Take off your shoes. Stand with your back and arms flat against a wall, arms straight out at shoulder height, palms forward.
Mark the tip of each middle finger, not the nail, and measure between the marks. Do it twice and average.
For most adults, wingspan is close to height. At the NBA Draft Combine it was 4.69 inches longer on average.
+4.69 inAverage NBA combine wingspan over height
98.4%Of combine players with a wingspan longer than their height
1.15 inReach error with wingspan, versus 1.48 in without
8 ft 2.25 inLongest combine wingspan, Tacko Fall, 2019
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| Position | Players | Average height | Average wingspan | Wingspan minus height |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point guard | 373 | 6′1.24″ | 6′5.46″ | +4.23 in |
| Shooting guard | 406 | 6′3.95″ | 6′8.62″ | +4.67 in |
| Small forward | 349 | 6′6.39″ | 6′10.89″ | +4.49 in |
| Power forward | 454 | 6′8.04″ | 7′1.08″ | +5.04 in |
| Center | 229 | 6′10.22″ | 7′3.32″ | +5.1 in |
Barefoot height and wingspan of 1,812 players, NBA.com Draft Combine stats, 2000 to 2026.
How do you measure your wingspan?
- Take off your shoes. Stand with your feet together and your back against a wall.
- Raise both arms out to the sides at shoulder height. Keep them straight and against the wall, palms facing forward.
- Stretch as wide as you can.
- Mark the tip of each middle finger. Do not count the nail.
- Measure between the marks with a tape at least 2 meters long.
- Step away, set up again and measure a second time. If the two results are more than 0.5 cm apart, measure a third time. Average the two closest.
These steps follow the arm span protocol from PhenX, built on a 1988 measuring manual. It uses two people.
Back on the wall or off it?
Some guides say touching the wall shortens your result. The PhenX protocol keeps your back and arms on the wall, which keeps your arms level and straight.
How do you measure your wingspan by yourself?
The corner method
Stand with your back to a wall and press one middle fingertip into a corner or a door frame. Stretch out and mark the other fingertip.
Measure from the corner to the mark, then repeat once and average.
The half span method
Stretch one arm straight out to the side. Measure from the notch at the top of your breastbone to the tip of your middle finger.
Multiply that number by 2. Take two measurements and average them, as a Children’s Health Ireland guideline from 2024 sets out.
No tape measure?
Mark the wall at each fingertip. Later, stretch a string between the marks and measure the string against a ruler.
What is a normal wingspan for your height?
For most adults it is within a few centimeters of their height. The gap changes from group to group:
- 212 university students in Bosnia and Herzegovina: men 0.73 cm longer than their height, women 1.97 cm shorter (Montenegrin Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2015).
- 306 adults in Nigeria: men 5.8 cm longer, women 4.4 cm longer (Kinesiology, 2011).
So a wingspan a little longer or a little shorter than your height is normal.
What wingspan do basketball players have?
Basketball players run long. In NBA.com Draft Combine stats, wingspan beat height without shoes by 4.69 inches on average.
That covers 1,812 measurements from 2000 to 2026.
98.4% of them had a wingspan longer than their height. Bigger positions had longer arms:
| Position | Average height | Average wingspan | Longer by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Point guard | 6 ft 1.25 in | 6 ft 5.5 in | 4.23 in |
| Shooting guard | 6 ft 4 in | 6 ft 8.5 in | 4.67 in |
| Small forward | 6 ft 6.5 in | 6 ft 11 in | 4.49 in |
| Power forward | 6 ft 8 in | 7 ft 1 in | 5.04 in |
| Center | 6 ft 10.25 in | 7 ft 3.25 in | 5.10 in |
The longest wingspans at the combine
- Tacko Fall: 8 ft 2.25 in (2019)
- Zach Edey: 7 ft 10.75 in (2024)
- Mohamed Bamba: 7 ft 10 in (2018)
Doug Wrenn had the biggest gap: his wingspan was 13.75 inches longer than his height in 2003.
How does wingspan change your dunk math?
Your standing reach decides how high you need to jump. Wingspan helps estimate it when you cannot measure it.
At the combine, height alone missed real standing reach by 1.48 inches on average. Height plus wingspan missed by 1.15 inches.
Take a 6 foot player with a 6 ft 4 in wingspan. From height alone, his reach is about 96.0 inches.
With his wingspan, the DunkMeter calculator puts it at 97.8 inches. His long arms save him about 1.8 inches of jump.
A wall measurement of your standing reach beats both. Put it in the dunk calculator, or see what each inch of height costs.
Questions people ask
Should you take your shoes off?
Yes, for your height. Shoes add to height but not to wingspan, so your gap looks smaller with them on. The NBA combine lists height without shoes next to wingspan, says NBA.com.
Is wingspan the same as arm span?
Yes. Basketball says wingspan and medical guides say arm span. You measure both from fingertip to fingertip.
What should my wingspan be at 5’4″ or 5’7″?
About the same as your height, give or take a few centimeters. NBA prospects ran about 4.7 inches longer than their height.
Is a long wingspan good for basketball?
It helps you reach higher without jumping higher. At the combine, centers averaged 5.10 inches more wingspan than height, and point guards 4.23 inches.
Who has the longest wingspan measured at the combine?
Tacko Fall, at 8 ft 2.25 in in 2019.
Sources
- NBA.com Draft Combine stats, every combine from 2000 to 2026
- PhenX Toolkit, arm span protocol (based on the 1988 Anthropometric Standardization Reference Manual)
- Children’s Health Ireland, arm span measurement guideline, February 2024
- Montenegrin Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, March 2015
- Kinesiology, Vol. 43 No. 1, 2011
- NBA.com, “What drills are held at NBA Draft Combine?”, 4 May 2026