Device helps athletes leap to new heights
Basketball coach develops monitor that gauges jumps
Martin Matak was coaching youth basketball near his home in Plantation when he had his “ah ha” moment.
“All they cared about was how high they jumped,” Matak said of the players.
So he developed the concept for Vert, a wearable device that measures the height of an athlete’s jump, tracks total jumps and electronically transmits the data. The device — the size of a USB flash drive — is attached to clothing, or the athlete can wear a Vert active waistband while playing volleyball or basketball.
The coach can see the height reached in real time on an iPhone, iPad or Apple watch.
Vert costs $125 from Matak’s Fort Lauderdale company. It can be purchased at myvert.com, on Amazon.com and through the Amateur Athletic Union and USA Volleyball. The national volleyball team’s coaches are using Vert to help their players im- prove before the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio
Dawn Conrad, athletic director at Northeast High School in Oakland Park, said she thinks Vert is “an amazing and accurate way” to measure an athlete’s jumping performance.
Angel Perez Jr., 22, of Miami uses Vert to help improve his jump-roping in CrossFit competitions. His team recently won second place in a competition in Westin. The device “takes the tradition of measuring to the 21st century. It’s a good tool for my coach to see my progress,” Perez said.
Matak, 44, left his job at a Fort Lauderdale advertising agency in 2013 to develop Vert.
To help him build the company, Matak formed an advisory board of business owners from the community. One is Oliver Abeleda, a Fort Lauderdale construction and realty company owner, who said educating consumers about the device has been Ma- Angel Perez Jr., an athlete who uses
“It’s a good tool for my coach to see my progress.”
Vert