Testing calculator
Vertical jump calculator
Measure your vertical from a reach test or a hang time, and see where it sits on the standard norm table for your sex. Free, instant, no sign-up.
Vertical jump moves with strength and rate of force development — the coach programs both.
What the vertical jump measures
The vertical jump is the simplest field test of lower-body explosive power: how high you can raise your centre of mass from a standstill. It correlates with sprint acceleration and change of direction, which is why it appears in almost every sports combine, and it needs nothing but a wall and a tape measure.
The two ways to measure it
A reach test is jump reach minus standing reach: mark the highest point you touch flat-footed with one arm fully extended, then the highest point you touch jumping, and subtract. A jump mat instead measures hang time and converts it, because free fall from the apex takes half the flight time: height = g × t² ÷ 8. Both methods should give the same number for the same jump, and this page will show you the hang time your measured height implies.
How a mat-timed result gets inflated
The flight-time formula assumes you take off and land in the same body position. Tucking your knees on the way down extends hang time without adding a single centimetre to the jump, so a tucked landing reads as a much bigger vertical than it was. If you are comparing across athletes or across months, either film it or use the reach method — and if a number looks implausible, this is usually why.
How to read the rating
These are general-population adult bands, not athlete standards: an excellent rating here is a good jump among normal people and unremarkable in a combine, where elite numbers sit far off the top of the table. The bands also differ by sex, so the same height is rated differently — that is the table doing its job, not an inconsistency.
Turning height into power
Jump height alone says nothing about power output, because moving a heavier body the same height takes more work. Estimating watts needs your body mass and a validated regression, and there is more than one — Sayers has separate equations for a squat jump and a countermovement jump, and Harman estimates average rather than peak power. Our vertical jump power calculator carries all three; this page deliberately does not duplicate them.