Depth jump to box jump - Increase vertical jump - Volleyball

This is Jennifer Clifton, a 15 year old volleyball player performing a Depth jump to a box jump.
NOTE: I would have liked to see her shoulders back a little more in the landing, but I didn't notice it in the video until I uploaded, but no worries, she was corrected when we were training :)
AND, this is for just about any athlete, not just volleyball. Very good exercise for explosiveness.
Before you decide to try this I have a few cautions as you should not try this with a young athlete or any athlete for that matter who is physically unprepared to absorb the drop.
Cautions:
1) Make sure the athlete is 'core strong'. a weak core and back will most definitely increase the chance of injury for this exercise. If you have a weak core your lower extremity joints will be absorbing all of the weight and you will most likely not have a solid base.
2) Incorporate exercises to make sure your athlete is strong around the hips, knees and ankles. Watch how Jennifer lands and jumps: SOLID. If your athletes cannot do jumps or squats without valgus, they're not ready for this exercise or any jumps.
Things to notice:
1) she steps off and does not jump off. Step off with one foot and land on both feet. Notice how she comes right down into her squat and loads. DO NOT LAND STRAIGHT LEGGED! That is only setting yourself up for knee, hip and possibly a back injury.
2) She loads for approximately 2 seconds then explodes and lands on the box in just about the same position she jumped from. This is VERY important as there are way too many people out there jumping as high as they can on unsafe objects at the same time landing with their butts very, very low.
I like to queue my athletes by saying, "start in a squat and land in a squat".
Options
For newbies:
a) FOLLOW MY CAUTIONS ABOVE
b) start low and simply master the depth jump. Once you mastered that simply perform a squat jump where you land and land in a squat. Eventually work your way up to jumping to a box. With that mentioned start low as well.
Experienced/Advanced:
a) Wear a weighted vest
b) Jump to a higher box only IF you can maintain proper landing form.
c) Jump OVER an object. Still landing with proper form. When jumping over an object keep in mind you still have to jump UP so you can come down and land properly. When you jump over an object one tends to jump more forward then up. When this happens you put a ton of strain and pressure on your knees. So think UP and FORWARD.
Please use caution and I hope you put this to use!
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