Post 6 – How to Increase Your Vertical Jump for Basketball: A Research-Backed Guide

Jumping higher and dunking are the number one goals I hear from young basketball players. Most start by searching for “the best exercise for vertical jump” and doing whatever they find. One exercise might help a little, but there’s a better way.

The short answer: combine strength training with jump training, practice jumping itself at full effort, and give it time. In research studies, athletes who trained this way for 2 to 4 months typically added about 1 to 2.5 inches to their vertical jump. That’s real progress, but it’s a long way from the “add 10 inches in 10 weeks” promises you’ll see online. Big verticals are built over years of consistent training, not weeks.

Why Jumping Alone, or Lifting Alone, Isn’t Enough

Most teens pick one: they do jump workouts, or they lift. The research says you get more by doing both.

A 2026 analysis by Zhao and colleagues combined 34 studies of more than 1,000 trained athletes, about 450 of them teenagers. Compared with athletes who just kept up their normal training:

• Lifting alone added about 1.9 cm (0.75 in) to their vertical jump.
• Combining lifting and jumping added up to 4.4 cm (1.7 in).

The best combination, called complex training, alternated a strength exercise with a jump exercise in the same session. It was the only method that clearly beat lifting alone.

A 2025 analysis by Ma and colleagues (44 studies) found the same pattern for jump training. Combined training beat jump training alone by about 2.9 cm (1.1 in) and weights alone by about 2.6 cm (1 in). Jump training and lifting on their own gave similar results.

One gap: most of these studies involved athletes who already had some training. Complex training in particular is an advanced method, and we’ll come back to when it fits later in this guide.

To Jump Higher, You Have to Jump: The SAID Principle

Strength is the foundation, but it isn’t the whole picture. Coaches call this the SAID principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. Put simply, your body gets better at exactly what you ask it to do.

The American College of Sports Medicine puts it this way: “All training adaptations are ‘specific’ to the stimulus applied.” Two of the things it lists that your body adapts to specifically are the speed of the movement and the type of muscle action.

Here’s what that means in practice. Squats make your legs stronger. But a jump happens in a fraction of a second, so to turn that strength into height you also have to jump: fast, at full effort, and often the same way you jump in games. In my experience, the athletes who improve most are the ones who regularly practice max-effort approach jumps and dunk attempts, not just the ones who lift.

The 7 Elements of a Vertical Jump Program

Don’t just do jump workouts. Follow a complete strength and conditioning program with jump training built in. Here are the seven elements I use with athletes at PPT.

1. Play, jump, dunk

The best place to start isn’t depth jumps, Vertimax or Olympic lifts. It’s playing basketball and practicing your jumps and dunk attempts. You already have some strength, so start using it. Jumping with friends after practice builds game-like technique and intent that no drill can fully copy.

Then make it progressive:

• Can’t get near a 10-foot rim? Start on an adjustable rim set lower, and raise it as you master each height.
• No adjustable rim? On every layup, touch the highest spot you can on the net or backboard, and raise your target over time.
• Can reach the rim but can’t dunk a regulation ball? Work up through smaller balls: a ping pong ball, tennis ball, softball and volleyball, then a size 5, size 6 and finally a size 7 basketball.

Many of the world’s top dunkers got started exactly this way.

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2. Strength

Power, the quality behind a big jump, is force times velocity. Getting stronger raises the force side of that equation. Follow a sound strength program that balances your body (push and pull, squat and hinge) and builds single-leg strength. Don’t just copy a bodybuilding or powerlifting plan. You’ll get stronger, but it isn’t the most efficient or safest route for an athlete.

To get started: Beginner Strength Exercises Part 1, Part 2, and Putting It All Together: Designing Your Workout.

3. Jumps and plyometrics

Add jump training, but start with landings. Begin with jumps where you stick the landing, then gradually progress to quicker, bouncier, more reactive jumps. Train both two-leg and single-leg jumps, in different directions, not just two-foot basketball jumps.

Two good starting points are hurdle jumps where you stick the landing, and single-leg hurdle hops. They may not look like much, but learning to land well reduces injury risk, keeps you on the court, and prepares you for true plyometrics later. Single-leg work matters most: most injuries, and most of basketball, happen on one leg.

More jumping isn’t always better. See Does More Plyometric Training Mean a Higher Vertical Jump?

4. Jump technique

Some great jumpers figure out technique on their own. Many don’t: their approach is too slow, they slow down right before takeoff, or they sink too low before jumping. Working with a coach off the court helps them use the power they already have. Build up in this order:

1. Standing vertical jump
2. Step-in vertical jump
3. Penultimate-step jump (the last two steps of an approach)
4. Full approach jump off two feet
5. Full approach jump off one foot

Practice both left-right and right-left plants. In games you’ll favor your best side, so use training to balance both. It lowers injury risk and makes you more versatile on the court.

5. Max-effort jumps

Once your technique is solid, add max-effort jumps: every rep is your highest possible jump. Do them without a ball, since holding one usually costs you a little height. Use the same jumps from the technique progression. At PPT, once an athlete has the technique down, we use the same drill for both. Measure every jump with a jump mat, a Vertec, an app, or just tape on the wall and a measuring tape. Seeing the number pushes you to jump higher.

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6. Heavy implement power

This is where training gets more advanced: moving weight quickly and explosively. The best-known example is the clean, an Olympic lift. It’s a great exercise, and we use variations of it with advanced athletes at PPT. But it’s very technical, takes time to learn, and should be modified for basketball players. Hoopers don’t need the full competition lift from the floor. Easier, safer options include kettlebell swings, dumbbell jump squats and trap bar jumps.

7. Advanced methods

Ironically, this is where most people start when they search for “the best vertical jump exercise.” It should be the last thing you add, and usually only for a limited time, like the final weeks of the off-season. It includes true plyometrics and advanced methods like depth jumps, Vertimax, and contrast training (also called complex training): pairing a strength exercise with a similar jump, so the lift primes you for a higher-effort jump.

Remember the research from earlier: complex training produced the biggest jump gains. But those studies mostly used athletes who already had a training base. At PPT we save it for later phases, once strength, landing control and technique are in place.

How Much Can You Improve, and How Fast?

Expect steady, modest gains, not overnight jumps. Here’s what the research shows:

• Training type (Ma and colleagues, 2025; 44 studies, mostly 6–12 week programs, usually 2–3 sessions a week). Compared with athletes on their normal routine: jump training alone added about 2.0 cm (0.8 in), lifting alone about 2.2 cm (0.9 in), and combined training about 5.0 cm (2 in).
• Teen basketball players in season (Santos & Janeira, 2012). Players who added two strength sessions a week to their basketball schedule (three practices and a game) improved their vertical jump by 3.4 cm (about 1.3 in) over 10 weeks.
• Teen soccer players (Christou and colleagues, 2006). Players who added two strength sessions a week to soccer (five practices and a game) improved their vertical jump by 6.7 cm (about 2.6 in) over 16 weeks.

Put together, 2 to 3 sessions a week for 2 to 4 months, adding about 1 to 2.5 inches, is a realistic target for a teen on a good program.

Why gains slow down: in my experience, beginners improve fastest because there’s so much room to grow. As an athlete gets stronger and more skilled, each extra inch takes longer. That’s why big verticals are built over years.

A Simple Sample Week (Teen Starting Out, Off-Season)

Here’s what a starting week can look like. Every session begins with a warm-up: foam rolling, mobility, and activation.

Day	Session	What it includes
Mon	Strength + jumps	Landing jumps: hurdle jumps, stick the landing (3 sets). Strength, 3 sets each: goblet squat, single-leg RDL, a push and a pull exercise. Core.
Tue	Basketball	Practice or pickup. Finish with a few dunk or rim-touch attempts.
Wed	Jumps + technique	Technique progression: standing → step-in jumps. Max-effort jumps, measured.
Thu	Rest or light basketball
Fri	Strength + jumps	Single-leg hurdle hops, stick the landing (3 sets each leg). Strength, 3 sets each: split squat, trap bar deadlift, a push and a pull. Core.
Sat	Basketball	Play. Practice approach jumps and dunk progressions.
Sun	Rest

How many reps? It depends on the athlete’s age and maturity, the phase of training, and the exercise itself. That could be anywhere from 3–5 to 8–12 reps. On strength exercises, stop each set with a couple of good reps left in the tank. Add heavier loads, bouncier plyometrics and advanced methods only once technique and landings are solid.

The Bottom Line

• Do both. Combine strength training with jump training; together they beat either one alone.
• Practice jumping itself. Train jumps fast and at full effort, measure them, and keep working on approach jumps and dunk attempts.
• Be patient and progressive. Expect about 1–2.5 inches over 2–4 months of training 2–3 times a week. Master landings and technique before advanced methods. Big verticals are built over years.

Sources

• Zhao, C., Zhu, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2026). Effects of combined resistance and plyometric training modalities on vertical jump and sprint: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, 18, 82. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13102-026-01531-0
• Ma, S., Xu, Y., & Xu, S. (2025). Effects of physical training programs on healthy athletes’ vertical jump height: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 24(2), 236–257. https://doi.org/10.52082/jssm.2025.236
• American College of Sports Medicine. (2009). Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 41(3), 687–708. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19204579/
• Human Kinetics. The SAID principle. https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/learning-with-hk/the-said-principle
• Santos, E. J. A. M., & Janeira, M. A. A. S. (2012). The effects of resistance training on explosive strength indicators in adolescent basketball players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(10), 2641–2647. https://cifi2d.fade.up.pt/files/00124278-201210000-00005.pdf
• Christou, M., Smilios, I., Sotiropoulos, K., Volaklis, K., Pilianidis, T., & Tokmakidis, S. P. (2006). Effects of resistance training on the physical capacities of adolescent soccer players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 20(4), 783–791. https://doi.org/10.1519/R-17254.1