Basketball season in our area is right around the corner. It starts right around Thanksgiving, and will run through March. As Sports Fitness Specialists, our task is to assist players in their quest to prepare for this grueling run.
The season is demanding; several games a week, long practices and little rest time. The beginning of the season can include 4 hour practices.
Needless to say, we're getting lots of requests for "Pre-Season" training, so we thought we'd share some of our training ideas with you.
Players must understand that in-season training will help maintain strength, speed, power and agility levels, but only if the player is properly prepared.
A basketball court is only about 30 yards long. Most of the highest-demand activity takes place within 8 feet of the basket. This is also where some brutal physical contact can occur.
So why would coaches “prepare” their players with high levels of slower, longer distance running?
Good question! The answer is probably one of the deadliest phrases in athletic conditioning: “That’s how we’ve always done it!” OUCH!
Think about the best teams in high school, college and even pro basketball. What’s the one weapon that’s deadlier than any other? SPEED! Especially multi-directional speed!
Combined with agility, full-body power and injury resistance, speed can help a player become a weapon of opponent destruction!
During the last 4 weeks before the season, it’s a good idea to structure a 4-5 day per week training program, splitting time between strength/power training, speed/agility training and flexibility/movement mechanics.
Typical strength/power training sessions will include functional and dynamic warm-up, flexibility training, movement mechanics training and joint stability/mobility work, and circuit training variations that incorporate full-body strength workouts.
Circuit training helps acclimate the players to a high volume of work and is specific to the requirements of pre-season practice. Variations may include timed work/rest stations, gross-rep programs completed in minimal time and volume loading variations to create anaerobic and aerobic intensity.
Core training is incorporated into strength training days, with an emphasis on lumbar stability during rotational movements, as well as frontal plane movement and load deceleration. This mimics what happens in traffic when bodies collide, and when players need to explode out of a crowd for a shot or rebound.
Generally, athletes would perform speed & agility workouts, either supervised or self-managed (that depends on the temperament of the athlete), on the other 2 days of the week.
These workouts include speed & agility exercises that last only 5-10 seconds at a time. Each exercise is performed at maximal effort with 10-20 seconds of rest. The goal of the speed and agility workout in the final weeks of pre-season is not for cardiovascular conditioning, rather, to work on the efficiency of movements that will translate to the basketball court.
Conditioning, or aerobic/anaerobic endurance development during sport-specific activities, is crucial during the pre-season phase of any sport. Basketball is no different.
It’s appropriate to use shuttle and interval drills to develop sprint endurance during this phase. This should not, however, be confused with speed and agility work. Shuttle and interval drills develop endurance; speed and agility work reinforces good functional movement patterns during high speed, highly dynamic sports movement.
Shuttle distances of 150 and 300 yards seem to work well. Work time for 150 yards should be 24-30 seconds, with 300 yards taking 57-63 seconds. A work to rest ratio of 3:1 is suitable.
Interval running can be done in 100-110 yard, 200-220 yard or 300-330 yard bursts.
Use a work to rest ratio of 1:2 or 1:2.5 for the 300-330 yard work, and 1:3 to 1:3.5 for the shorter ranges. Shorter distances will allow for more intensity in sprinting, and it’s important for the neuromuscular system to recover at least nominally before repeating.
A well conceived, well managed pre-season preparation program will maximize the last 4-6 weeks before the season begins. This will let the player, and the team, start the season with full energy and force.
From there, a combination of good team leadership, smart coaching, hard play and a good in-season training program will carry the team to its’ goals.
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