The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Trying to Jump Higher (And How to Fix Them)

Everyone wants to jump higher — but many athletes are doing things that slow their progress and waste valuable time. After nearly 40 years of training (and 8 years running The Dunk Camp), I’m going to share with you the most common pitfalls I see in vertical jump training. Avoid these 5 mistakes — and thank me later!

Mistake #1: Skipping the Single Most Important Exercise — Max-Effort Jumps

I’m still shocked at how many athletes tell me they want to jump higher but rarely do max effort jumps! This is the most important exercise for jumping higher. And, to get the maximum benefit from max effort jumps, you also need to track your progress. Remember Pearson’s Law: “When performance is measured, performance improves.”

What to do instead: Dedicate 1–2 days per week to true max-effort jumps and measure them. (This is one of the main reasons we created the Vert Trainer — to make testing and tracking easy, affordable, and fun.

Mistake #2: Inconsistent Training & Program Hopping

Many athletes expect overnight results. That’s not how vertical jump training works. In fact, your vertical may temporarily decrease at times due to training fatigue. This leads athletes to assume a program isn’t working and either quit or jump to something new. Real gains take weeks or months — and if you’re chasing elite numbers, possibly years.

What to do instead: Commit to one program for at least 12 weeks before judging results. Don’t panic if your jump dips; that’s usually normal and temporary.

Mistake #3: Not Training Hard Enough or Tracking Workouts

Improving your vertical jump is hard work. Many underestimate the effort required — if it were easy, everyone would be flying! On top of that, not tracking your workouts slows progress and wastes time.

What to do instead: Use progressive overload (workouts become harder over time). Track everything — weight, reps, vertical jump, body weight — in a notebook or an app. This gives you clear goals to beat each session and accelerates progress.

Mistake #4: Carrying Too Much Body Fat & Neglecting Nutrition

If you’re over 15% body fat, you have too much body fat for jumping as high as possible. The good news is you can noticeably increase your vertical jump even with limited training simply by losing some body fat. (Fat doesn’t fly!) The highest jumpers are almost always less than 10% body fat.

What to do instead: Get your body fat percentage measured (DEXA scans are great). Eat a diet built on whole foods — lean proteins, vegetables, fruits — and aim for at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.

Mistake #5: Following Random Workouts from Social Media

Social media is full of cool-looking exercises. But stringing them together at random is like baking a cake with random ingredients — it rarely turns out well.

What to do instead: Pick a structured, evidence-based program and stick to it. If you’re unsure, send us a message — we’ll make some recommendations.

Final Thoughts

Avoiding these five mistakes will put you on a much faster track to a higher vertical jump. If you want an easy, fun way to test and track your jumps while you train, check out the Vert Trainer — the same tool we use at The Dunk Camp and in my own workouts. For a limited time, use promo code Blog20 at checkout to save $20 (expires Sep 23).