Basketball players use specific movement patterns and energy systems differently than other sports. You can get stronger by doing a football or bodybuilding style workout, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be more effective on the court. If you’re going to put your blood, sweat and tears into a training program, make sure your basketball workouts are designed for you to jump higher, cut quicker and finish stronger on the court.
After studying basketball movement for the last 20 years, I’ve created a system that helps transfer the gains made into the weight room onto the court. It gives purpose to every exercise that you do in the gym so you know that you’re not wasting one rep. When you finish your basketball workouts, you’ll be able to move better, drive faster, defend stronger and dominate the game.
DRIVE. DEFEND. DOMINATE.
What is Basketball-Specific?
BASKETBALL WORKOUTS
Basketball players need to be strong driving to the hole, quick laterally while playing defense, and dominate their space vertically.
To do this, players need a foundation of mobility, coordination and conditioning.
We start our basketball workouts with mobility exercises for ankles, hips and thoracic spines. This allows players to move well and keeps their knees and low backs healthy.
Here’s an overview of how I train my athletes:
DRIVE.
Athletes need proper mobility to drive into basketball-specific positions on the court. Transformational zones, like a deep lunge while driving to the basket, requires flexibility in your hip, spine and ankle complex to maximize performance and reduce injuries.
You’ll notice in my training that we focus on mobility in 3 planes of motion. Every joint in our body moves in 3D, and so when we’re increasing flexibility in our ankles, hips or T-spines, we must do it in the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes.
Before jumping into a strength or plyometric program, make sure you that you’ve created a foundation of mobility by driving into basketball-specific transformational zones.
Here are a couple articles on preparing for your strength session:
DEFEND.
Once you’re able to drive into all the basketball transformational zones, you need to build strength & endurance in those positions.
You can make your strength program basketball specific by tweaking traditional movements like lunges and squats to mirror the demands of the sport.
In addition to strengthening your direct drive with forward lunge, You can also do lateral and rotational lunges to mimic the demands of defense.
Instead of doing only doing a traditional squat, my players learn 27 different squat positions so that they have mobility and coordination to lock the opposition down.
Here are some of my favorite strength exercises:
DOMINATE.
Now that you have the proper mobility and strength, you’re ready to build power & quickness on the court.
The goal of your basketball training program should be to dominate your space, but too many players want to take a short cut without building a strong foundation
Here are some of my favorite exercises to increase your explosiveness:
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