Plyometric Drills

Plyometric drills are a great way to teach any team or yourself how to jump higher. The drills in plyometric training should not be done after doing legs because the muscles in the legs should be fresh when starting any sort of jumping training regimen.

Drill #1

Set up plyometric boxes in a straight row of 4 boxes. Explain to everyone that you will be stepping off the box and jumping onto the next one as quickly as possible. The 2 major things to point out here are that you step off the box and you don't jump off the box. Second, you want to be in contact with the ground for as little time as possible. We aren't trying to cushion the landing with our knees during this exercise. We are trying to develop the fast twitch muscles in our legs to do the reacting.

Drill #2

Pick something high such as the rim or backboard. If you can't jump and touch either one of those things than pick something that you can touch. Stand under the rim and set a timer for 10 seconds. You are going to jump and touch the rim as many times as you can in ten seconds.

Drill #3

Get a medicine ball that weighs about 8 pounds. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and bend down (at the knees, not the lower back) until the ball touches the ground in between your feet. From this squatted position you are going to explode up jump as high as you can while you throw the ball up (and maybe behind you) as high as you can.

With all of these exercises you will rest in between sets a little longer than you would for regular training because you want to get the most out of each rep or every set during training.