In the game of basketball, athletic skills are just as valuable as talent and dribbling ability. They all complement each other. Having one without the other will severely diminish any hopes of having the upper hand in court. The athletic skills that we mean are particularly speed, response quickness, agility and also jumping ability.
When discussing speed, we should note that speed can be broken down into two components. These components are stride length and stride frequency. Stride length is defined as the amount of distance that can be covered in one step. Stride frequency, on the other hand, is the number of strides that one takes for a given time.
Building on from the definitions, we can deduce that to increase speed in basketball, we need to increase both stride length and stride frequency. The most fundamental aspect that athletes should look into when trying to increase speed is to increase muscular power. Next, an athlete should work hard to increase the flexibility of the body joints that are directly related to the movement. Thirdly, players should increase the mechanics of the movement.
In basketball, being able to make a split second multi directional movement is pivotal. Often, players will have to move forward, backward and sideways fast. When trying to increase speed in basketball, one should focus on developing a powerful stride length. At the same time, one should also try to maintain ones’ stride frequency.
One should also realize that speed is also dependent on the maximum speed at which the muscle can contract. Also, when trying to increase speed, one should be sure that he is not overweight. Being overweight simply means that there is more mass that needs to be moved. This significantly reduces the potential to move fast. Therefore, if players are overweight, coaches should make sure that the player undergoes a realistic fat reduction program.
There are various activities that can be done to increase ones’ speed in basketball. Among them is jumping rope. Jump ropes are helpful in toning the leg muscles to be able to deliver bursts of power when sprinting up and down the court. While jumping rope, the muscles will have to contract rapidly.
Thus, with proper training, the maximum rate at which leg muscles will be able to contract will increase. This will increase ones’ basketball speed. Also, consider doing speed jumps as well.
Power skips are also helpful in increasing speed in basketball. This drill increases the flexibility of muscle joints and muscle power as well. As mentioned earlier, longer strides mean better speed. Power skips train the body to be able to perform longer strides.
The traditional sprinting is also a great way to increase basketball speed. What sprinting does is to make the related muscle stronger. This will result in a higher muscle contraction rate which means better speed.
These are just some from a huge number of drills that can increase basketball speed. Both Players and coaches should look into these drills and implement them on the team.
