Pre-Season Basketball Training

[Billy_Brummel]

So I've volunteered to be an assistant coach for my dad's JUCO basketball team, and since I've been chatting his ear off about all the stuff I've read about on the Pmenu and Xfit, he thought it would be fitting to put me in charge of setting up some kind of lifting program for the lads. Up until now, some of his players have been working with one of the assistant football coaches who has them doing a lot of core stability work incorporating swiss balls, with some sled dragging and interval work thrown in. That guy is ramping up his schedule with the football team, so he's unavailable to help any longer.

I've really got no training to speak of, so I thought I would turn to you all for some guidance. I'll have them Tues and Thurs, with about 45 min- 1 hr to complete their workouts.Before (or maybe after) lifting they will be doing some shell drill, position-type work in the gym, and the ocassional scrimmage. The players have limited lifting experience (bench and curls mostly).

My first question would be: do you think it matters when we lift/condition? I tend to think that sport-specific skill work in a fatigued state might benefit them, but at the same time it might seriously affect the quality of the work they will be able to squeeze into the limited practice session. Any opinions toward that end are welcome.

My second question: Should the focus be on met-con/bodyweight-type workouts as opposed to strength-based workouts since the season is 4 months away? I'm leaning toward metcon/bw since I'm not qualified to teach the o-lifts and their learning curve for new lifts would eat up a great deal of time that could be spent making strides in the metcon side of things. Or could I just leave out the o-lifting and teach the squat and deadlift. (I guess the question here is," Which would have a more significant impact on a college-level basketball player: strength gains or an increase their conditioning level?" Or not.)

Third Question: Any suitable templates that any has in their posession? I think I may have seen that Coach Rut has something that would fit for basketball teams.

Sorry for the rambling, but any input is GREATLY appreciated. I'm in over my head here.

[Chris Forbis]

Since you are four months out, I'd shoot for maximizing strength and explosiveness. I wouldn't worry too much about the olympic lifts. Squats, deadlifts, presses, push press/jerks, power cleans, pullups, and bench.

I consider conditioning to be of fairly low importance out of season. Find out how good of condition your dad wants them in when practice starts and add in some metcon a few weeks before that.

[Neal Winkler]

I agree with Chris, since it sounds like they have no real lifting experience then the best way to go will be to concentrate on maximal strength and not even worry about endurance until about 6 weeks out from the season.

Because your guys probably have low levels of maximal strength, THE best way to make them more explosive is to do basic maximal strength work (squats, deads, pullups, ect.), not explosive exercises like oly lifts - so there is no need to worry about oly lifts because they aren't strong enough to benefit that much from them yet. Furhtermore, because they are already doing drills and playing scrimages, there shouldn't be any need for plyo's.

As to your first question, general rule of thumb is to learn NEW skills completely fresh, then to incorporate them when fatiqued.

As for templates, it needn't be more complicated than 2 full body workouts per week: one leg exercise, on upper body pull, and one upper body push. Or you could do one bilateral lower body, one unilateral lower body, with 1 upper body push and pull. Finally, one bilateral lower body, one push and pull upperbody, and one posterior chain assistance exercise.

Example:

Tues
Rest 2 min between a/b (or 90s to cut time if needed)
1a) Deadlift 3X5
1b) Overhead Press 3X5
2a) Pullup 3X8
2b) Lunges 2X6

Thurs
Rest 2min between a/b (or 90s to cut time if needed)
1a) Front Squat 3X5
1b) Pullup 3X8
2a) DB bench/weighted pushup 3X5
2b) Romanian Deadlift 3X8

Something to that effect I think would work fine. If you still need more time, eliminate the last unilateral/assistance exercise.

BTW, read Kelly Baggett's "No Bull Speed Manual" or "Vertical Jump Development Bible."

[Allen Yeh]

3rd question: Josh Everett had a great article over in the CFJ #55 for March 2007 where he outlined his training strategy for the women's basketball team at UC Riverside.

[Robb Wolf]

3rd question: Josh Everett had a great article over in the CFJ #55 for March 2007 where he outlined his training strategy for the women's basketball team at UC Riverside.
Yes, that's an excellent issue. I think we had some programming in the original ME Black box issue from Josh as well.