A capacitor-loaded cylindrical resonant coil with parallel connection for high effective wireless power transfer is presented. The characteristics of the proposed resonant coil are verified by the comparisons among the theoretical analysis, simulation results, and experimental measurements. By controlling the current in the capacitor-loaded resonant coil, the non-degraded overall transfer efficiency between the transmitting and receiving resonant coils can be improved up to 43% compared to the cylindrical coil regardless of the locations of the receiving coil at the transfer distance. 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4744959]