What Is a Weighted Basketball—and What Are the Benefits of Using One?

One of the top benefits of using weighted basketballs? They create resistance and difficulty during training thanks to progressive overload, which helps build strength.

"You want to make things harder in training than they are in a game", Close said. "You want to create strength, a gain, opportunity, and I think it provides that".

When used consistently, she added, a player can see great gains, meaning it can help them improve their skills especially when it comes to passing the ball to a teammate.

Weighted basketballs can be incorporated into training in a range of ways, making them a go-to for certain drills. In particular, Close said they're great for passing exercises, particularly.

Great passing skills, she added, is a big need in the game, and weighted basketballs help improve these skills by upping the difficulty in training (due to the added weight), which in turn makes it easier to pass during a game.

Specifically, Burns added that using weighted basketballs helps improve passing speed, passing strength and passing accuracy.

"It's harder to do a three-man weave—where you're touching the sideline, going up and down the floor and throwing a chest pass—when the ball is a little bit heavier", she said, adding that's because of progressive resistance. "Then, you go back to a normal ball, and it's just different. You could snap it better."

Weighted basketball training is also great for improving ball handling skills, such as dribbling and ball control when changing directions.

"A long time ago, I figured out that if you have two different balls—one might be rubber, one might be leather, one might be perfect with air, one might not be—it makes you a better ball handler to change your surfaces [and] to change the bounce", Burns said. "And I think by putting [players] in those kinds of situations, you get better when you get down to the real ball".

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Another benefit of weighted basketballs is that they're great for basketball players of all levels.

"I don't care if you're an NBA star or you're a beginner starting out; you just want to improve your craft, and weighted balls can help do that", Close said. "I don't think it's the only way to get better, but I don't think the use of that tool has anything to do with age [or experience]".

Burns concurred with this advice. "I think it's beneficial to everybody", she said. However, she warned that, for beginners, it's best to learn the fundamentals skills of the game first before adding any progressive load.