Vertical jump test
The standing vertical jump is lower-body power in its purest form: no run-up, no technique to hide behind, just how much force you can put into the ground in the time available.
A vertical jump is scored as the difference between your standing reach and the highest point you touch, jumping from a standstill with no step. Best of three attempts.
It is also the cheapest fatigue check an athlete owns — a jump several centimetres below your own normal, on a day you feel fine, is a genuine signal that you are carrying fatigue.
The point of the test
Concentric lower-body power. It is also — and this is under-used — the cheapest fatigue monitor an athlete has. A vertical jump that is down several centimetres on your own normal, on a day you feel fine, is a genuine signal.
Why it is in the Train Smart battery: Lower-body power in its purest form, and the cheapest fatigue check you own.
How to run it
Side-on to a wall, chalk or wet fingertips. Reach up flat-footed and mark your standing reach, then — feet planted, no step — jump and slap the wall as high as you can. The score is the gap between the two marks. Three attempts, best counts.
- What you need
- A wall or a jump mat · Chalk or a Vertec · A tape measure
What is a good score?
We are not going to publish a precise-looking table for this test. Reported ranges vary too much with protocol, equipment, level, age and sex for a single table to be honest, and most of the tables in circulation for it are uncited copies of each other.
The comparison that actually changes your training is against your own last score. That is not a consolation prize — it is what the monitoring literature supports, and it is what Train Smart does: re-test every four weeks under the same conditions and let the trend, not the percentile, drive the program. The papers behind that are here.
What people get wrong
Most of the variation between two tests is protocol, not fitness. These are the faults that make one score incomparable to the last.
- Not measuring standing reach.
- The score is jump height minus standing reach. Measuring the touch height alone measures how tall you are.
- Taking a step.
- A step makes it a different test. Feet planted, no shuffle, no step-in.
- Testing at the end of a session.
- Vertical jump is fatigue-sensitive by design, which makes it a great monitoring tool and a terrible end-of-session test.
- Only three attempts on the first ever test.
- The first time anyone tests a vertical jump, some of the improvement over the next fortnight is learning the movement, not gaining power. Expect that, and treat test two as your real baseline.
How to actually move the number
Jump height is force divided by the time you have to apply it, so there are two levers:
- Make more force — heavy lower-body strength work. Squats, trap-bar deadlifts, split squats. This is the bigger lever for anyone who is not already strong.
- Apply it faster — jumps, plyometrics and Olympic-lift derivatives. Low volume, maximum intent, full recovery, and always fresh.
Which lever matters more depends on where you are. A newer athlete gets more from getting stronger; a strong athlete gets more from learning to express it quickly. Train Smart weights these differently by training age and by sport, which is why a basketballer's program and a rugby forward's program look nothing alike even though both want a bigger jump.
The movements that build a vertical jump test
Testing tells you where you are; these are what change it. Each one carries the coaching cues, the sets and reps Train Smart prescribes it at, and ranked alternatives — and in the app the weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Why it is programmed |
|---|---|
| Front Squat | Quad and trunk strength in the upright posture sport actually loads |
| Trap Bar Jump | A loaded jump — peak power output with no barbell skill to learn first |
| Romanian Deadlift | Posterior chain for driving legs |
| Bulgarian Split Squat | Single-leg power + change of direction |
| Jefferson Curl (light KB) | Loads spinal flexion and hamstring length together, then holds there — the range you land and bend in, owned rather than avoided |
| Loaded 90/90 — hold each side | Internal and external hip rotation held at end range — the range that runs out first in cutting sports |
| Trap Bar Deadlift | Foundational power output |
| Back Squat | Base strength to win the collision |
More: quad exercises · glute exercises
vertical jump test — questions
How is a vertical jump measured?
Why does my vertical jump change day to day?
What is the difference between a standing and a running vertical jump?
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