Most people have heard the term plyometrics, but don’t truly understand the meaning behind it more that it is “jumping type stuff”. To keep things simple a plyometric is anything that trains or takes advantage of the stretch shortening cycle to produce force. The stretch shortening cycle (similarly called the stretch reflex) is the simple fact that when muscles and tendons are rapidly stretched, there is energy stored in them that can be used during contraction (think of quickly stretching a rubber band then releasing it)
For example if I told you to jump straight up you would quickly descend (stretching) and then explode up quickly. Conversely if I told you to descend into the bottom position of the jump and then wait 4 seconds before exploding up, you would find it much more difficult to jump, due to the fact that you didn’t use the elastic energy during the stretching to propel you up.
Here is a bounding drill that we use to put more horsepower behind the quick cuts a player makes with the ball.