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Components of Basketball Training

Dynamic Warm-up/Cool-down

  • Dynamic warm-up consists of activities to increase heart rate, blood flow, muscle temperature, and breathing rate. Warming up allows muscles to stretch more easily and joints to move more easily.
  • Cooling down ensures athletes relax their muscles and reduce next-day soreness.

Speed Training

  • Players run on Generation III Super Treadmills. The Super Treadmill can reach speeds of 28 miles per hour and an incline grade of 40 degrees.
  • Players are taught proper stride mechanics at high speeds. Stride efficiency and power make a faster, quicker player.
  • Players can also learn visually by seeing themselves in a mirror and by using Dartfish video motion analysis—something players cannot get on the court.

Strength Training

  • The basketball game of the past needed little strength training and more finesse; however, a basketball player who today only focuses on passing and shooting will be ten points behind by halftime. Why? Because today’s athletes are stronger and faster than ever before. A sound weight-training program promotes stability and strength as well as reduces the risk of injury.
  • Basketball players utilize bodyweight, free-weights, medicine balls, and circuits on state-of-the-art FreeMotion machines to strengthen muscles, joints and connective tissues.
  • Exercises are biomechanically specific to basketball skills including muscle movements used in jumping, shooting, passing and catching.

Cardiovascular/Endurance Training

  • Typically, the body takes anywhere from five to seven minutes to reach a comfortable cardiovascular output after the rise in heart rate. Because a basketball game can typically last an hour with the intensity sprints up and down the court in quick succession, the body works in both the anaerobic and aerobic modes throughout the game.
  • Cardiovascular and endurance training at Chelsea Piers BlueStreak includes short interval/high intensity sprinting sequences on our Athletic Republic Generation III Super Treadmills. By using the same energy systems and tactical movements utilized in a regulation basketball game, athletes become fitter and faster.

Plyometric Training

  • Plyometric training is a very effective form of power training and is ideally suited to basketball. Basketball players perform specific plyometric drills for increased motor performance (coordination), explosive power, vertical jump height, lateral power and rotation, and landing strength.
  • Plyometrics combines elements of both speed and strength in single movement patterns that include the Athletic Republic PlyoPress, cord technology, longitudinal and vertical jumps, box jumps, and medicine ball drills for upper body and middle body torso power.

Flexibility

  • Basketball-specific flexibility stretching exercises including static stretching, isometric stretching, and active isolated stretching (AIS). Improved flexibility prevents injuries in assuring the muscles and tendons work together properly.

Dynamic Balance

  • Basketball players need great balance to fight for position on the court. Basketball players perform a series of balance-specific exercises to strengthen their stabilizing muscles and allow for better muscular synergy and joint control.
  • Training routines include unstable and stable lifts, dynamic balance movements with the Bosu ball, and a variety of off-balance workouts.

Agility

  • In an average trip down the court, a basketball player may change directions 8-10 times. In order to improve agility skills, athletes learn a variety of agility drills, including advanced ground-based agility patterns and use of a speed ladder.
  • Ground-based agility drills are conducted on our indoor Field Turf, 400M track, sand pit and wood courts.

Core Stabilization Training

  • Core stabilization is essential for proper posture, balance and stabilization. Functional exercises focus on spinal stabilization and increased proprioception (the ability to read and respond to changing conditions) during sports activities. Core muscles support every twisting, turning, jumping, and lateral movement; additionally, they are essential in posture, balance, and stabilization.
  • Core training consists of dynamic, multi-joint exercises that use free weights, medicine balls and FreeMotion circuit training.

Skill Development

(This component is part of the Acceleration & Skills program.)

  • Players improve individual ball handling, shooting and defensive skills by training on the courts at the adjacent Sports Center. Workouts include multiple drills that focus on ball handling, shooting, off-balance accuracy, soft hands, passing, defending, rebounding, shooting technique and power.
 
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