Effects of in-season short-term plyometric training on jumping and agility performance of basketball players

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of in-season plyometric training program on power and agility performance in young male basketball players. Twenty intermediate basketball players (age 20.1 ± 1.3 years; height 181.1 ± 8.5 cm; body mass 78.8 ± 5 kg) from Division I province team volunteered to participate in this study and were randomly divided into two groups: plyometric training (PL; n = 10) and control group (CG; n = 10). Plyometric training took place twice weekly for 6 weeks including three sets of 15 repetitions of depth jump (from 45-cm box height), vertical jump, and standing long jump, in addition to regular basketball practice of the team. Vertical jump (VJ), standing long jump (SLJ), 4 × 9-m shuttle run, agility t test (ATT), and Illinois Agility Test (IAT) were measured at pre- and post-training. The PL group showed significant improvement (P < 0.05) in VJ (10.21 ± 2.72 cm), SLJ (21.15 ± 8.10 cm), 4 × 9-m shuttle run (0.62 ± 0.28 s), ATT (1.16 ± 0.57 s), and IAT (1.17 ± 0.65 s) after a 6-week training period and compared to CG. It can be concluded that a 6-week in-season plyometric training program has positive effects for improving power and agility performance in young male basketball players and this study provides support for coaches and basketball players who use this training method during competitive phase.