We built the jumping program we wish we had 10 years ago
Matt Muldavin
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with dunking. I’d spend hours in my backyard, lowering the hoop and pretending I was Vince Carter or LeBron. I even measured my standing reach and compared it to NBA players so I could set the hoop to the exact height that made it feel like I was LeBron. We even built a calculator on vertschool so you can do the same.
All my peers wanted to jump higher, most got hurt.
After my freshman year, a bunch of guys I knew from AAU were trying all kinds of workout programs to jump higher: Jumpsoles, local “gurus,” you name it. But a lot of them got hurt. Some ended up with bad joint pain, pulled muscles, or even torn ACLs, PCLs, and Achilles. All the options were terrible, and not built for someone who wants to jump higher safely.
So, I spent 3 years building my own program.
I spent three years researching everything I could—reading college textbooks on kinesiology, every peer-reviewed study I could find, and figuring out how to build a program that worked. Honestly, I was doing it for myself. I just wanted to jump higher and dunk. It worked.
In the first 6 weeks of the program, I added 3 inches to my vertical.
I could jump higher, I was quicker, and made the varsity team my freshman year. Over 3 summers, I increased my vertical by 8 inches. I was a 3 year varsity starter (at only 5’9”) and my senior year we were the #5 ranked team in Northern California, and finishing the season 32-2.
Eventually, I published my study
in the International Youth Conditioning Association (IYCA) and started helping friends who wanted to jump higher or run faster.
10 years later, the programs you can buy to jump higher are still bad.
Programs are either unsafe, not personalized, extremely expensive, or just flat-out don’t work. That’s why we started VertSchool: to build the program I wish I had when I was in high school.
No gimmicks, no shortcuts—just a program that actually works.
Sign up for our program, read some of our blog posts, or try out our vertical jump calculator or pro hoop height calculator. We will continue to build out the best resource to help you jump higher.
Charlie Minard
I've been fascinated with increasing my vertical since I was little. When I was in middle school, every summer I would do an 8 week jump program to get ready for the next basketball season. I had to piecemeal my own workout programs because there were no simple resources out there. The training I did helped, and I was a pretty good long jumper (my crown jewel is winning my High School conference long jump by 1 foot), but I knew then and I know now that I left a lot of potential on the table.
I've spent the last 10 years building startups from the ground up and launching in new countries.
I've helped build and grow companies across the US and Latin America over the past decade, and have learned that regardless of location or industry, the key to growth is to build a product that people love.
Now, I'm building something I care about with VertSchool.
VertSchool is the intersection of my experience building and growing startups and my interest in vertical jump training. We're building the first jumping program that you'll love.