Building a Fast Basketball Program

Steps to a Building a Faster Basketball Program

Aside from having five knockdown shooters on the floor, any coach would tell you they wished their team had more basketball speed.

That’s right! Flat-out speed and quickness is a game-changer for a faster basketball program. Players can defend better, attack the rim easier, push the ball up the floor faster, and create more havoc in full-court pressure.

Speed is essential to have and scary to play against.

How Do You Improve Basketball Speed?

First and foremost is to have your players in your program sprint! Yes, sprint! I don’t care if the floor is only 84-92 feet long and max velocity speed is never reached.

Sprinting is like finding gold. It gives riches to athleticism at so many levels-

Faster ground contact times.
Stronger legs and hips.
Strong and powerful feet are able to create great quickness.
Incredible core development to help athletic movement.
Reduce the potential for shin splints, hamstring, and quad injuries.
Plus, confidence from players like never seen before.

Sprinting is for all age levels. Begin with 20-yards for HS, 15 yards for middle school, and 10 yards for elementary ages. Sprint two days per week on non-consecutive days. Perform five reps at 100% effort, and give enough rest between repetitions. Each rep needs to be fresh.

Perform six weeks of this program. Add 5 yards each week for five weeks; on the last week, add 10. Be sure to time every single rep to gauge how players are doing so you can measure improvement the second time around.

Yep, that’s right! You will restart from week one after the sixth week is over. Get out your times and compare each week’s time to the six-week program. You’ll be amazed.

Here’s The Kicker…

If your players play a lot of 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 during the off-season, they don’t need much extra agility work- maybe just to clean up patterns. The same goes for jumping. Especially if they put in a lot of skills work and it involves a ton of jumping. However, you can do 3 sets of 3-5 reps of box jumps once per week. Have the players jump up onto a box and step off. This exercise will aid in improving overall quick-force/power development. Be sure to sprint first, followed by jumping or jumping on a non-sprint day to be optimally fresh.

You could do many other things, add, adjust, and prioritize. But if you are looking for faster players, get them to sprint twice per week and wait until you see the results.

Dive Deeper into Basketball Speed

If you want to dive into the deep end of basketball speed and quickness, you need to have a game plan and the communication process to make it reach its potential. This is exactly why studying my Certified Basketball Speed Specialist Course is the choice for you and your staff. I'll give you the game plan!

Improve your overall program on-court basketball speed.

Categories: basketball speed, coaching systems