Basketball Stretching Tips

Video Transcript

"First and for most we need to begin with stretching properly. Now in order to be affective on the courts you want to be able to be loose and limber. Basketball involves a lot of core strength, a lot of lower back, a lot of leg muscles, so we've got to make sure that those are properly stretched. I like to usually start off with bending down touching your toes getting a ample stretch at the body about 90 degrees, bending down just loosely touching the toes, feeling that burn in the calves and in the lower thighs. Once we do that for about 5 to 10 minutes, I like to switch up and do a little bit of core strength. Core strength involves getting on our back, using our right leg bending it back to get some tension on the thigh and leaning back as far as you can go. This allows you to do it, it's like a rubber band. Rubber band needs to be stretched so that it doesn't tear. Often in basketball we're going to be doing a lot of quick acceleration, so you want to make sure that you're very, very stretched properly. Just for about a minute, switch to the left, pull that back and repeat and do the same. Do that for about a minute to 2 minutes switching back and forth to make sure both legs are properly stretched. We like to do a little bit of what I call the butterfly sitting in the Indian style position with the knees facing outward. Pull the toes back, head elevated at a 90 degree angle and breathe. Make sure you breathe through all these so you're allowing your body, your blood and your muscles to flow as one. Okay, also like to do a little bit of arm stretching, just take the right arm pointing it to the left side of your body at a firm 90 degree angle and pulling back again. Again, feeling the stretch, you don't want to over stretch it you just want to get enough so you feel the ting and the burn. Do that for about 30 seconds or 45 seconds, switch and then use the other arm."