Power is one of the most valued athletic qualities and for good reason, powerful athletes can produce force in less time. This leads to faster running, harder hitting, further throwing, and higher jumping.
There are many tests available to try and evaluate an athlete’s athletic performance potential however the one test that remains undefeated is the vertical jump. Why the vertical jump? Because it is the truest test of an athlete’s raw power. It can’t be drastically improved with simply technique training like a 5-10-5 or 3 cone drill can.
Even for sports like football and baseball where you don’t necessarily think of a vertical jump as being highly correspondent those players with the highest vertical tend to be the best performers.
In football the 40-yard dash might be the most popular measure of athleticism, however the vertical is the only combine test correlated with increased playing time in football games.
In baseball for every 1-inch increase in vertical jump height, there is a predicted 0.5 mph increase in pitching velocity.
The ground contact times in acceleration are extremely similar to the vertical jump, which lends to the best jumpers being able to accelerate better.
As you can see improving the vertical jump is paramount to successful sport performance in team sport athletes. That is why our sports performance program at Genesis prioritizes vertical jump training. Athletes in our program perform a variety of resisted jumping, plyometrics, and special strength exercises to improve their verticals. On average our athletes are seeing a 3-inch vertical jump improvement in 2 to 3 months. Even more impressive is our athlete’s results compared to vertical jump height norms:
males females
rating (inches) (cm) (inches) (cm)
excellent > 28 > 70 > 24 > 60
very good 24 - 28 61-70 20 - 24 51-60
above average 20 - 24 51-60 16 - 20 41-50
average 16 - 20 41-50 12 - 16 31-40
below average 12 - 16 31-40 8 - 12 21-30
poor 8 - 12 21-30 4 - 8 11-20
very poor < 8 < 21 < 4 < 11
Based on the chart above almost every athlete that commits to a long-term training program is well above excellent.
We have a few spots open in our off-season program for spring sport athletes, where we prioritize improving rate of force development and vertical jumping ability. If you would like to join our program and improve your vertical, simply respond to this email and we will reach out learn about your goals for the upcoming season.
Best,
- Graham