LeBron James Does These Workouts to Jump Higher - Do You?

Conditioning your body to improve your basketball skills can be basketball most basketball part in any athlete's training. Strength and quickness training can help improve your 3 point shooting, dribbling and passing, but the easiest aspect of your game to improve, is your jump height. Here are a few workouts that all of the pros use to increase their vertical leap height.

1. Hill Sprints! Find a hill around where you live that has a steady incline. The steeper the better for this workout. Start at the bottom and simply sprint as hard and as fast as to can. Keep the sprints limited to about 70 yards. Remember, with this workout, you are workout on quickness, not endurance. Do 6-8 hill sprints a day.

2. Core Workouts! Don't forget that your abs play a tremendous role in balance and overall explosive power. every morning when you wake up, do sit up, crunches, and v-ups. These 3 workouts combined will strengthen both your upper and lower abs. This is also important for cutting fat! If you had to hold a 10 pound dumbbell when you jumped, you wouldn't get as high as if you weren't holding it. Core workouts will help you strip away that extra weight.

3. Bulgarian Split Dead-Lift! The name is complicated, the workout is simple! Get a pair of dumbbells at a weight that feels comfortable to you (I started with 25 lb each but within 3 weeks I had moved up to 95 lb dumbbells). Put a bench about 2 feet behind you. Stand with the dumbbells hanging to your sides. Step back with 1 foot ad place the top of your foot on the bench with the sole of your shoe toward the sky. Now you are ready to begin. Squat down on the 1 leg until your knee is at a 90 degree angle and press yourself back up. Do 10 Reps of this workout for each leg. Try to do at least 5 sets.

For more tips to help increase your vertical jump height, check out The Jump Manual. This is the best program available to help increase your vertical jump fast!

How Girls Basketball Players Can Increase From 10 to 20 Points Per Game

In another article, I explained how to average over 10 points in a game.

Well, let's take it up to over 20.

Are you good at shooting threes? Let's say that you are. During basketball game, you take 5 attempts from three point range basketball hit 3. You have 9 points already.

We've already established that your shooting range is good. So now defense is playing you a little closer. Don't get upset. We will take advantage of it. When you get the ball, use your quick first step to blow right pass your defender. You take a short jumper, made it, and got fouled. (And One). You make the free throw. Three plus nine equals 12 total points.

While heading back on defense you anticipate a pass and make a steal. Then, you go in for a wide open lay-up. There you go for another 2 for 14 points total.

Another trip down the court on offense you are at the 3 point line. You penetrate in and on your release you are fouled again. You have 2 free throws and you make both. You have 16.

The defense leaves you wide open just inside the 3 point line and you nail it. That makes your total 18.

On another trip on offense you get a rebound and stick back. There you go with another 2 points for 20 total points.

Again, the defense loses you and you are wide open just inside the 3 point line and you nail it. That makes your total 22.

Now you see how to get over 20 points in a game.

Visit http://www.girlsbasketballtips.com to get your copy of the 6 Girls Basketball Tips that will Explode Your Game!!!

Improve Your Dunking Ability

To get better at dunking you need dunk like a maniac. Ask basketball Jordan and he'll tell you he never actually worked on any program he just went out there and he was dunking like hell. And that's what you should do. But hey... I'm not going to leave you without some sweet little tips:) Okay? Here we go.

Here are several tips to improve your dunking ability:

"Pull" 2-3 inches with this one..

1.) If you are determined to dunk with authority every time you are dunking a basketball, and you lower your buttocks little more than usual you can pull off maybe 2-3 inches from you vertical. It is true.

I will say that again. Having faith that you will jump so high that eventually your eyes will see the rim right in front of you, and you will lower you legs more than you normally do (in other words, it is as if you are seemingly going to basketball can easily add 2-3 more inches to your vertical leap. Try it!

Better palming..

2.) Are you having a hard time palming the basketball? Try licking your fingertips for better palming. It always helps. You'll learn/train to palm the ball even better the more dunks you do, of course, but this little trick can help you a great deal.

Learn 360s the easy way.

3.) I learned to spin the hard way because I didn't know where the head should be turned. Well, here's a principle. The head follows the body. It's a pretty basic concept but a lot of players tend to forget. When I was learning to do 360 spin, my head was the last thing to look at the rim. And boy, was I ever wrong.

The head should be the first thing to look at the rim. Here's how you do that.

So as you start spinning, concentrate on the head. Before you can position your limbs towards the rim your head should have already seen the rim. In other words, try to turn your head towards the rim as quickly as you can. OK, I emphasized that enough:) After several successful dunks I did not have to think about the head at all.

Also remember to "land" with both feet at the same time after you dunk the ball (after doing a 360 or 180 spin). If you land with one foot there is much greater chance you'll lose balance and fall on the ground.

On this particular area of my website about basketball I talk about dunking.

http://www.best-basketball-tips.com/dunking-tips.html

Feel free to check it out

Basketball Shooting Drills For Guards

Cut, Catch & Lay-up

Great scoring guards know how to create space and get open. Practice and work hard at establishing position by either performing a solid v cut or using the lane to get open. Once you've come up the lane and popped out the ball should be on its way to you. You should have taken a mini hop-step already to get in position to shoot the ball. Now instead of going right into a jump stop, take an immediate dribble and go in for the lay-up. The footwork on this is tricky. Some players travel because the hop-step throws off their timing a little bit. It takes practice. If you've hopped in the air and landed with both feet you should be in an excellent position to drive for the lay-up.

Cut, Catch, Dribble & Shoot

Come up the lane and pop out to the wing. Take the hop-step before the ball arrives and immediately take one hard dribble in either direction. After one or two hard dribbles, immediately go into your jump shot. The hop-step will set up everything if you've done it correctly. It prepares you to shoot quickly and tells the defender that you can shoot quickly. If he gets close to you simply drive past him and if he's worried about you driving past him then the shot off the dribble will work every time because he will be on his heels.

When I work on these drills, which I still do today, I do them in order starting from the jump shot. The jump shot sets up everything else. It is like a great fastball from a pitcher. Once a great pitcher shows his fastball and that he can throw it for a strike, the pitcher has the edge. Good scorers use the jump shot as a way to set up everything else.

Cut, Catch & Shoot

This drill should be done exactly as the drill above with one exception - basketball is no dribble. As you get the ball you immediately go up for the shot. This will probably feel a little uncomfortable for most players in the beginning but it's crucial for you to eventually be basketball to hit this shot. If you can't hit this shot your defender will constantly sag off you when you receive the ball and prevent you from making a break to the basket or getting a shot off the dribble.

Wing or Corner Jumpers

As young players get older a couple things happen. First, everyone gets bigger, stronger and faster. Secondly, as a result it gets tougher to get open and create a shot. Something I've learned over the years has made it very easy for me to be able to get off a shot quickly and effectively. Start with the ball at the top of the key. If you are a coach, I suggest starting this drill with two lines on both sides of the top of the key. A line of shooters should also be formed on the wing or the corner. When the pass is made from the top of the key to the wing player I want the wing players to take a mini hop right before the ball gets there. Immediately shoot the ball when it arrives. If you have to gather yourself before the shot goes up then you have a problem that needs fixing. Players ask me how they can practice this by themselves and I tell them to get a toss back. What a great invention. Some people talk about their car in high school when I talk about my toss back. If you aren't comfortable shooting off the hop yet, then practice by throwing the ball off a wall or the toss back and just getting your feet correct. Have each player shoot within their range from the two spots then switch out to different areas. After all, nobody only shoots from the wing or the baseline. Don't just stand there and shoot jump shots either as that doesn't help nearly as much as shooting off the hop.

Pass, Cut & Shoot

A little bit of a modification of the drill I just talked about is the pass, cut and shoot. A player that stands still is extremely easy to guard so I coach my guards to cut once they pass the ball. To practice this drill, have a player line up at the high post and start the ball on the wing. The line should be at the wing position. Once the ball is passed to the high post the player should cut to either the baseline or the top of the key. Once the cut is made, the passer throws the ball with the wing player taking the hop-step before the ball comes so he can get off a quick shot. The drill should be practiced with the ball coming from the high post and also from the low post as those are the most common areas of double teaming. When the high post receives the ball many times you'll see 2-3 defenders collapse on the ball and if you, as a shooter, can get to an open spot where the defense can't recover quickly, you'll get an uncontested shot. This drill isn't one to practice at a slow pace. The cuts need to have a point and has to be quick. Players that play hard are not easy to guard. That's worth repeating, players that play hard are not easy to guard.

Andy Louder is the owner of HoopSkills.com. Brian Schofield is a former college basketball player and writer for the site. Visit the site for more basketball drills and instruction.