Basketball - Dribbling the Ball

The more air pressure a basketball has inside it, the less its surface will bend or deform during a bounce, and the more its original energy will be stored in the compressed air inside. Air stores and returns energy more efficiently than the material that the ball is made from. If the ball is underinflated, some of its energy is wasted in deforming the ball as it bounces, and the ball will not rebound very high. For the most elastic collision possible between the ball and the floor, you want a highly pressurized ball. (But you knew that already, didn't you! Now you know why!)The material you bounce the ball on is also very important. Think about how high it would bounce on a carpeted floor. A soft floor material will flex when the ball hits it, and this will steal some of the ball's energy. Clearly the harder the surface, the better.