Zach Lavine Vertical Jump
Even though Zach Lavine is a faily new player, he has managed to get into some of the highest vertical jumps in the NBA in the recent years.
Despite his young age, he is succeeding and doing very well.
His jumping abilities are similar to other great NBA players. For example near to Michael Jordan’s Vertical Jump . Of course, they have other differences in some skills, but here we are gonna talk about the vertical leap skills.
That’s what he became very well known in the NBA Slam Dunk in 2015 and 2016.
It wasn’t only that, but very remarkable, he was able to recover from an ACL injury and returned even stronger and better.
Somehow from the injury he was even better. He used to be with Timberwolves and there were a lot of skilled kids who were developing.
There used to play Jimmy Butler and he stopped between 2017 and 2019 and the professionalism still wasn’t at a very high level. That’s one of the reason why in 2021, they had the worst record in the NBA.
Waggins including LaVine were done as a top first round picks then.
Despite what happened, Zach Lavine gradually was becoming better and this led him to being a constant All-Star. This shows that by being consistent with the right mindset, you can get there.
His left knee ACL injury also pushed him to focus more in becoming a better leaper and player.
It was different than back in Minnesota, he was focused on the wrong things then and the ACL injury changed all that and it was for good and this shows that bad things happen and they lead to good things in life, if you look them from the right side.
Zach LaVine Vertical Jump

According to majority of the sources, Zach Lavine’s vertical leap is 46 inches, which is like Spud Webb, Michael Jordan and others jumping skills. They are one step before Wilt Chamberlain.
There are other players like Ja Morant that have similar leap despite his young age too. He had increased his one during the offseason.
If we judge by most sources of information, most of the best players have around 44, 45, 46 inches.
Zach’s vertical leaping skills allows him to do many things and circus dunking as well as the ball under the legs and taking from free throw line.
This mix shows he is not only able to go high, but also distance and not all the jumpers are able to do that. Some players are just naturally better at doing that.
For example players like Wilkins who is labeled as a vertical jumper has one of the best ones, but his distance is not his force.
If you are like that, you would need additional training for long jump to increase the forward jump.
But lets get back with t he details about Zach LaVine. His max vertical was 46 inches and standing vertical of 33.5 inches in the 2014-2015 Season, during NBA Draft Combine.
Units | Zach LaVine Max Vertical Jump | Zach LaVine Standing Vertical Jump |
---|---|---|
Inches | 46 Inches | 33.5 inches |
Centimetres | 105.41 cms | 85.09 cm |
Feet | 3.46 feet | 2.79 feet |
As you can see yourself, his most popular for his leaping skills and this helped him to score a lot in his career. Of course, he also has other skills but his dunking, jumping etc are not typical for most of the players that early.
The talent helps to get into NBA, but when you develop the skills, you become even better, gradually.
Of course, there are many other players, we are gonna take a look at like Josh Smith, Gerald Green, Jeremy Evans and others. But here we are talking about a particular one.
Apart from that ,if you utilize your other skills not only your vertical, you will become a lot better player, which you should do.
And, if you are wondering how he jumps and what training he does, you can see a video below and we are gonna go into details about the workout he does.
Zach LaVine Vertical Jump Workout

As we already said part of why he is so good at what he does is genetic, but also the workout plays a big role too.
He does a lot of jump training too to be that good.
There is some myth that weight training doesn’t increase the vertical jump, but they do.
When, he just got started his physique wasn’t that big in NBA, but he started to lift weight, which also contributed a little bit to his jumping abilities.
As mentioned weight are proven to increase the vertical jump, even if you look at NFL players in order to achieve jump measurements in their later years like 30s, 40s.
Of course, there are also many others way, that Zach LaVine has most likely done.
One hint is that before being draften back in 2014, he was at P3 Peak Performance, that is a training facility in Santa Barbara, which if focused on sports science as well as biomechanics.
In a nutshell, they put cameras from variety of angels also these motion capture suits and also balls . That’s pretty much how NBA2k players is made to be with more special effects in the movies.
All the data is collected from angels and movements of your limbs, that are stored in a computer and the algorithms by the PhDs in sports and biomechanics in order to know what are the best exercises and how much weight to train also what angle you should be in to get the best results possible.
Starting there the design specific makes program for every individual according to the body’s biomechanics, whenever you run, jump and do other physical activities.
When, you get started you do drills to improve your speed, jumping skills and all the other skills that need to be trained.
For example Lavine has been into this stuff from 2014 and more likely he is no an expert at UCLA and most likely, when he has been at high school camp days, he has done training for jumping to improve it as well.
But in general, a lot of his jumping has been improved by technique, plyometrics, weights and other exercises.
There are many similar jump training programs to what Zach has trained and they are effective. The program, I have personally followed is by a players with 50 inch vertical jump and he doesn’t use weight training, so you wouldn’t need weight room for it.
There are many players, that have gained 10, 15 or even more inches in just 8 weeks with it, if you desire and more importantly, you are consistent, you can take a look at it here.
In most cases it depends on your work ethic how successful, you will be. Of course the drills are also important, but players like Zach have been through many workouts with his team and coach, as there are many ways to improve your vertical jump.
For many years, experts in the same field use variety of olympic and squats, weight lifts, but in some cases, they can cause some problems with your muscles and joints.
In some cases, the injuries can be serious and they can end your career, but hopefully, they are not something serious.
The program, I recommended is without gym membership or weight lifting, you can find details inside the training.
The founder of the vertical training program has taken his vertical to the next level to the impressive 50 inches.
It’s fact so far, that Zach Lavine has one of the greatest vertical jumps in the recent years. Both Max vertical jump and standing.
Conclusion
The vertical of Zach LaVine is somethig a lot of other players strive to have and it’s possible is the other thing, he proves, when you have combination of skills.
Achieving similar vertical or let say at least in the 40 inches near would allow you to be a lot better players and to dominate.
The training program, I recommended before will help you to gain at least up to 10 or 15 inches, depending on where you are, but for majority of people this is it the average, they have managed to get in just 8 weeks. It will be effective, if you invest all your efforts in every session and by being consistent.
No matter, where you are currently, almost everyone would like to jump a little bit higher, because as a basketball player in gives you an advantage. Even if you are blocking shots or you are being ready for a huge dunk.
It’s impressionable that Zach LaVine’s vertical is that high even at his age, in the NBA there are not many other players and he is inspiration for many other young players that are getting started.
By being focused, you can achieve great results and the most important thing is, you shouldn’t give up, because he like most other players have also had bad times and it’s part of the game.