Is there such a thing as "Hang Time"? To get straight to the point – it is a matter of science – 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 hang in the air longer than someone else. But, in reality, any basketball player (including Air Jordan himself) just makes it seem as if they are floating in the air.

Here s 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 the laws 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 pushes against the floor and the floor exerts a force back. This action/reaction enables the player to "jump" up into the air. The greater the 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 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 the middle of their body. This means that, if the person were to stay 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, he raises his center of mass in relation to his head. He does that on his way up. On the way down, of course, he lowers his legs back down and that, in turn brings the center of mass back down. This effectively raises his head relative to the center of mass. The head no longer follows the parabola. The head stays at one height.

So what you get is during part of the flight, the head stays at the same height, but ,during the entire flight the center of mass follows this parabola.

In essence, the player s head is the key to why we believe in hang time.

When we look at another person, we don t usually look at the person’s center of mass . We usually look at 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 happening; the head stays in the same place for an longer than normal time because the person 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 someone else? The REAL answer is because they  JUMP 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.

 Vertical Jump Enhancement System 

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