VERT device to track your vertical jumps (via VERT)
New to the market is yet another activity tracker with, um, a very niche market. Most activity trackers will trace activities like walking, running, distance traveled, calories burned, and more. This new activity tracker is called VERT and it tracks vertical distance jumped and the speed of your jumps. Yep. It is pretty simple and unorthodox, but useful depending on your sport of choice considering that other activity trackers don't yet track vertical distance.
To be honest, their online store doesn't give many specifics and their website is currently broken (always a telling sign, BTW) but their Facebook page has some updates on how successful the VERT has been in the volleyball market.
The US Women's Volleyball team has already adopted the VERT as an important part of training. In fact, VERT is the USA Volleyball (USAV) Official Supplier for Jump Technology – not hard to do when you're the only supplier of 'jump technology' but kudos nonethless.
The stats of the VERT track how high and how fast you can jump over a long period of time. This could be useful for trainers to help their players jump faster, better, and higher in future. The VERT device is about the size of a USB stick and can be synced to an iPhone (sorry Android users – they are working on another version of their app) to give you access to your stats and also a 'props' area where they congratulate you for beating your best stats and improving your jumps.
The overall stats that VERT provides are jump height, average jump height, highest jump, total number of jumps, and potential 1 and 2 hand touch (whatever that means).
Seeing as how spiking a ball and serving can involving a lot of jumping for volleyball players, I could see how this could work out. Otherwise, I suppose basketball players who aspire to jump like Michael Jordan may be the only other athletes who can truly prosper for knowing their jump statistics
The USAV secretary remarked that Team USA is planning to use VERT to give the team a competitive advantage with technology that has yet to be available elsewhere. As part of VERT's partnership, they are helping spread the love of volleyball by supporting USAV and sponsoring Team USA.
A VERT device will cost you $124.99 and can only be purchased on their online store here: https://squareup.com/market/mayfonk-athletic-llc.
Actually, when you check out all of the out-dated methods where were used to track vertical jumps, this device can prove really useful. There is the old track and field method of jumping along a wall with a piece of chalk in your hand. Trainers would also attach a measuring tape to the waist of an athlete and attach the tape measure to the floor to 'measure' how high they jumped. While these methods were cutting-edge in the 1800's, I'm sure, they are outmoded by VERT it seems.
While most consumers probably have no use for the VERT, let’s hope that it helps lead Team USA to victory in the next Olympic Games.
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