Jumping ability is important in the shooting, defending and rebounding aspects of basketball. Successful basketball athletes must be able to continuously jump higher than their opponent over the course of a game. Increased strength through weight training can improve your jump height. Because jumping is a motion that requires power, weight training programs that emphasize quick, powerful movements show the greatest increase in jumping ability.
Misconceptions
Power is the combination of strength and speed. Some experts thought that solely increasing strength would result in an increase in power. However, often athletes who focused on strength alone became stronger but slower. Research by Fontini Arabatzi and colleagues at Aristotle University in Greece found that strength training that emphasized quick movements improved vertical jump height. This combination of strength and speed is essential to vertical jump performance improvement.
Influencing Factors
When training to improve basketball performance, the exercises and methods must closely resemble basketball skills. This is called the specificity of training. Slow movements with heavy weights do not mimic the fast-paced movements in basketball and thus do not increase performance. Weight training that emphasizes speed, such as Olympic lifts, or is similar to movements on the court, such as weighted squat-jumps, works better.
Considerations
Olympic lifting is a sport that consists of the clean and jerk and the snatch motions. These motions are routinely modified to adapt them as training tools in sports that require power. For novice lifters, technique can be a limiting factor to achieving substantial power improvements. To improve your jumping strength for basketball, master the Olympic lift variations.
Benefits
When performed from the modified "hang" starting position, the clean and snatch exercises put the body in a similar posture to jumping. Though body position is important, the speed of the exercise must also match the speed of the jumping movement in order to have the maximum benefit. Perform the hang clean and hang snatch as fast as possible without compromising technique. This might mean you use a lighter weight until you become more proficient. Training in this manner will increase both strength and speed, resulting in increased power and a higher vertical jump.
Expert Insight
Many strength programs focus on how much weight an athlete can lift without regard for the speed of the motion. Basketball is an explosive sport that requires power, a combination of strength and speed. Weight training should mimic the needs of basketball by addressing both aspects of power. The greatest jump performance gains occur through the use of exercises with weights that will challenge the body's musculature but not prevent a fast movement with proper form.
References
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Effects of Complex Training on Explosive Strength in Adolescent Male Basketball Players; Eduardo J.A.M. Santos and Manuel A.A.S. Janeira; Vol 22(3), 2008.
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Vertical Jump Biomechanics after Plyometric, Weight Lifting, and Combined (Weight Lifting + Plyometric) Training; Fotini Arabatzi, Eleftherios Kellis and Eduardo Saez-Saez de Villarreal; Vol 24(9), 2010.
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