Best Plyometrics Exercise for Basketball: Tennis Ball Rebounding Drill
To be the best, you have to train with the best, and when it comes to basketball plyometrics exercises, it doesn’t get much better than the tennis ball rebounding drill.
Why does it reign supreme?
The exercise is tailored specifically to emphasize attacking the basket and catching the ball at its highest point. Not only will it improve your rebounding ability, it will also improve your overall athleticism, effectively focusing on basketball-specific strength, jumping ability, explosiveness, conditioning and hand-eye coordination.
- Strength. By repeatedly jumping, you’ll develop lower-body strength needed to gain more height.
- Jumping ability. Improving your jumping ability is simple—practice. I’m not saying other drills or exercises can’t help, but if you want to improve your vertical, you should always practice jumping.
- Explosiveness. The motions in this exercise train your fast-twitch muscle fibers to enable you to be more explosive on your second and third jumps. This is extremely important in the game of basketball, because when you grab an offensive rebound, the faster you can get back off the ground, the quicker you can score the rebound.
- Conditioning. This drill is tough, but it conditions your cardiovascular system to get you in shape for game time.
- Hand-eye coordination. It takes good hand-eye coordination to catch the tennis ball at its highest point with one hand. If you can catch a tennis ball with one hand in the air, you should have no problem grabbing a basketball at its highest point.
Overview
- Jump as high as you can to catch the tennis ball at its highest point
- When you land, explode off the ground and quickly jump as high as you can
Sets/Duration: 6 x 30 seconds at a time.
- 2 sets catching the ball with your right hand only
- 2 sets catching the ball with your left hand only
- 2 sets catching the ball with both hands
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Best Plyometrics Exercise for Basketball: Tennis Ball Rebounding Drill
To be the best, you have to train with the best, and when it comes to basketball plyometrics exercises, it doesn’t get much better than the tennis ball rebounding drill.
Why does it reign supreme?
The exercise is tailored specifically to emphasize attacking the basket and catching the ball at its highest point. Not only will it improve your rebounding ability, it will also improve your overall athleticism, effectively focusing on basketball-specific strength, jumping ability, explosiveness, conditioning and hand-eye coordination.
- Strength. By repeatedly jumping, you’ll develop lower-body strength needed to gain more height.
- Jumping ability. Improving your jumping ability is simple—practice. I’m not saying other drills or exercises can’t help, but if you want to improve your vertical, you should always practice jumping.
- Explosiveness. The motions in this exercise train your fast-twitch muscle fibers to enable you to be more explosive on your second and third jumps. This is extremely important in the game of basketball, because when you grab an offensive rebound, the faster you can get back off the ground, the quicker you can score the rebound.
- Conditioning. This drill is tough, but it conditions your cardiovascular system to get you in shape for game time.
- Hand-eye coordination. It takes good hand-eye coordination to catch the tennis ball at its highest point with one hand. If you can catch a tennis ball with one hand in the air, you should have no problem grabbing a basketball at its highest point.
Overview
- Jump as high as you can to catch the tennis ball at its highest point
- When you land, explode off the ground and quickly jump as high as you can
Sets/Duration: 6 x 30 seconds at a time.
- 2 sets catching the ball with your right hand only
- 2 sets catching the ball with your left hand only
- 2 sets catching the ball with both hands