This method is a quick and easy way to test your vertical jump. Testing your vertical jump regularly (weekly or monthly) is a great way to measure your strength, power and explosiveness progress. The method is almost free, all you need is a tape measure, double sided tape, and a wall. It is the cheaper alternative (near free) to the Wall Mounted Jump and Reach Measurement Board (~$60) or the Vertec (~$600).
You Will Need
A Tape Measure
~$4 for 96 inches at Amazon.
Double Sided Tape
~$3 for 75 inches at Amazon.
Instructions
Put about 2cm of tape on the tape measure at the 2 inch mark. The reason you don’t put it on the end is because the way you have to hold the tape measure while you jump limits your finger reach by about 2 inches. It should look roughly like this:
Next, hold it in a position that is comfortable, stand along-side a wall, squat down and jump as high as you can using your arms for momentum. When you reach the top of your jump, stick the tape to the wall. Now the tape measure will be hanging on the wall. Simply stand along-side the wall, reach up to see how high you reach on the tape measure: this number is your vertical jump height.
You can see below that my reading is about 18 inches from the peak of my jump, down to the top of my reach. 18 inches is a very average vertical jump, so I still have lots of room for improvement.
