Effectiveness of Plyometric Training in the Improvement of Sports Specific Skills of Basketball Players

Background Plyometric exercises have been used successfully over the years to elicit various training responses from athletes such as power, agility, running economy etc. Till date few studies have been carried out to visualize the effect of plyometrics on physical conditioning in basketball players such as effects on vertical jump, agility, upper and lower body explosivity levels but little information exists on the efficacy of plyometric training in the improvement of sports specific skills of basketball. Aim The study was conducted to visualise the effect of plyometric training on sports specific skills of basketball. Materials and methods Forty male basketball players were recruited for the study according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and were randomly divided into control (n=20) and training (n=20) group. After the baseline measurements were taken, all the subjects underwent the intervention period during which the subjects in the control group were instructed to continue their regular practice of basketball while the subjects in the training group completed four weeks of plyometric training program in addition to their regular practice. Data analysis The data was expressed as Mean ± standard deviation (SD) and student's t-test was used to analyse it. Results It was found that four weeks of plyometric training is effective in producing statistically significant improvement in the sports specific skills of basketball players in addition to strength, balance and jumping power while regular practice of basketball demonstrated negligible improvement which was statistically insignificant. Conclusion It was concluded that Plyometric training is more effective than regular practice of basketball in improving strength, jumping power, balance and sports specific skills of basketball players.