Basketballs Training
Basketballs Training

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What basketball training methods work best? As in jumping, speed, shooting, and working on my opposite hand?
Someone please give me a serious answer. I'm trying out for my college next year.
As far as jumping and speed, I had friends who played high school ball and went on to Division I schools that suggest this:
Wear water ankle weights in the pool and jump up and down in the water until you feel like you can't do it anymore (had a friend that could do it 100 times with 5lb weights, really increased his vertical and the water resistance can help increase speed as well).
Here's a great article on things you can do to jump higher:
http://sparqtraining.com/features/2006/11/07/how-can-i-jump-higher/
Hoops King also has some free drills on their website you can check out if you can watch videos online:
http://www.hoopsking.com/
With speed I knew alot of guys who would run with parachutes to increase speed. Here's a website where you can order one, or simply just get an idea of what I'm talking about:
http://www.competitiveedgeproducts.com/detail.aspx?ID=476
When it comes to shooting, when I played we used weighted balls to increase passing efficency and to increase passing strength. Going through your shooting motion with a weighted basketball can also help increase range.
As far as working with your opposite hand, when it comes to dribbling the simplest thing to do is either have a friend literally tie your hand behind your back (I saw a guy in college have someone tape it to his back) and force yourself to dribble with the opposite hand. Dribble around cones, at full speed up and down the court. Just typical drills you would do with your dominant hand. It'll improve dexterity.
Shooting with your opposite hand, you need to think back when you first started playing basketball and start with simple drills. Start by standing on the block and shooting one handed, over and over and over again. When you get to where you're comfortable move back. When you've done some dribbling with the opposite hand, do some simply layup drills on that side, with just that hand. Just repeat this stuff over and over again.
This is a good site with some drills you can check out:
http://www.coachesclipboard.net/BasketballDrills.html
Also don't forget running and sprinting. Granted endurance is an important factor, so is the ability to "burst" with speed up and down the court. A lot of people training realize it's important to work on the endurance/long distance running, but often forget that sprints are a athlete's best friend in basketball. Suicides (running from baseline to foul line and back, baseline to half court and back, and so on) are great for endurance and speed.
A great drill we did was called four corners. You would start at one corner of the court and back peddle to the next corner (going clockwise around the floor). At the 2nd corner, you would plant your left foot then pivot towards the next corner into a full sprint. At the third corner you would jump stop and receive a pass, into the triple threat position, throwing it back to the person who threw it to you. Then you would side step (down in a defensive position, "sliding" to the side) back to the original corner. You run it a first time to get your base time, then each time try to improve your time.
Practice makes perfect, hope I could help.
