Improve your strength with these basketball drills

Start your drills by firing up your core and leg muscles. Position yourself against a wall, lowering your legs until your knees are bent at 90 degrees. Hold for 30-60 seconds, keeping your back upright and flat against the wall with hands on your knees.

This drill works best using the lines on a court. If you don’t have lines, set up markers at different points to help set your placement.

Begin on one end of the court. Run to the line or marker closest to you and bend down to tap it with your hand. Then run back to the beginning. This time, run to the next line or marker. Make sure to touch it before running back to the beginning. Continue running back and forth until you complete the entire court.

Laying an agility training ladder down on the ground, start by standing at one end of it with feet wider than hip distance apart. Hop into the first box while bringing your feet together. Then, hop out of the box landing with feet wider than hip distance apart – just like hopscotch. Repeat this movement quickly, but jumping into the subsequent boxes. Once you reach the end of the ladder, repeat all over again going back down the ladder.

Using your agility training ladder again, jump up and land into the first box with both feet, aiming to drive your knees up into your chest. Repeat as you jump your way into all the boxes. Once you reach the end of the ladder, repeat all over again going back down the ladder.

Using a low box, step, or even a water bottle, begin by standing in front of it with your feet at hip distance apart. Tap your toe on the surface in front of you, alternating legs rapidly. Make sure to tap lightly so that you don’t trip yourself as you switch between feet.

Set up two markers that are at least 2 meters apart. Standing by one marker in a half-extended squat, shuffle your feet quickly to the other side. Once you reach the other side, jump up and land in a squat. Then shuffle back to the other side. Again, finish with a jump squat. Maintain your pace as you go back and forth.

Set up cones or some other sort of marker in a straight line, with about half a metre in between each marker. Standing at one end of the markers, begin weaving yourself quickly in and around each cone. Your feet should be shuffling with your legs in a half-extended squat to engage your leg muscles. Once you reach the end of the markers, begin weaving your way back to the beginning.