Vertical Jump Testing at Steakfest and Keystone Classic

I got a lot of use out of Colin McIntyre’s vertical jump tester during the Spring college season.

Not only is the vertical jump tester a great training tool, but it is also a great party game!

Steakfest

At Steakfest, Savage Ultimate gave away free jerseys to men jumping over 30 inches and women jumping over 22.

Our highest male jumper was Ari from Penn State with a vertical of 33 inches. Our highest jumping woman was Katie Ryan from TCNJ with a jump of 24 inches (see her in the cover image!)

Keystone Classic

At the Keystone Classic things got even more competitive with Breakmark awarding jerseys to the highest two female competitors. Thanks to Breakmark, we got some impressive results from our ladies. Not sure what is in the water there, but several women from Ottowa tied for second with jumps of 24 inches.  If there had been a team average prize, they would have owned it!  Still, it wasn’t quite enough to beat our highest jumper of the weekend. Yolanda represented Penn State well with an impressive 25 inch vertical! 

What’s a good vertical for an ultimate player?

Many players wanted to know what their results meant. How do you stack up against the average ultimate player? Unfortunately, we don’t yet have enough data to answer that question. If you ever see myself or Tim Morrill doing fitness testing at any tournaments, please help us gather more data!

In lieu of ultimate specific data, you can check out this vertical jump calculator.  I don’t know how accurate this thing is, but it is sure fun to play with!  (I am excellent compared to normal people and the average for an elite athlete!) Insert your gender, weight, and vertical jump and it will tell you how you compare to elite athletes or average humans in your age range.

So what can I do to jump higher?

If you are not already in the weight room, getting yourself on a strength training program should be your first priority.

If you already have a good strength base, plyometrics may be appropriate. Tim’s posts on SSPPTV are a good place to start your search for information.  At Melissa’s Ultimate Fitness, I’m currently writing about my own plyometric training and you can see how I incorporate plyometric exercises into my workouts.