Why you jump less at the end of the season (and what you can do about it)

If you feel heavier in March than you were in October, you're not imagining it. In the second half of the season the jump tends to drop for specific reasons: accumulated fatigue, strength work abandoned, tendons asking for the bill. The good news is that almost all of these reasons can be managed, if you spot them before they turn into a problem.

1. Strength goes away if you stop training it

It's the most obvious reason and the most common one. In August and September almost everyone does preseason: weight room, leg work, serious loads. Then the league starts, matches pile up, the gym becomes "I'll do it when I have time" and disappears by November.

The strength you built in preseason doesn't stay there forever. Without a stimulus to maintain it, it drops. And since the jump sits on top of strength, that drops too. You don't need to replicate August's heavy sessions: you need to keep doing something, even a little, consistently.

One or two short sessions a week, with decent loads and little volume, are enough in most cases to maintain. The problem isn't how little you do, it's that you stop altogether.

2. Fatigue piles up faster than you clear it

Every team practice is full of jumps and landings. Every match too. If recovery in between isn't enough, the debt grows week after week without you noticing straight away.

The typical sign isn't pain. It's the feeling of having no "pop": the movement feels the same to you, but the ball comes lower, and by the end of the match the quick attack you were closing in October now gets away from you.

There are no shortcuts here: sleep, food and real deload days. They're the three most powerful levers and the three almost nobody manages seriously.

3. Tendons work all season without a break

The patellar tendon and the Achilles tendon absorb every single landing. Unlike muscle, they recover slowly and adapt over long timeframes.

When they start hurting — the classic ache under the kneecap that shows up cold and disappears once you're warm — your body protects itself on its own: you unconsciously cut the depth of your load, you land stiffer, you push less. The jump drops before you decide to let it drop.

If you're at that point, the question isn't jumping higher any more, it's managing load. There's a dedicated article on jumper's knee, and it's worth reading before the ache turns chronic.

4. Your jump volume on court went up without you counting it

At the start of the season maybe you played half a match. By March you're a starter, you play everything, and maybe you're on jump serve too. Your weekly take-offs have doubled and nobody wrote it down anywhere.

This is a case where the drop is the price of something good. But it still needs to be recognised, because the right answer isn't adding work: it's taking it away somewhere else.

5. You stopped measuring

In September everybody tests. In February nobody does. The result is that you only notice the drop once it's already obvious on court — too late to fix it calmly.

Measuring during the season is exactly for that: seeing a trend while it's still small. With the JHP jump test you upload a 2-second video and get your height in centimetres from flight time: it's free, the analysis runs in your browser and the video never leaves your device.

One check every three or four weeks, always in the same conditions, is enough. If the number drops twice in a row, you've got useful information instead of a feeling.

What to do, in practice

• Keep strength alive. Even just one short session a week. It's the difference between maintaining and losing.
• Plan your deloads before you need them. One lighter week now and then costs less than a month of decline.
• Don't add plyometrics when you're tired. That's when it gives you the least and risks the most.
• Sleep and food before supplements. No product makes up for four nights of five hours.
• Measure every three to four weeks. That way you see the curve, not just the end point.

The JHP programs built for the season

• Volley In-Season Workout — €90. Built for the part of the year when you're playing and can't afford sessions that empty you out.
• Knee Power — €40. To strengthen the structure that absorbs your landings, before it asks for the bill.
• The Stretching Bible — €20. For the mobility work that's always the first thing to disappear mid-season.
• JHP Subscription — €99/year: 13 programs, WhatsApp support, cancel whenever you want. Full list on the JHP courses page.

In short

The end-of-season drop isn't bad luck: it's the sum of strength you stopped training, fatigue you don't clear, tired tendons and a jump volume on court that grew without anybody counting it. You keep it in check by holding on to a minimum of strength work, planning your deloads and measuring your jump mid-season too, not just in September.

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