VIDEO - 4 Strength & Conditioning Drills for Basketball Players
Check out this video by Emily Nkosi who is a student at Smith College's Exercise and Sport Studies MS Program.
The video has some great drills for basketball players to improve basketball strength.
These drills will help with:
Maintainig Position for Rebounds, Defense, & Offense in the Post Area
Triple Threat Footwork
Being Strong with the Ball
And more
WARNING: It's important to make sure the player is moving properly before
adding weight or making the drill more difficult. If you take a player who
has a bad movement pattern, you're just going to engrain a bad movement pattern
which will make it even more difficult to fix. Make sure to improve general movement
patterns (running, jumping, shuffling, crawling, lunging, squatting, etc.) before using
these exercises.
Basketball Strength & Conditioning Drill # 1 - Getting Position
This drill is great to use for strengthening the body to withstand the
aggressive play in the post area. It's great for maintaining or gaining
position in the post. It could be applied to offense, defense, and rebounding.
Points of Emphasis:
Hands up
Feet quick and choppy
Posture upright
Basketball Strength & Conditioning Drill # 2 - Strong With the Ball
This drill is a great drill to get your players to be stronger with the ball
and also improve footwork.
Notice, the use of the medicine ball to increase difficulty for the jabs, lunges, pivots, and ball fakes.
This basketball strength & conditioning drill is great for building the
appropriate functional strength to create space from the defender on the
step-back.
Points of Emphasis:
Go for length
Eyes up on landing
Relaxation to contraction quick
Basketball Strength & Conditioning Drill # 4 - Resisted Start Steps out of
Triple Threat
Improve your strength when exploding out of your triple threat position with
this basketball strength and conditioning drill. This is also great to practice when
faking a certain direction to throw you defender off balance.
Points of Emphasis:
Big step
Quick step
Shoulders over knees
Keep Hips Down - Make sure on all of these exercises that the hips are down & back
with the knees bent. If your athletes do not do this, they could set
themselves up for injury.
What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions...
Wow. Thanks, Emily and breakthrough basketball. These are some really cool training tips. I like the fact that you are thinking outside the box. I sm loving drill #4. I can't wait to use some, or all, of these this off-season. Thanks again
Dr Laurence J. MacDonald PhD says:
11/13/2009 at 8:28:21 PM
Hi Joe: was there supposed to be a video with these tips, if so it did not show up Laurence
Jonathan Lambros says:
11/13/2009 at 11:21:32 PM
Joe, where would you suggest we purchase the resistance bands that Emily was using around her waist? Any recommended websites that sell them? Thanks. Jonathan
Joe Haefner says:
11/14/2009 at 9:25:14 AM
Hi Jonathan, I think the Perform Better website may have some.
Coach Q says:
11/16/2009 at 4:53:56 PM
Great exercises,
For drill #4 I''''ve heard coaches emphasize a hard short step in order to maintain balance when making a quick change in direction.
What are your thoughts?
Coach Q
Joe Haefner says:
11/17/2009 at 8:56:55 AM
Personally, I teach the hard, short step for the fake. However, if a player uses the lunge step and is good at it, I won't tell them to stop.
Yehudi John says:
11/23/2009 at 3:23:24 PM
Joe your work is of tremendous help to me. I'am from the small island in the west indies called Dominica and your tips are helping me better understand the sport and makes my work even more effective ... keep on the good work...
