Track exercises are great for developing athleticism for basketball. Here are 7 of the best ones you can do.
The Charlotte Hornets’ Kai Jones is one of the most athletic big men in the NBA right now and he has crazy bunnies for a nearly 7-foot, 220-pound guy.
In the handful of seasons he’s been in the NBA, he’s been dunking on everyone with his putbacks and rim running.
But before Jones became the bounciest player in Charlotte, he was a track and field star in his hometown of Nassau, Bahamas.
Via NBA.com:
“I could have been an Olympian, for sure. If you go look at the records, I was an AAU National Champion. I qualified for the Junior Olympics in triple jump when I was in eighth grade. I represented my country in the CUT (Caribbean Union of Teachers) Games when I was in the fourth grade…
“I was an all-around track athlete really, but I specialized in the jumps.”
Jones was destined to be a track star. But somewhere along his journey, he hit a big growth spurt that lengthened him to 6-7 and it re-directed his path to basketball.
He said he started playing ball because of these showcases in the Bahamas and fell in love with the game.
He eventually tried out for his school team in the seventh and eighth grades but didn’t make the cut in either year.
That didn’t discourage him though, as he continued to wake up early daily to train.
After a few years of pain and growth (on the basketball court), Jones was able to develop enough skills to make it onto a high school team in the states (Orlando Christian Prep) and eventually into the NCAA, where he played for Texas and where he became the 2021 Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year.
He played college ball for two years before entering the NBA draft. He was drafted with the 19th overall pick and has been baptizing opponents for the Hornets ever since.
How Did Track Help Kai Jones?
But how did track and field help Jones with basketball?
Well, he says that it helps him move more efficiently on the hardwood.
“I love basketball. I feel like this is the sport I was destined to play, honestly. Track was just building me up for that. Being my size and how I move, there’s nobody like that and that’s because of my track background. I feel like it was just God building my story.
“Track builds your overall athleticism. I definitely feel like I’m fast, have a quick twitch, jumping ability and know how to jump. I have jumping technique. High jump teaches you how to jump specifically. I was a trained jumper. Stuff like that helps.”
How Track and Field Exercises Can Help You
Track and field can help you build overall athleticism.
By doing them regularly, you’ll learn how to move with explosiveness because track exercises teach you the mechanics of running and jumping.
This will help you accelerate and run faster, be quicker and more agile, and jump higher.
By having these features, you’ll be able to score more as you attack the basket, deny more blocks as you chase ball handlers down, stop more transition attacks, close out better, and grab more rebounds.
7 of the Best Track and Field Exercises for Basketball
So, here are some of the best track and field exercises you can do for basketball:
A-Skips will teach you how to accelerate and sprint properly.
By learning how to sprint properly, you’ll be able to explode to the end of the court to stop a transition play more efficiently.
It’s also a great pre-game/pre-practice drill to warm up your lower body.
B-Skips are like the A-Skips, but train the power in your step and coordination more. Again, it teaches you how to sprint and is also a great warm-up for your lower body.
Straight Leg Bounds will teach you how to strike the ground properly, which will improve your speed and acceleration. It’s also great for improving coordination.
Again, by learning how to run and sprint properly, you’ll be better at accelerating and thus, better at closing out on open shooters, for instance.
Power Skips will teach you the mechanics of jumping with one leg, which will help you jump higher as you go up for lay-ups.
It will also strengthen your core and stabilizer muscles, so you’ll be able to take more contact when going up for a lay-up.
Single-leg bounding is a combination of scissor bounds and power skips.
This exercise will teach you how to jump with power and will, in turn, improve your single-leg explosiveness.
By improving your explosiveness, you’ll be able to attack the basket more effectively.
Backward pedaling isn’t necessarily a track and field exercise, but you can do it on a track.
Anyway, backward pedals will teach you how to move backwards so that you can defend more effectively.
Additionally, backward pedals are great for injury prevention as they strengthen and add mobility to areas in your leg that are often neglected.
The same applies to lateral slides in that it isn’t a track exercise but can be done on a track. Lateral slides are also great for improving your defense.
Final Thoughts
Learning and practicing track movements is great for basketball because it will show you how to move properly.
So, if you want to move more efficiently on the basketball court, practice these movements regularly.
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