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That aside,
For most sports, the majority of squats should be done to parallel or lower at a controlled tempo on the eccentric and a quicker tempo on the way up. For jumps, squats should be done full and deep in the offseason, and also in the pre-season, although box squats can be cycled in pre-season. Once the competitive season is in swing, however, full squats should be avoided within 2 weeks of a big meet and used sparingly.
The only reason for that, in my experience, is that deeper squats are nice for increasing muscular power, and 2 leg jumping, but they can have a slightly negative effect on full approach high jumping in the short term. I feel this is because of the long duration that the muscles must contract for each rep, teaching the body to "accumulate" energy rather than release it.
This is not to say at all that full squats are bad for high jumping, because the body is very plastic, in that, a few weeks after a full squat session, the body will supercompensate with an increase in strength, and when speed based training stimuli are introduced, the results can be spectacular. Case in point, my record high jump performance was 2 weeks out of a full-squat minicycle, followed by 2 weeks of plyo's only (no weights).
Regards,
Joel
p.s. Although different squat variations have a place, I wouldn't advocate an unsupported leg press like that of Ed Zercher as shown here.
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