Want to jump like Vince Carter? Forget standard workouts and traditional training practices. Plyometrics promises to leverage your body's natural mechanics to build agility, speed, and, most of all, power.
It aims to train the muscle's "explosive" potential by incorporating quick movements that exert maximum force. This comes in extremely handy in basketball, where repeated jumps and sudden evasive movements land balls in the hoop.
But does it work? What's the evidence? And what is plyometrics training anyway?
- What is Plyometric Training?
- Evidence for Plyometrics in Basketball
- Plyometric Example Exercises
What is Plyometric Training?
Plyometric training, also known as "jump training" or "plyos," is an increasingly popular training regimen for athletes interested in increasing power (aka speed-strength). Unlike traditional training like running or strength training, plyometrics isn't about endurance or slow strength-based movement. It's about short, sharp shocks.
Athletes will perform exercises like jump squats, box jumps, and clap push-ups in repeated succession. The idea is that every time you land the jump, your muscles become stretched. It's this stretch that drives power.
To be more specific, the rapid stretch of the muscles (eccentric face) is followed by the rapid shortening of the same muscle (concentric phase). Performing this stretch-shortening cycle again and again increases the power of the muscle's subsequent contraction. It's a similar logic to strength training.
Plyometrics isn't a replacement for traditional training; it's an adjuvant. It's supposed to complement your standard training regimen.
Evidence for Plyometrics in Basketball
Basketball is all about rapid movements, quick spins and sprints, and sky-high jumps. The higher you jump, the closer to the hoop you reach. So, plyometrics and basketball should go together perfectly.
What does the evidence say? In a 2001 study, elite junior basketball players underwent plyometric training to see if there was an increase in the height of vertical jumps, the force exerted, and the speed of force development.
Here's a quick study breakdown:
- The study involved 33 male junior basketball players aged 15-16 years. All the players had a 5-8 year background of "systematic basketball training and competition experience", – meaning they were far more advanced than the average player.
- The athletes were assessed before and after incorporating training into their mid-season routines, alongside their standard training sessions held six times a week.
- Two experimental groups were included – each undertaking additional plyometric exercises involving 50 cm and 100 cm drop jumps in three sets of ten (with three minutes rest between sets) three times per week for six weeks. There was also a control group.
Remarkably, the results demonstrated significant improvements in countermovement jump height, maximal voluntary force, and rate of force development, with the experimental groups seeing jump height increases of 4.8cm and 5.6cm, respectively. In contrast, the control group, sticking to regular training alone, showed no such gains.
In short: the players jumped higher with more force and speed. Even a limited amount of training could improve jumping performance.
A 2007 meta-analysis confirmed this effect. As the authors write, "[plyometric training] provides a statistically significant and practically relevant improvement in vertical jump height." As far as scientific journals go, that's a slam dunk.
Plyometric Example Exercises
So, plyometric training is a highly effective option for basketball players. How do you implement it into your training to get maximum benefit?
Common plyometric exercises are box jumps, depth jumps, and hurdle jumps. But be careful – these exercises are intense on your joints, tendons, and ligaments. Elite athletes are not recommended to exceed 120 ground contacts of high-intensity plyometrics per week.
A reasonable session, therefore, might include 20-30 moderate- to high-intensity jumps alongside some lower-intensity jumping rope. Remember, your body needs time to adapt – so allow time for recovery. And keep track of your progress – if you're not seeing results, swap out exercises or look at your form.
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