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10 Plyometric Drills to Build Explosiveness

Plyometric exercises typically focus on developing explosiveness in sports. This comes particularly important in basketball, where quick and explosive jumping ability pays major dividends for a player.

Follow along as Alan Stein runs through 10 plyometric exercises that have proven to be effective for basketball players, not only for explosiveness, but also in the areas of injury prevention, power development and increased speed.

*Keys to Remember

Here are some keys points to remember when participating in plyometric exercises. Avoid Knock-Kneed Position, keep your chest over your knees and knees over your feet, absorb shock with your ankles, knees and hips, land toe to heel, and also jump as high and as hard as you can.

Plyo Lunges

Start out with one leg in front of the other while squatting. Your back should be straight and eyes focused straight ahead. One knees should be in front with your opposite knee pointing straight down. Jump up with a burst and switch the leg that you land on. Ultimately, you will always remain in the same position, but you’ll just be switching sides upon landing. Raise your arms high in the air.

Plyo Skips

Stand up straight, skip up in the air and raise one knee high out in front of you, all while raising your opposite arm at your side at the same time. Always switch sides, back and forth. Really get a good burst.

Standing Broad Jumps

With your feet in place, make giant broad jumps and land in place. Really try to bend your knees and get good propulsion.

Quick Broad Jumps

With these, as soon as you land, you should be right back into your next jump. In other words, you want quick jumps all the way.

Cross Under Lateral Bounds

Facing the side, you should jump across using one foot to jump and the other foot to land. Use one foot only at a time. But the other foot can land after the initial jump.

Quick Lateral Bounds

This is the same as before, only much faster. There should constant stepping in your shuffle.

Single Step Vertical Jumps

Here you are essentially taking one single step and then leaping high into the air and then landing in place. When you land, keep a staggered positioning with your knees slightly bent.

Forward Side-to-Side, 2-Foot Bounds

These are basically zigzags while jumping and landing in place. There will be no stepping here, just jumps on a zigzag. Keep those knees bent and maintain a low positioning like when playing defense in basketball. Look to leap as far as you can go.

Backward Side-to-Side, 2-Foot Bounds

This exercise is essentially the same as before, but this time face the baseline and jump backwards on a zigzag (side to side).

Speed Skaters

In a similar form to a speed skater, you will be jumping here using just one foot on a zigzag and then landing with the opposite foot. Meanwhile, your other foot will trail behind and remain in the air like a speed skater would do.

The following exercises – along with many others – can be seen on Championship Productions’ DVD “130 Pro Power Strength, Power, and Explosiveness Drills” featuring Alan Stein. Check out more conditioning workouts in our exclusive training library.

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