Increasing vertical jumping for basketball: Sports Fitness (Individual & Team)

danny · **Site Rank:** Healthy Friend

I'm looking to research ways that I can increase my jumping ability in basketball. I'm a white boy on a team where all of the other players can all jump higher than me! So far I've tried using strength shoes... they've worked quite a bit, but I feel like I've hit a plateau and so I'm looking for any new ideas. Please let me know if you have any! Basketball is almost over and I'd like to get started training really hard during the off season so I can come back next year new and improved!

Thanks.
Danny

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

Hi Danny,

Have you tried plyometrics or do you lift weights?

Good jumpers take-off from their left leg (if they are right-handed), with some assistance from the right leg during the first step to the basket. Main muscle groups involved in this one-legged jump are :

10% Hips
50% Quadriceps (large muscle in front of the thighs)
15% Calves (large lump of muscle in the lower leg)
15% Hamstrings (large muscle behind the thigh)
10% Arms

Work on building muscle in those groups and that should help increase your vertical jump!

danny · **Site Rank:** Healthy Friend

Thanks for the response. I have tried plyometrics, but I rarely lift weights on my lower body. I think I will start a consistent routine for working out my legs, hips, hamstrings, calves and quads.

HealthyPals · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

Flexibility plays an important role in vertical jumping, believe it or not. Many studies suggest that the correlation between flexibility and jumping ability is great.

Always remember to especially stretch after training when the muscles are warm and capable of a greater range of motion. You should also stretch in the order of largest muscle groups to the smaller ones, such as:

1. Lower back
2. Hip area
3. Hamstrings
4. Groin
5. Quads
6. Calf
7. Ankles

LongTail · **Site Rank:** Healthy Acquaintance

Plyometrics is the way to go if you want to increase vertical leaping. I used the air alert III plyometrics program and it has certainly done wonders for my game. (I am a basketball player as well)

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

I used to do plyometrics all the time when I was in high school and I think it helped my vertical for basketball too. I was addicted to trying to increase my vertical jump in high school so I tried many things. I was doing workouts with strength shoes all of the time and I really believe those shoes helped to increased my vertical. At one point I was about an inch away from grabbing the basketball rim and that's pretty good for a 5'11'', white girl.

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