Basketball Training: A Targeted Approach

Training for basketball players should focus on the skills, movements, and power requirements that are specific to the game of basketball – duh, right? Although sport-specific training is being implemented more now than ever before, there’s still far too much training being conducted that is archaic and in many cases counter-productive (do we really care how much weight a basketball player can bench press or power clean? I sure don’t!). Surely there is a role for resistance training but it should be targeted to meet the demands of the sport. Close attention should be paid to
Photo by donbuciakensuring that the resistance training doesn’t lead to increases in muscle hypertrophy (increase in size/cross-sectional area of muscle fiber) that result in a decrease in flexibility and range of motion about the joints. This phenomenon can lead to alterations in movement patterns (which can actually reduce maximum force and velocity production) and increase the risk of injury. What follows are some suggestions and examples of the some of the basketball training that we conduct at the Speedology Institute in Louisiana.

Speed/Quickness/Explosion

40-yard dash speed is meaningless for basketball players. 1st step quickness is the goal, along with short bursts of speed about the distance of half-court. We train sport-specific movements using specialized training gear. All gear used allows for a free and full motion of the specific movement pattern being performed. The results we experience simply can’t be produced with barbell Olympic lifting being the primary focus. We have moved Olympic lifting to a limited and auxiliary role for most sports including basketball!

Speedology Speedbands – have a direct, causal and immediate effect on speed. Although used primarily for sprint speed we find that they are beneficial for basketball players in that they directly stimulate the fast-twitch fibers of the hip flexors. Many of our high school basketball players also play other sports so that makes the speedband training especially useful! We will do 4 sets of 15 reps each leg as a “warm-up” to our lower-body training (most of our athletes will argue that it is a warm-up!) Each set is followed with 2 explosive short sprints (maybe just 15 yds for basketball players).

The speedbands can also be used to both resist and assist the defensive slide and the first step of taking a defender off the dribble movements. This is AWESOME training for basketball players. This is basketball-specific training that has a direct and immediate effect on performance. Athletes perform 10 reps moving right, 10 reps moving left focusing on the blasting the 1st step. Immediately off the bands we will perform a full speed “shuttle” performing the defensive slide between 2 cones (cones are placed at a distance that allows for 2 or 3 steps). The shuttle will consist of 6 touches.
(Longer bungies can be used to perform the first-step off the dribble. We focus on resisting the movements in the off-season and transfer to assisting (overspeed) the movements pre-season and in-season.

Skillz Weighted Vest and Shorts – obvious benefit for resisting sport-specific movements and great for all plyometric training. We incorporate standing vertical jumps, broad jumps, tuck jumps, and box jumps in our basketball training and we have our players wear the vest and shorts for all of them.

For example: we do a high rep (15) explosive leg press followed immediately by 10 max vertical jumps, you can also perform all of your court drills. 4 sets of hex bar squats (performed by exploding straight into a calf raise) for 10 reps immediately followed by single leg step jumps for 20 reps.

Whatever plyometric training you perform the weighted vest and shorts will help to significantly enhance power and explosiveness. We use the vest and shorts right up to the start of the season when we transfer our focus to overspeed training. The Skillz brand is outstanding. The snug and comfortable fit allows for unimpeded and full-speed movement. When it comes to this kind of training gear you must be very discerning as to protect athletes from training-related injuries. For this reason we only use the very best available at the Institute.

Katapult Plyometric Training Shoes – clearly, maximizing vertical leaping ability is of paramount importance for basketball players. The Katapult shoes will help any athlete who desires to improve their vertical leap. We have documented some remarkable results from our training protocols coupled with use of the Katapult shoes. On most lower-body or speed training days we have our athletes in the Katapults throughout the entire workout.

Prehab

By “prehab” I’m referring to preventive maintenance for the knees, ankles and shins. We do everything we can to prevent stress-related injuries before they occur. For the knees we have employed the lateral plyobox and the slide board. Theoretically if we can stabilize the muscle and connective tissue around the knees we can help protect the joint. For the ankles we do single-leg squats on the balance mats WITH SHOES OFF! Doing these without shoes has a much greater stabilization effect on the ankles and it also enhances balance. To help prevent shin-splints we do a simple “reverse calf-raise” which is using a block to slightly elevate the heels and performing a dorsiflexion of the toes – pulling the toes as high as possible to the shin. This directly stimulates the muscles around the shin, which are the ones that break down causing shin-splints.

Read Another Post:
3 Exercises to Improve Jumps Ability
The Importance of Plyometric Vertical Training

By Kevin Bouza

In closing I encourage you to commit yourself to being the best you can be – so PLAY HARD OR GO HOME!

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Originally posted 2010-02-03 16:44:49. Republished by Old Post Promoter