About Vertical Leaps

The vertical leap test is most commonly measured by "Vertec," which can be mounted on the floor or on a wall. The athlete stands next to a pole and, while standing, raises his arm as high as possible. The tester adjusts the pole's height to get a starting point. When the athlete is ready, he jumps as high as possible off of two feet and swipes vanes. Each vane is placed 1/2 inch apart. The number of vanes knocked sideways off the pole determines the height of the jump.

Significance

The vertical leap is not only a measurement of how high an athlete can jump. The vertical leap test measures an athlete's ability to explode with force, translating into bone-crushing hits, accelerating past defenders, driving the ball after contact and more. College and professional scouts use the vertical leap test to determine the athlete's potential--the higher the leap, the higher the playing potential.

Function

The standard vertical leap test is performed without taking any steps before jumping. The athlete needs to understand how the body works with and against gravity. To achieve a high score, the athlete must throw both hands up and then reach with the dominant hand. As you see in the picture above, the sample athlete has his hand down by the waist. He could be jumping higher with the hand up around the head. When jumping, the power must come from the hips, but do not forget about pushing off with the calves to get those last couple inches.

Expert Insight

When training for a vertical leap test, an athlete needs to increase flexibility, maximum strength and explosion. When one muscle contracts, the opposite muscle stretches. For example, when the hamstrings contract, the quadriceps muscles stretch. The muscles achieve a greater ability to explode when they are flexible. Think of the quadriceps muscles as a rubber band. If the rubber band is stretched a couple inches, it does not fly far when released. However, if the rubber band stretches 6 inches, its trajectory increases speed and distance. All the muscles need to achieve maximum flexibility to increase the vertical leap.

Considerations

The athlete must also increase maximum strength to achieve a high vertical leap. The athlete needs to squat. If a 200-pound athlete can squat 300 pounds, then he or she has 100 pounds extra strength to utilize during a vertical leap. Let's say the same athlete increases his or her squat maximum to 400 pounds. Now the athlete has 200 excess pounds of strength to gain inches on the vertical leap test.

Types

The athlete also needs to train for explosion by using ballistic training. Also known as plyometrics, ballistic training is signified by parts of the body leaving the ground. Train using box jumps, broad jumps and 5-5-5 squats.

Resources

• 5 Ways to Increase Your Vertical Leap