Now that you know what is the vertical jump, it’s useful to know how to measure your vertical jump to see how much progress you’re making. Just like any other jump measurement, there’s more than one way to go about it.
To measure a vertical jump, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and reach up to touch a flat surface with the tips of your fingers. Stand up straight and then jump as high as you can, reaching for the same surface again. The difference in height between your standing reach and your jumping reach is your vertical jump.
There are numerous methods that you can use to properly measure your vertical jump based on the type of equipment your local gym has access to. I’m going to walk you through several of the ways you can get a true measurement of your jump height.
What Is A Vertical Jump?
The term “vertical jump” refers to the measurement of how high you can actually jump. A jump test will measure how high you can get off the ground and also give you an accurate measurement of your overall athletic ability.
Many people assume that jumping high means being able to dunk or shoot a basketball, but this isn’t always true. A player with great speed and power in their legs might not be able to jump very high at all—but they could still be one heck of an athlete!
How Is It Measured?
To measure your vertical jump, you’ll need to use a special tool called a Vertec. The tool has three bars: one that’s 12 inches high, one that’s 23 inches high and one that’s 32 inches high. The athlete stands next to the lowest bar and reaches as high as possible, then holds that position for two seconds before dropping back down to the starting point.
The measurement is taken from the floor up to wherever their hand was when their arm was fully extended. If they were able to touch any part of any of those bars with their finger during their reach or if they made contact with any part of another person’s body (like a teammate), then it doesn’t count as a successful attempt at jumping vertically!
Focusing On The Vertical Jump For Athletes
We live in a world where everything is measured and quantified. We measure the distance to the moon, we measure our height, weight and body fat percentage. But have you ever wondered how to measure your vertical jump?
The vertical jump is a measurement of how high someone can elevate themselves off of the ground (or a box) and land back on it without stepping or falling.
It’s important for athletes and fitness enthusiasts because it shows explosiveness as well as power in one’s legs. It also helps with injury prevention by strengthening muscles and tendons around the knee joint; this will aid in preventing injuries such as ACL tears or other patellar tendon strains that occur when landing from a jump.
In addition to athletic performance, having great vertical reach can help you become more confident at work if you need to stand up tall for presentations or meetings!
Measuring Your Vertical Jump
There are a few ways you can measure your vertical jump:
- Use a tape measure. Measure the distance from the ground to your highest point during a standing vertical jump, keeping in mind that you want to get an accurate measurement of how high you were able to jump and not just how far up your thigh went before coming back down again.
- A good way to get the highest point is by standing on top of something like a box or step—or even better, by having someone videotape your jump with their phone so they can show you exactly where their finger was when it hit maximum height. You can also use a measuring tape if that’s what you’ve got around (but it’s probably not as accurate).
Calculating Your Vertical Jump
To calculate your standing reach, you will need to measure the distance from your finger tips to the ground. The best way to accomplish this is by using a tape measure or a string line and a stick with a pencil at one end.
To use this method, stand with your heels together, toes apart, arms hanging loosely at your sides and knees slightly bent.
With the pencil on the floor in front of you, extend one arm out straight towards it while keeping your other arm at your side; make sure you keep both feet flat on their respective lines throughout this entire process.
Measure from fingertips to end of pencil (or string) without bending wrist or supporting elbow with other hand; repeat for other side. Once you have these numbers written down record them as “Standing Reach A” & “Standing Reach B”.
A Perfect Vertical Jump Isn’t Mandatory
When it comes to vertical jumps, there are two ways to measure it: inches and centimeters. If you’re an athlete or fitness enthusiast, a perfect vertical jump isn’t mandatory—but if you want to get the most out of your practice and training sessions, then knowing how high you can jump is important.
Vertical jumping ability can be measured in inches or centimeters. When measuring in inches, the highest point reached by your hand on its way down from a standing position is counted as one inch (2.54 cm).
In other words: if your hand reaches up a few inches above your head at any point during a jump test—even if only partially—these counts as one full inch (2.54 cm) of vertical height gained during that movement cycle’s peak distance traveled downward toward earth’s surface infrastructure materials like asphalt concrete cement dirt grass sand rocks metal plastic rubberwood synthetic composite [etc]
What Is The Benefit Of Vertical Jump
Improve Your Speed
Now, you know what vertical jump is and how it benefits your overall performance. The next question is: how do you improve?
Well, there are no shortcuts to natural athletic ability and skill development. As mentioned earlier, the best way to increase vertical jump height is through strength training.
To maximize your improvements in speed, agility and explosiveness you need to train as close to game-speed as possible – this means using light weights at high speeds with short rest periods between sets (this allows for greater recovery).
It also means doing plyometric movements like box jumps or squat jumps that require use of fast twitch muscle fibers which respond best when trained with short rests.
Increase Agility
Agility is the ability to change direction quickly and efficiently. It’s important for many sports, including basketball, soccer, football, rugby and lacrosse—but it’s also crucial for baseball players who need to be able to turn on a dime when chasing down a fly ball or hockey players who need to stop on a dime after making a pass.
For example: imagine you’re dribbling down the court with a fast break opportunity. You realize that if you can weave through two defenders at just the right spot on the floor—and if they don’t notice your move until it’s too late—you can get past them both.
To do this successfully requires agility; being able to change direction in an instant means that when one of those defenders starts to slow down or shift their weight from one foot onto another one, you’ll be ready for any sudden change in momentum or position needed in order for them not catch up with where your body is actually moving (which would prevent them from making an effortless interception).
Better Overall Performance
Vertical jump is important to athletic performance. It is one of the best predictors of a player’s speed, power and jumping ability.
A study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research found that vertical jump height could predict the amount of strength athletes would display on the court or field when compared to their peers who didn’t have as high of a vertical jump.
The researchers noted that “research has shown that an athlete’s ability to produce power is related to his or her ability to produce force.”
Producing force through squats, cleans and Olympic lifts improves your vertical leap because they improve your rate of muscle contraction by improving firing rates (how quickly muscles can contract) and increasing fast-twitch fiber recruitment (the size and number of muscle fibers).
Better Overall Health
- Increased flexibility.
- Better balance.
- Improved posture.
- Decreased risk of injury to joints and ligaments in the feet, legs, hips, back and shoulders.
- Increased blood flow throughout the body which helps deliver more oxygen to muscles and organs making them perform better on a cellular level.
There are lot of benefits of playing basketball and vertical jump as well. This can help prevent blood clots that cause heart attacks or strokes as well as reduce inflammation in joints which may lead to arthritis later on in life if left unmanaged properly through proper exercise regimes like jumping rope as an example!
Prevent Injuries
If you are looking to get better at jumping, then it’s important to do some form of training that includes vertical jump exercises.
Doing basic plyometric and jumping exercises will help increase your vertical jump by increasing your speed and height in the air. Some examples of these types of exercises include:
- Sprints
- Depth jumps
- Box jumps
The Vertical Jump Is Useful For Sportsman
If you’re a sportsperson, then the vertical jump can be useful for you.
There are many different types of sports in which jumping is useful. For example, basketball players can use their vertical jump to make a slam dunk or high rebound, while football players can use their vertical jump to catch passes and climb over other players on the field (known as “jumping for joy”).
How To Do Vertical Jump
Workout Plan For Vertical Jump
Jumping is an explosive act, so it’s important that you warm up properly. Before jumping for the day, take some time to run through some dynamic stretches like high knees and walking lunges.
You can also perform lower-body exercises like squats, which will help improve your hip mobility and leg strength.
When practicing vertical jump training, it’s essential that you hold good posture at all times—this will ensure that you’re gaining power from your hips rather than sacrificing form by using other muscles during exercise movements.
This means keeping your back straight while leaning forward slightly and keeping your shoulders down as much as possible (don’t let them creep up towards your ears).
Exercises For Vertical Jump
To help you get the most out of your vertical jump training, we’ve compiled a list of exercises that can help you improve. (Feel free to add more exercises and share them with us!)
- Squats
- Lunges
- Calf raises
- Box jumps
- Jumps
- Crunches and Ball slams: For this exercise, lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Extend both arms straight up in the air so that they are parallel with the wall behind you. Then bend at the hips into a crunch position, lower back onto elbows and raise ball overhead as shown above. Repeat for desired repetitions and sets! (Note: this exercise is great for building explosive power)
Plank: The plank is an excellent way to strengthen your core muscles while also improving balance and stability throughout your body. It requires minimal equipment but provides big results!
Start by lying face down on floor with forearms resting below shoulder height on floor (or use bench/chair if needed), legs extended behind body in tabletop position with toes pointed toward ceiling or slightly beyond it depending on how advanced you are at planks already; hold body up off ground by contracting abs while trying not too let shoulders come off ground either which will create unnecessary strain on neck & upper back regions causing pain later down road when doing other activities such as squats etc.
Getting The Best Out Of Your Workout
To get the most out of your workout, follow these tips:
- Warm up and cool down. Before your vertical jump exercises, it’s important to warm up your muscles by moving them through their full range of motion. Afterward, cool them down with some light stretching. This helps prevent injury and also keeps you lose for the next workout!
- Do your exercises in the right order. Your workout should start with an exercise that focuses on strength (like a squat), then move onto one that focuses on power (like a two-legged hop), followed by an explosive plyometric move like box jumps or depth jumps (where you drop off of something). The point is not necessarily what you do but how you sequence it—and make sure each exercise gets progressively harder!
- Don’t overdo it! If any exercise hurts or stops feeling good after three tries, take a break before trying again later when you’re feeling better rested—you don’t want to hurt yourself during practice!
Frequently Asked Question (How To Measure Vertical Jump)
How can I check my vertical jump at home?
You can measure your vertical jump with a tape measure.
To do this, you’ll need to find a tape that is at least 5 feet in length (1.5 meters). Then, place one end of the tape on the floor and mark where your highest point touched or reached during your jump.
If there’s not enough room for this, try using a box or step instead of a chair; then, place one end of the measuring tape on top of that surface and mark where your highest point touched or reached during your jump (be sure to use some sort of marker so no one will accidentally step on it).
Next, take off all shoes that have any kind of heel (even little ones) and stand on an even surface like grass or concrete without bending over or leaning forward too much when jumping up off something—this helps ensure accuracy!
Once you’ve measured from floor height up until reach height/box height/step distance etcetera (whichever applies), subtract out whatever number comes up under “reach” because it represents how tall we stand normally so anything above should count towards our true max potential!
This will leave us with our vertical leap distance calculated correctly which works out beautifully because when calculating vertical jump power output levels we want everything as accurate as possible 🙂
Is 70 cm vertical jump good?
A 70-centimeter vertical jump is a very good indicator of your ability to jump higher. If you can jump 70cm in the air, then you are likely able to make a lot of baskets or spikes during basketball or volleyball games.
You can further improve your vertical jump by doing exercises like squats and calf raises. These exercises will build up leg strength and increase the power of your muscles so they can pull you higher when you jump.
Are vertical jump apps accurate?
No, you can’t trust a vertical jump app to measure your vertical jump. There are too many variables that can affect your test results, things like how long you jumped before taking the test and how much time passed between each jump.
Even if you’re using an app that promises to be accurate, remember that it’s only as accurate as its data source (which may or may not be reliable).
A professional jump test is the best way to measure your vertical leap because it gives consistent results every time. The person measuring your height won’t need to worry about anything other than making sure they’re at eye level with where they’re standing.
They’ll also know exactly when to start timing their stopwatch so they get accurate measurements of both squats and jumps.
What is a good vertical for a 15 year old?
It is important to note that there are no hard and fast rules regarding what is a good vertical for a 15 year old, as each person’s body type and muscle mass will have a different effect on the results of the test. However, if you’re looking for an average range of results, look at the chart below:
- 15 Year Old: 30-40 Inches
- 20 Year Old: 40-50 Inches
- 25 Year Old: 50-60 Inches
Does height affect vertical jump?
The simple answer is no. Being taller does not make you jump higher, it’s the amount of force you can generate that determines how high you’ll be able to jump.
To put it another way, vertical jump is based on how much power and strength your legs have combined with the speed at which they move. The faster your legs move up and down, the more power they’re capable of generating against gravity (think about how a basketball is easier to throw when it’s on the ground vs in the air).
If we were to plot out someone’s vertical jump as a function of their height and weight (or body mass), we would see that there is almost no correlation between these factors – instead what matters most is their ability to generate power through their lower body muscles!
Conclusion
Exactly what this informative and simple article is about, you can quickly assess for yourself by simply reading it. So, if you are interested in vertical jump and wish to get the most out of it, read this article. It is quite short and packed full of interesting info.