Is there such a thing as “Hang Time“? The short answer is – it is a matter of science – there is no such thing as “hang time”. Most 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, the fact of the matter is, any basketball player (including “Air Jordan” himself) just looks like they are floating in the air.

Here’s the details of what really happens 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 Newton’s 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 pushes against the floor and the floor pushes back. This action/reaction causes the player to “jump” up into the air. The more force the player exerts when pushing against the floor, the greater the force the floor exerts back – resulting 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 their midsection. 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 jumps while running, the center of mass is lifted — and manipulated.

By bringing his knees up, he’s raising 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 brings the center of mass back down. This effectively raises his head in comparison 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, 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 our eyes believe there is such a thing as hang time.

When we look at another person, we don’t normally concentrate on 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 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 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.