Is Hang Time Real?
Is there such a thing as "Hang Time"? The short answer is, scientific laws control this, "hang time" is not "real". Many people may not believe this, using their favorite player as an example and exclaiming how he can hang in the air longer than someone else. But, the fact of the matter is, any basketball player (including "Air Jordan" himself) just looks like they are hanging in the air.
Heres the details of what is happening when a basketball player goes up for a slam dunk (or any other sport where jumping is involved).
As he comes down the court, a player jumps and Newtons third law of physics takes over. This law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What this means then is that the player exerts a force against the floor and the floor pushes back. This action/reaction enables the player to "jump" up into the air. The more force the player exerts when he pushes against the floor, the more force the floor pushes back with - this results 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 stayed 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 that is running jumps, the center of mass is lifted - and manipulated.
By raising his knees, hes raising his center of mass relative to his head. He does that on his way up. On the way down, of course, he lowers his legs and that causes the center of mass to come back down. This effectively raises his head in relation to the center of mass. The head no longer follows the parabolic path. The head stays at one height.
So the result is during part of the time in the air, the head stays at the same height, but ,during the entire time 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 normally look at the persons "center of mass". We usually concentrate on a persons 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 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 because they JUMP HIGHER.
If you cant 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.