Does a higher vertical jump mean a faster player?

There is a real relationship with acceleration, but it is a correlation across populations rather than a rule about individuals. Plenty of quick athletes jump modestly and plenty of good jumpers accelerate poorly. Use the jump as one input into a picture of athleticism, not as a proxy for speed.

Why did our athlete’s jump improve so much this year?

In the growth years, very possibly because they grew. Lower-body power rises with maturation independently of training, and the effect is largest in exactly the age bands most clubs test. An improvement is real; attributing it to a training block requires more evidence than the number alone.

Can we compare a jump-mat result to a reach-and-mark result?

No, and this is the most common data-integrity error in youth testing. Flight-time methods and reach-difference methods disagree systematically. Keep the method constant across tests, and record which one was used alongside every result.

Benchmark · Lower-body power

Vertical jump by age: what it measures and what it misses

The vertical jump as a youth benchmark — countermovement versus approach, the measurement methods that are not interchangeable, the reference source behind each age band, and why a jump number tracks growth as much as training.

What this page will not tell you

It will not print percentile numbers. Every reference band behind Vimasu is currently marked sourced, pending audit — cross-checked against the original publication is a step we have not finished, and a number a parent might act on is the wrong place to be approximately right. What follows is the protocol, the named source behind each age band, and what the result does and does not mean. The full methodology and source bibliography sits one level up.

What the test actually measures

The vertical jump measures lower-body concentric power — how much force an athlete can produce, and how quickly, through an extension of the hips, knees and ankles. It correlates reasonably with sprint acceleration and with change-of-direction ability, which is why it appears in almost every testing battery in sport.

The standard youth version is a countermovement jump: standing, dip, jump, no run-up, arms typically allowed. An approach jump with steps into it is a different test measuring a partly different quality, and the two are not interchangeable even though both get written down as "vertical".

The protocol, and why it decides whether the number means anything

Pick one measurement method and never mix them. Reach-and-mark measures the difference between standing reach and jump touch. A jump mat measures flight time and calculates height from it. A force plate measures the impulse. The three disagree systematically — flight-time methods typically read higher — so a club that changes method between tests has manufactured a fake improvement or a fake decline.

Fix the arm swing rule. Arms free and hands on hips produce results that differ by a wide margin. Decide, write it down, and apply it to everyone every time.

Standardise the countermovement depth only as far as "self-selected". Forcing a depth changes the quality being measured; allowing an athlete to choose their own is both more repeatable and more representative.

Three attempts, record the best. Power tests reward a good attempt rather than an average one, and fatigue accumulates fast — more than three or four maximal attempts starts measuring endurance instead.

Where the reference comes from

U10, U12, U14, U16, U18 resolve against Tomkinson et al. 2017. Source populations run from 45,000 to 58,000 across those bands. Bands are held separately for male and female athletes. Full citation: Tomkinson GR, Carver KD, Atkinson F, et al. European normative values for physical fitness in children and adolescents aged 9–17 years: results from 2 779 165 Eurofit performances representing 30 countries. Br J Sports Med 2018;52:1445-1456.

Every band above is currently flagged sourced, pending audit — the source is named and the values are in place, but our cross-check against the original publication is not finished. That is why this page names sources and populations rather than printing percentile numbers. The live coverage matrix, which is fetched from the platform rather than written by hand, is on the methodology page.

What the number does not tell you

It tracks growth. In the U12 to U16 window, an athlete gets a better jump largely by getting bigger and more mature. An improvement across a year is often the calendar, not the programme, and a club presenting a squad-wide jump improvement as evidence its training worked has probably not controlled for the most powerful variable in the data.

It is a single-plane measure in multi-plane sports. Very few sporting actions are a bilateral vertical extension from a standstill. A good jumper is not automatically an explosive athlete on the field, and a modest jumper can be genuinely quick.

Body mass moves the number in both directions. A heavier athlete may jump lower while producing more absolute power. Whether that matters depends entirely on the sport, and a raw height figure hides it.

Frequently asked

Questions parents and coaches ask

Does a higher vertical jump mean a faster player?: There is a real relationship with acceleration, but it is a correlation across populations rather than a rule about individuals. Plenty of quick athletes jump modestly and plenty of good jumpers accelerate poorly. Use the jump as one input into a picture of athleticism, not as a proxy for speed.
Why did our athlete’s jump improve so much this year?: In the growth years, very possibly because they grew. Lower-body power rises with maturation independently of training, and the effect is largest in exactly the age bands most clubs test. An improvement is real; attributing it to a training block requires more evidence than the number alone.
Can we compare a jump-mat result to a reach-and-mark result?: No, and this is the most common data-integrity error in youth testing. Flight-time methods and reach-difference methods disagree systematically. Keep the method constant across tests, and record which one was used alongside every result.

From the Standard to your sideline

Testing is only worth it if the numbers go somewhere.

Vimasu records test results against age-referenced norms and keeps them on the player's permanent record — so a retest in six months is a comparison, not another isolated number. Start free.

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