While growing up I was constantly in search of ways to make myself a better basketball player. One of my main sources of information was magazines like Sports Illustrated for Kids and as I got older, Slam Magazine. I still remember one article I read from SI for Kids that interviewed Grant Hill. The question asked was how he become a high-flyer. For those of you too young to remember, Grant Hill was an amazing athlete while at Duke and during his early years in the league.
Hill's response, paraphrased, of course: "I used to do calf raises every night when I was young."
That statement was probably the worst and best thing I could have ever read.
With this great information on how to turn myself into a dunk machine, I hit calf raises hard and often. From approximately 7th grade until I got to college, I spent very little time standing around. I did calf raises everywhere - in the shower, during halftime of Siena Saints basketball games, while brushing my teeth, in class while sitting down, when walking up stairs, and even in church (when my mom wasn't looking). If I was standing in place I was doing calf raises.
So I turned into a dunk machine, right? Wrong. Turns out, your calves are only responsible for about 15% of your jump height. The more important muscles are the hamstrings, glutes and quads. So I spent all that time doing calf raises with no rewards. Not exactly...
What I didn't realize at the time, is that just about everything I was doing was building rock solid ankles. Not only was I doing tons of calf raises, but I also only tied my sneakers when playing basketball. I simply slipped my sneakers on and off and wore them loose, which also helped create my strong ankles.
Anybody that has played basketball seriously for any amount of time has dealt with ankle sprains. Except for myself. Throughout my entire high school and college basketball career and into my adult playing career (Y men's league) I have suffered only one ankle sprain, which occurred my sophomore year of high school. This is not luck, as I have stepped on other players shoes and rolled my ankle plenty of times, to the point where teammates cringe and ask if I'm ok. But nothing ever happens. No sprain, no soreness, no weakness.
Now this post isn't meant to make me sound like an ankle hero and I won't be signing up for a strongman competition because of my rock solid ankles. This post is to give you some things you can start doing immediately to keep your ankles healthy, strong and keep you worry free when you jump into a crowd for a rebound.
Here are the take away pointers:
- start doing calf raises - there is no limit, just do them as much as you can
- loosen your sneakers - whatever kicks you wear during the day, tie and knot them loose so you can slip them on and off. The great idea that high tops were for basketball playing was the worst idea for general day to day movement. When you lace your shoes up tight, your sneakers are giving you support. When you keep them loose, your feet learn to give support.
- stretch your calves - push against a wall and keep your back leg straight to stretch your calf muscles, and push against a wall and bend at the knee of the front leg to stretch your achilles
- perform ankle mobility drills - - I still do these a couple times a day when I feel like my ankles are tight. These will also help in your squat technique if your ankles are a limiting factor. Here is a video of me demonstrating http://www.youtube.com/user/BobbyFiskSandC?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/9tin_iwGVT8
- foam/pvc/tennis ball/lax ball roll your calves - this will help break up the tiny knots that develop from running, jumping, sliding, backpedaling and everything else you do when playing basketball. It may hurt at first, but it will increase the tissue quality of your calves and will eventually feel very good. Here is a video of me demonstrating
http://www.youtube.com/user/BobbyFiskSandC?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/0kkbzY31U9g
The calf raise may not be the vertical booster I thought it was, but it sure did help me build strong ankles. Start building yours today!
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