Vertical Jump Measurement
Posted by admin on March 27th, 2009 at 06:37am
I measured my vertical last night, and let’s just say I was disappointed! Now, before I post up what my vertical jump measured, let me get my excuses out of the way!
First, my legs were not exactly fresh since I have been hitting the cardio type work pretty hard. The goal right now is to lose fat and if my vertical jump takes a hit in the short term, then that is fine by me.
Second, I recognize that there will most likely be wide swings in my vertical jump from any given measurement based on many factors. Things such as whether my legs are fresh, what sort of state my central nervous system is in, and on and on will impact what I actually jump on that given day.
Third, I don’t have access to a great measurement device, so my measurements are approximate. I don’t see a huge problem with this, since I am not looking for an exact measurement, I just want to see the trend.
My plan going forward it to measure towards the end of deload weeks where I cut my lifting volume drastically to recover some. My next deload week will be in about two weeks, so I will measure then. The measurements will then come every month or so. Like I mentioned above, I just want to see the trend moving up over the long term.
Ok, now for the numbers. My standing, no step vertical was about 18.5 inches. My one step vertical was about 22.5 inches. This was weird to me because last summer I did 24 inches standing and I am much stronger now than I was then. However, I haven’t done any actual jumping work in awhile, so that could explain some of the loss. Right now, these are the numbers I am working with and they indicate that I have a lot of work ahead of me!
Under Measurements/Results
7 Comments for Vertical Jump Measurement
1. Mark | April 5th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Can you give some detail on how you are measuring your vertical. There are many people who do it wrong.
2. admin | April 5th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Hi Mark,
My measurement technique certainly isn’t the most accurate. Generally speaking, I am looking for my measurement to trend up over time. I really don’t care what my vertical ends up being, as long as the end result is dunking! With all that said, I open my garage door and get my reach measurement. To do that, I put both arms up over my head and reach as high as I can while standing flat footed. I mark this spot with a piece of tape. When jumping, I take two measurements, one jumping flat footed and one jumping with a single step. I jump and hit the siding of my house with tape for an approximate measure of my vertical jump. Like I said, its no vertec and it is not exact, but close enough for my purposes. Thanks for reading my blog. Are you currently training for vertical?
Jeff
3. Mark | April 5th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Ok, sounds like you are doing it correctly (some people cheat).
I see by your height you will need a pretty high vertical in order to dunk a basketball. I have some insight on this that I’m sure will interest you.
I am 6′2″ tall, 53 years old. I am a white guy. I was fortunate in that I was a pretty good leaper. In high school I could easily dunk my junior and senior year. I really didn’t do much training. Weight training was frowned on in those days for basketball players. About the only think I did was leg extensions.
I am also fortunate in that I have been able to maintain a good level of conditioning throughout my life. In fact, I dunked a basketball a few years ago at age 50. Currently I’m a little out of shape, but am working on getting back at it and dunking again this year.
Probably what would interest you more is my son. He is your height (6′0″ without shoes). He was not gifted with the leaping ability I had. So he could not dunk in high school. He had a decent vertical of about 27″ in high school (measuring it the same way you do). Although he worked out alot and was in good shape, he just couldn’t jump very high. I had pretty much given up on him ever dunking. Last year, when he was 22 he spent the entire summer with a personal trainer. They worked out 3 days a week, really blasting his body. Believe it or not, towards the end of the summer he dunked for the first time in his life (I have it on film).
I haven’t measured his vertical, but just looking at how high up on the rim he can touch his palm/wrist/forearm he must have gained 6 to 8 inches that summer. In fact, without the ball he touched the rim on his forearm about 5 to 6 inches below his wrist. Now, he’s gaining still. He’s starting to work out again after his college season is over.
Mark
4. Mark | April 5th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
The only thing I would say about measuring your vertical is to establish your base height by reaching up with one arm, flat footed, instead of two.
Mark
5. admin | April 5th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Wow, it sounds like your son has made great improvement! It certainly gives guys like me some hope! So what is it that he did? You mentioned he worked out, did he enter the personal training sessions with the goal of dunking? You are lucky you found a decent personal trainer (if you did and this person didn’t just accidentally help your son to dunk!). The whole reason I began to pursue my education with all things strength and conditioning is because of the misinformation out there. If you wouldn’t mind talking a bit more about what it was your son did, that would be pretty cool.
Thanks for reading,
Jeff
6. Mark | April 5th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Your welcome Jeff. My son’s personal trainer was a former NBA trainer and is a specialist in knee rehab. My son did go into the training with the primary goal of dunking. He had been wanting that badly for a while now.
I’ll have to speak to my son to get details. I know some of the things they did. They did a lot of step ups, lunges, squats, and power movements like clean and jerk. They even did a tire flipping exercise like you see on the strongman contest on TV, always a lot of ab work. I honestly believe that the work developed a “core” strength that was lacking. Jumping uses much of the body and not just the legs. Especially the lower back, glutes and abs.
He really blasted his body M,W,F of every week for about an hour and a half. At the same time, he allowed his body to recover. We would go to the gym Sunday nights to practice shooting. He would usually try to dunk at that time. I think it is important to actually practice trying to dunk. It trains your body into performing the movement and becoming comfortable with it.
For the first time in his life, he actually looks “springy” when he jumps and at the same time the jump looks effortless.
Mark
7. admin | April 6th, 2009 at 6:27 am
That’s great. It’s very rare to find someone with that much knowledge. I have found that even some pro S&C guys really don’t know anything at all, as they say, it is who you know in that business. Ross Tucker at Sports Illustrated actually wrote a great article on the subject here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ross_tucker/03/18/conditioning/index.html
It sounds like the general plan of your sons is similiar to what I intend to do. I certainly would be interested in hearing more details as to what he did, if your interested in sharing and if you have a chance. I plan to come up with a more detailed plan that I will post up, probably in the next week or so. Right now, I am finishing up a strength cycle designed to get stronger and add a little muscle to my frame. This is the last week, then a deload week, then a new cycle. I’ll post it up once I have details.
Thanks for reading,
Jeff
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