10 Best Exercises For Young Basketball Players

Assuming you already know the basics of basketball (how to dribble, shoot, pass, and trash talk), you can improve your game by honing your off-court training techniques.

More so than in any other sport, basketball is often considered a contest of innate physical prowess. Of course, height is an advantage. Today’s defense relies on “length,” or long arms, which is how the media has described these advantages. And it seems like a few players have always had the vertical leap of a gazelle.

Therefore, it’s safe to say that all those characteristics matter. However, basketball players must also improve their speed, agility, and explosive power. It doesn’t matter how good an athlete is physical if they can’t keep up with the competition and respond swiftly enough on the court.

Below are fundamental basketball drills that will help you become more agile laterally and have more explosive power while decreasing your likelihood of injury.

1. Plyometrics

Plain and simple, it’s any type of exercise involving jumping or explosive movement. Strength, stamina, and muscle power are boosted as a result.

Exercises like squat jumps, box jumps, single-leg hops, scissor lunges, and even plyo push-ups can all help you develop explosiveness.

2. Lungs Laterally

Keep your toes pointed forward and your feet flat when you take a step to the right from a standing position. Keep your left leg straight and squat down, shifting your weight to the ball of your right foot and the heel of your right leg. Keep your left leg straight and squat as low as you can for 2 seconds. Ten repetitions should be performed before standing back up and switching sides.

This move, the lateral lunge, is modeled after the typical defensive shuffle in the basketball game. Furthermore, it lengthens the hip flexors and groin muscles.

3. Exercising The Legs With A Physioball

Similar to the glute bridge, this position maintains hip extension while engaging the hamstrings, enhancing both vertical jump and back strength.

Place the soles of your feet on a physioball and lie face up. Raise your hips by squeezing your glutes and pulling them in toward your body. When the ball is coming at you, keep your hips up. Stretch your legs out, and then perform 10 sets of leg curls. Try not to sit with your hips on the floor.

4. Skater With A Lateral Movement

Bad news, pickup teams: no NBA scouts will not be watching your games. Therefore, the primary focus should be on leaving the game without spraining or tearing any muscles or ligaments.

Strengthening your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves with lateral skaters will help you play better. However, they are also crucial in stabilizing the pelvic girdle as a whole, particularly the gluteus medius.

5. Leg Lift In Side Plank

Shooting, defending, and running off the court in embarrassment after releasing an air ball all require strong abdominal muscles. Building a solid core is a must if you want to improve your basketball skills.

Experts recommend wearing any of your favorite workout jackets and start bringing the upper leg and arm up during side plank leg lifts to provide stability. This keeps the hips in the correct position. Furthermore, he emphasizes the significance of pointing the elevated foot’s toes down.

6. Constraints On The Side

To increase your leg’s lateral explosiveness and prepare you for quick cuts and lateral motions. Place your left foot firmly on the ground while you balance yourself entirely on your right leg. Drop into a shallow squat on your right leg, and launch yourself to the left using your thigh and buttocks. 

Land on your left foot solely, extending your left ankle, knee, and hip, and focusing on keeping your balance. Keep your grip until the count of three, and then bind to your right. Make sure to get 10 reps in on each side.

7. Bulgarian Squat

Leg strength is improved by performing Bulgarian squats. Also, they provide us something for which to be grateful to Bulgaria.

When combined with split squat leaps (which we’ll get to in a moment), these squats help build leg strength and improve explosiveness. To improve as a basketball player, you need both of these things.

8. Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

To increase one’s vertical and one’s explosiveness when jumping, it is necessary to learn to hinge from the hips instead of the knees. The hamstrings, glutes, and back all benefit from RDLs.

Lift two dumbbells while standing with your feet hip-width apart. You can also lift any quality heavy box from any reputable rigid boxes manufacturer or any other heavy object. Put your body weight on the backs of your feet. Keep your back straight and tilt your hips as much as possible while lowering the dumbbells. Stand up using your hamstrings and glutes. Try ten sets.

9.  Fingertip Push-Ups

Your fingers are essential in every game aspect, whether you’re shooting, passing, or giving someone the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag after blocking a shot. Furthermore, they endure a great deal of physical abuse during basketball games.

Performing fingertip push-ups will strengthen your upper body and core, which will, in turn, help you play better.

10. Moving In And Out Of An Alternating Dumbbell Press

To make a jump shot, you need to be able to extend your lats and back fully and have stable shoulders. It gives a boost to everything mentioned above.

Put your palms down toward your thighs while you lie face up on a bench and hold dumbbells out to the side of your shoulders. Raise the weights above your chest in a squatting position. While maintaining a straight arm, bring the other dumbbell down until it touches the outside of your shoulder, and then raise it back up. 

When you reach the peak of the motion, you should use more force with both hands, as if punching the air. Move on to the opposite arm and repeat. Ten sets of this.

Conclusion 

Although muscular strength is essential, flexibility is as crucial. Playing basketball is a high-impact, high-intensity activity that can lead to physical fatigue and even injury. The equipment you use during the workouts is often the product of micro injection moulding. Hence, quality tools can create a great difference.
Exercise should emphasize both muscular strength and aerobic endurance in your workouts. A good physique will not only help in playing the best basketball game but also in doing regular house chores like fixing various types of valves in water distribution systems at a certain height, putting objects higher, or even changing the ceiling fans.