btw, explain to me why "pulling back on the pedal stroke" would utilize the hip flexors as the prime movers?
doesn't make much sense.
You just have to try it man. It's the most intense hip flexor exercise there is.
it's more intense than direct hip flexor training, which actually targets the hip flexors as prime movers?
sure you are hip flexing during cycling, but "pulling back on the pedal stroke" is mentioning something that is hamstring/glute dominant, not hip flexor... your hip flexors work in sprinting also, but they aren't the prime movers, they help assist the prime movers through the cross flexion/extension reflex, but they are not doing the mechanical work on the ground causing locomotion.
regardless, you're advocating an exercise that has 091204912% less transfer than squatting would be to improving basketball speed/quickness/vert.
since when do the hip flexors matter much anyway in basketball? it's a game of short acceleration, there's no MAX-VELOCITY, it's not like you're going to need maximal turnover speed over 10-20 yards... instead however, you will need to learn how to produce alot of force, fast, at the very early portions of acceleration, which is determined by knee extension & hip extension, as well as powerful thigh abduction/adduction for defensive slide movements..
very powerful/fast hip flexion is going to influence max velocity of a sprint, not movements in basketball.
ok you mentioned their are a zillion things you can do, name some more?
pc