A powerful explosive vertical leap and dynamic agility are mandatory for basketball. All basketball sport-specific movements require it. For example, shooting, blocking, rebounding, etc. Unfortunately, merely practicing vertical jumping won’t help you maximize it. You need to put in the effort to improve your force production, technique, coordination, and timing. In addition, there are specific jumping exercises that you need to do to boost your vertical, that basketball practice will not.

This article is not going to teach you how to vertical jump. However, this video will.

Instead, this article will show you exercises that will help maximize your vertical jump strength, speed, power, and explosive potential. With that being said, to jump high, fast, and explosively, you must activate the stretch-shortening cycle.

Stretch-Shortening Cycle (SSC)

The stretch-shortening cycle works like bouncing a basketball. The faster and harder you slam the ball against the court, the higher it will bounce into the air, much like your vertical leap to shoot, dunk, rebound, or block a shot.

In other words, the faster you move eccentrically into your squat before you jump, the more energy gets stored and the higher you can propel into the air. The eccentric and isometric phases yield energy that enhances the countermovement, the concentric part, of your jump.

So, to jump higher, you need to do strength training first that focuses on eccentric and isometric motions of your movement. This type of training will increase the force your muscles can produce specifically for jumping. In addition, this training creates the springy potential and capability to maximize vertical jumping height ability. This idea is crucial to understand.

Understanding Your Technique

First, good jumping ability and technique are prerequisites to doing these exercises. Athletes often try to learn new exercises, and they don’t work because their technique is not fine-tuned to progress and advance, being stuck at a certain point.

The following are specific basketball exercises that will develop and help you enhance your height and power on the court.

Plate Vertical Jumps

Plate vertical jumps will highly involve your core because of holding the plate in front of you. Squat down fast to activate the SSC and immediately countermove and jump into the air reaching the plate up above your head. It works even better if you use mental imagery, like if you were rebounding, blocking, or shooting.

Assisted Vertical Jump Resistance Band Pulldown

This exercise uses the resistance band so that you can jump higher and faster in the air than normal. Pulling the resistance band allows you to jump at higher and faster speeds. Your proprioceptors, receptors in your muscles, adapt instantly to the speed that enhances your vertical jump ability. So, jump as fast and as high as you can.

Dumbbell Squat Jumps

The dumbbell squat jump is excellent for developing strength, speed, and explosiveness to jump off the floor. You can do them using a heavyweight first down at your sides. And then after, you can complex train the exercise using a lighter weight so you can curl the dumbbells up as you jump.

Resistance Band Speed Jumps

This exercise is fantastic for developing speed and explosiveness. The elasticity of the resistance bands makes you respond quickly in repetition. It will help build the springiness and quickness in your leaps, hops, and jumps. You will not bend your knees as much using a heavier resistance band. However, using a lighter one, you can. You can train both because you will use both movements in basketball.

Here are some single-leg split stance positions.

Resistance Band Leg Press

Deceleration Lunges

Box Step Back Lunges

Alternating Split Lunges

Just remember, when doing these exercises, use mental imagery. Using mental imagery with these exercises will create a more significant transference with your court performance than just doing the movement. You can tailor these exercises to be more specific for your basketball performance as well.