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How High Can Michael Jordan Jump ?
‘Superman has here!’ is what one could hear from the overwhelming crowds on seeing Michael Jordan, the retired basketball legend on the game field. This superstar played for the Chicago Bulls in the National Basket Association from 1984 to 1993. |
Michael Jordan was a starter right from the first game of his freshman year at the University of North Carolina. He became a national icon when he sank a winning fifteen-foot jump shot in the final seconds of the 1982 NCAA Championship. Soon after, teammates and fans nicknamed him "Superman" and "Last Shot," and he was voted Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year. After joining the NBA, his inexhaustible scores paved the way for this rising star of the Chicago Bulls. His leaping ability illustrated at the Slam Dunk Contest earned him the nicknames of ‘Air Jordan’ and ‘His Airness’.
How High Can Michael Jordan Jump ??
Apart from other game skills, Jordan was in rage for his hang time. His knack of jumping and leaping amazes everyone. Hang time is actually the duration for which a pro stays up in the air before his feet touch the ground. The hang time is determined by the vertical component of the leap. The higher the professional jumps, the longer he stays up.
It has been estimated that Michael’s hang time is 0.98 seconds. However, by moving his arms and bending his legs, he probably could stretch that to 1.50 seconds, sometimes 2.00 seconds. The extra 0.50 seconds were provided by the additional upward momentum from pumping his arms and ball. And his hand touching the rim could slow down his descent for about 0.15 seconds.
There are various factors that helped Jordan achieve this time frame. Skill, speed, and physics seemed to have allowed Jordan to do the impossible. The foremost advantage was his height. With a height of 6 feet 6 inches, his center of gravity is higher than that of an average person and his aerial acrobatics cause him to rise even higher during a jump. The terrific force he exerts on the floor gives him a quick takeoff and longer time in the air. Secondly, Michael has powerful hips, quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles that push his lean, skinny body into the air with ease and launch him 48 inches up into the stratosphere. Lastly, believe it or not, his skin color also plays a role in this! Black people genetically have higher ratios of fast-twitch muscle fibers in comparison to slow-twitch. It is these fast-twitch muscles that provide the explosive power. That is the reason Michael does not tire easily. So, in order to be a good jumper, one needs to be thin and aerobically in shape. It is also crucial for basketball players to be able to sprint a mile within 5 minutes. Players like Jordan can accomplish this because they are lean and have big lungs and heart.
An analysis of Jordan's 32,000 career total points and about 16,000 jumps shows that Jordan has been airborne for approximately 4 1/2 hours -- the time a flight takes from New York to Los Angeles!
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