How to measure your vertical jump

Every way to measure a vertical jump, compared: the wall and chalk test, jump mats, force plates and phone video. Then measure yours here, free.

Test your jumpFree · no install

Best: a slow-motion video from your camera app. On iPhone, slow motion takes a few seconds to prepare after you pick it. Your video stays on this device. Nothing is uploaded.

Set up in 30 seconds

  1. 1Put the phone on the floor or at knee height, 2–3 m (7–10 ft) away, so your whole body and both feet are in the picture.
  2. 2Stand still, jump straight up as high as you can, and land on the same spot with straight legs.
  3. 3Then step through the video and mark two frames: take-off and landing.

Measure it with your phone

  1. 01Put your phone on the floor or at knee height, 2–3 m (7–10 ft) away, with your whole body and both feet in the picture. Slow motion is best.
  2. 02Stand still, dip and jump straight up as high as you can. Land on the same spot with your legs straight.
  3. 03Open the video here and step through it one frame at a time.
  4. 04Mark take-off, the first frame with both feet off the ground, and landing, the first frame a foot touches down.
  5. 05Read your height. Do three jumps and keep the best, or the average if you're tracking progress.

Vertical jump measurement: four methods

They don't all measure the same thing, which is why the same jump can give different numbers.

MethodWhat it measuresYou need
Jump and reach (Sargent test)Highest touch minus standing reachA wall and chalk, or a vane device
Jump matTime in the airA contact or light-beam mat
Force plateTake-off speed (the lab reference)A lab
Phone videoTime in the air, from two marked framesA phone, ideally in slow motion

Phone video

Video works like a jump mat: it times your flight, from the frame you leave the ground to the frame you land, and turns the time into a height with h = g·t²/8. In the first study of an iPhone app doing this, filmed at 120 fps, it agreed with a force platform almost perfectly (ICC 0.997), reading on average 1.1 cm away [1]. A review of 21 studies found no significant difference between that app and laboratory methods [2].

Frame rate matters. Filmed at 1,000 fps and cut down, the timing error was 1.4% of the height at 120 fps and 0.7% at 240 fps; above 240 fps there was little to gain, and the authors recommend 240 [3].

Jump and reach

The Sargent jump test is the classic version: stand side-on to a wall, reach up with one arm and mark your standing reach. Then jump and touch as high as you can, and measure the difference. Vane devices at the NBA and NFL combines work the same way.

How you measure standing reach changes the answer: reaching with one hand while up on your toes gave the result closest to lab methods, and a flat-footed reach made jumps read high [4]. Jump and reach also counts the rise you get from lifting your heels, which timing methods don't see [5].

So the two families don't agree. In one study of 135 people, a vane device averaged 51.9 cm and phone video 43.1 cm for the same jumps [6], while another found the vane reading lower than motion capture [7]. They are not interchangeable: compare numbers measured the same way, as the average vertical jump tables do.

Jump mats and force plates

Mats time your flight like video does. The kind of mat matters: contact and light-beam mats differed by about 6% (about 2 cm) on the same jumps [8].

A force plate measures how hard you push and works out your take-off speed, which makes it the lab reference for jump height [5]. It's also what the large national survey behind our averages used.

Getting an accurate number

  • Land the way you took off: legs straight, toes first. Landing with bent knees keeps you in the air longer, and a flight-time result reads 0.5–2 cm too high [9].
  • Swing your arms or keep your hands on your hips, but do the same every time. Arm swing added about 5–7 cm in college students [10].
  • Keep the camera low, still and side-on enough to see the gap under your shoes.
  • Use slow motion if your phone has it.

Questions

What is the most accurate way to measure a vertical jump?

A force plate in a lab. Outside one, timing your flight from slow-motion video comes very close: studies comparing phone video with force plates found near-perfect agreement.

Can I measure my vertical jump with my phone?

Yes. Film the jump, ideally in slow motion, then mark the frame you leave the ground and the frame you land. This page does the counting and the maths for free.

Why is my wall test higher than my video result?

Jump and reach counts the rise from lifting your heels and depends on how you measure standing reach, while video times your flight. The two methods aren't interchangeable.

Should I swing my arms?

Either is fine if you're consistent. Arm swing adds several centimetres, so compare yourself only with results measured the same way.

How many jumps should I do?

Three is common: keep the best. If you're tracking progress or fatigue, the average of several jumps is more sensitive than the best one.

Is my video uploaded?

No. The tester reads your video inside your browser, frame by frame. Nothing is sent to us or stored on a server.

More on the vertical jump

Average vertical jumpAverage vertical jump by age and sex from a national survey of 5,188 people, plus college athletes and the NBA and NFL combines. See your percentile.Vertical jump calculatorWork out your vertical jump from flight time, from video frames at any frame rate, or from jump and reach, in inches or centimetres. Free, with the formula.Countermovement jumpWhat the countermovement jump (CMJ) is, how it differs from the squat jump, how coaches use it to track fatigue, and a free CMJ test from phone video.

Sources

  1. Balsalobre-Fernández, Glaister & Lockey (2015). The validity and reliability of an iPhone app for measuring vertical jump performance. Journal of Sports Sciences
  2. Gençoğlu et al. (2023). Validity and reliability of “My Jump app” to assess vertical jump performance: a meta-analytic review. Scientific Reports
  3. Pueo et al. (2023). Accuracy of flight time and countermovement-jump height estimated from videos at different frame rates with MyJump. Biology of Sport
  4. Ferreira et al. (2010). Reach height and jump displacement: implications for standardization of reach determination. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
  5. Xu et al. (2023). A systematic review of the different calculation methods for measuring jump height during the countermovement and drop jump tests. Sports Medicine
  6. Yingling et al. (2018). The reliability of vertical jump tests between the Vertec and My Jump phone application. PeerJ
  7. Leard et al. (2007). Validity of two alternative systems for measuring vertical jump height. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
  8. García-López et al. (2013). The type of mat (contact vs. photocell) affects vertical jump height estimated from flight time. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
  9. Linthorne (2001). Analysis of standing vertical jumps using a force platform. American Journal of Physics
  10. Walsh et al. (2007). Gender bias in the effects of arms and countermovement on jumping performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research