The Vertical Jump
Here, we measure explosive power — how much force you can produce in a split second. It shows up in nearly every athletic movement, and it's one of the most trainable qualities an athlete has.
What this looks like
You stand, sink into a quick dip, swing your arms, and jump straight up — reaching at the top. Best of several attempts, fully rested between. Every gym class has done some version of it; we measure it precisely and pay attention to what it says about how you produce power.
Why we test it
Because the vertical jump answers a question almost everything explosive depends on: how much force can you produce, and how fast can you produce it?
The same qualities that raise a vertical raise your first step, your acceleration, your ability to get off the ground before the other player does. That's why the NBA and NFL combines have never let go of this test.
What we're really looking for
The height matters, but how you create it tells us more.
- Is the dip quick and springy, or slow and grinding? Same height can come from very different engines.
- Do the arms contribute to the jump?
- Does everything extend together at takeoff?
- What does the landing look like?
What good looks like
In the movement: a quick, confident dip, arms and legs firing on the same beat, full extension at takeoff, and a landing that's quiet, balanced, and ready to go again.
How much vertical your sport demands varies. Volleyball and basketball practically live on this number — attacking, blocking, rebounding, finishing at the rim. Football reads it as a measure of raw lower-body explosiveness, even for positions that rarely leave the ground. For most court and field athletes, the jump matters less as a skill than as a signal: how much force can you put into the ground on demand?
For anchors: everyday adult men test around 16–20 inches and women around 12–16. NBA athletes commonly test 28–32, NFL athletes 25–30, and the elite in both leagues clear 35 — a direction to grow toward, and a reminder of how much room there is to build. One caution while you compare: most age-by-age vertical charts online are made up, so treat random tables with suspicion. In your report, we compare your jump against research-grade references for your age and sex.
What the research shows clearly: boys typically add jump height every year from about 11 on, while girls often plateau around 12–13 — which means a girl holding her vertical steady through a growth spurt is usually gaining relative power. Context like that changes what a number means.
When the number and the ability don't match
A strong squat with a modest vertical says the force is there but the speed of force isn't yet. A big jump followed by a heavy, crashing landing says you can produce more than you can absorb — and that gap is where we look before adding more. You may have felt the sport version: strong in the weight room, ordinary off the ground.
What we do about it
Your jump tells us which ingredient to train: force (strength work), rate (jumps and plyometrics), spring (elastic work), or the positions and landings underneath it all. Different athletes, different ingredient — same test.
What's underneath this number
A vertical jump is force, speed, and spring — and the spring lives in how your tendons store and return energy, which is its own trainable quality. How you land matters as much as how you leave.