps, arm swings, agility drills. Here you work on how fast you can express the strength you built earlier, and on the coordination between arms and legs in the take-off.

Phase 3 — Explosiveness (3 weeks)

Plyometric jumps and approach work. This is the phase where the movement gets closest to what you do in a match: you train the push, but also the way you get into the take-off.

Final week — plyo week

A concentrated week of plyometrics to close the cycle. It's the most intense part and you need fresh legs for it: if you arrive tired from the previous weeks, better to slot in a few easy days first.

How much it asks of you

Three sessions a week. That's not much in hours, but you have to do all of them and do them in the order given: the progression only makes sense if you respect the sequence. Skipping the strength weeks to go straight to the jumps is the most common mistake, and the most frequent reason people end up stopping with a sore knee.

The program is bodyweight only: no gym, no special equipment. What you need is space, a decent surface and consistency.

On the rest — nutrition and sleep — the general rule applies: improvements are built in recovery, not during the session.

How to tell whether it's working for you

This is the part most reviews skip. Feelings mislead you: after three weeks of strength work you feel heavy and think you've got worse, after a plyometric session you feel explosive and think you've gained five centimetres. Neither one is data.

The method is always the same: measure first, then train, then measure again. Take your jump height before week 1, repeat the measurement after plyo week, under the same conditions: same time of day, same warm-up, same type of take-off.

The jump test is there for exactly that and it's free: you upload a two-second video, the system works out the height in centimetres from your flight time, and the video never leaves your device.

Who it suits and who it doesn't

It makes sense if: you play volleyball, beach volleyball or basketball, you have three sessions a week to give it, and you're willing to follow ten weeks without switching route halfway.

It makes less sense if: you're in the middle of an unresolved injury, you're already at the ceiling of your weekly load between training and matches, or you're after a result in a fortnight. In that case the problem isn't the program, it's the calendar.

If you've had joint problems or you're coming back from an injury, talk to whoever looks after you before adding jump volume.

What there is beyond the base program

• Jump Higher Program — the path described above: 10 weeks, bodyweight only. €60.
• JHP Gym Edition — the version for anyone with a weight room: 16 weeks on maximal strength and power. €60.
• JHP Vertical Upgrade — 36 sessions across 12 weeks. €67.
• JHP Nutrition for Explosive Strength — the nutrition side. €10.

The JHP subscription includes 13 programs, WhatsApp support and free cancellation, at €99 a year. The full catalogue is on the JHP courses page.

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