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Your players can always participate in physical activity if they want to stay in shape during the off season. Keep in mind that students in the 3rd through 12th grade generally ply more than one sport. As such, during the off season, your athletes might already be training for cross country, tennis, field hockey, baseball, swimming, or another sport. If this is the case, then not only will your players already be staying active, but they may need to realistically focus on that other sport while in season. Asking them to train for basketball may be asking too much, especially of athletes so young. (High school athletes may be more inclined to focus on an off-season sport while playing a different sport – especially if they want to stick with the off-season sport for awhile).

If you do have athletes that are interested in staying in shape for basketball in the off-season, here are some ideas:

Camps
First, think about taking your team to a summer camp. Summer camps will not only help to bond your team members, but your players will learn skills and be able to compete with teams from other schools (and possibly even other states). Just about every college offers a summer camp. Some offer overnight options while others offer options for just the days. If you take your team to an overnight camp, you will also be expected to attend, so be sure that you can take time off of work to accompany your players. Also, make sure that all of the players can afford the camp.

Miles
To keep your players in generally good shape, have them run a set number of miles each week, such as 35 miles. It's not recommended that you have elementary or middle school students running large numbers of miles because their bodies simply aren’t built for the long running. However, your older athletes can achieve excellent physical and cardiovascular shape if they put in a few miles each day. During the summer, your players can even form running teams to keep them motivated and bonded.

Jumping Rope
All of your players can jump rope. Jumping rope helps your players in all sports, but especially basketball because it reminds their bodies to leave the ground and trains those muscles to reflexively jump. You can give all of your players a jump rope that they can then use daily for 5 minutes in the off season. This will keep them jumping, in shape, and thinking about the basketball season.

Shooting Hoops
Many of your players will have access to a hoop – either at their house or at a nearby park or school. Have your players shoot hoops several times a week. You can also arrange to have team scrimmages with your players so that they not only keep a ball in their hands throughout the year, but so that they also work on completive shooting and defending. You don’t need to be present for these scrimmages, but you might want to arrange to have off-season captains (or select captains for the next year before the year is out). These captains can arrange the scrimmages and keep people excited about playing together.

Keep in mind that younger athletes will be dependent on their parents’ schedules and wishes for how they spend their off-season time. You may want to mention to parents at the end of the season that you have given players a training schedule with options. Some parents simply won’t want their young athletes having to focus on basketball while also focusing on swimming or any other sport. However, good communication and goals are important to your team’s success. Keep those lines of communication open so that your players and their parents can get in touch with you if they have questions or concerns at any time during the season and the off season.
 

Carrie Belt
Editor - BreakthroughBasketball.com

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This is a very interesting question, one that if asked 10 years ago I may have answered completely differently. For years and years I would do traditional type off season workouts, running, weight lifting etc. Over the years I have learned that in the off-season and in the per-season, efficiency of the workout should take priority over large amounts of time spent working.

I used to do a large amount of running to build stamina, overload weight training to build strength and grueling basketball workouts to build skills, attitude and toughness. My experience taught me that this work regimen created the situations I was trying to cure, injuries, burn-out and program dropouts. Now, I try to integrate skill work with conditioning and gear weight work toward flexibility. Keep in mind that strength is inherent in the definition.

I will differentiate between off-season (post season and time spent before specific season preparation) and preseason.

Getting players to actually do the workout!

I try to put myself in the mind of my players and determine what they will and won’t do, what they might enjoy or not. In working with your age groups, some of the off-season work will probably be unsupervised by you or your staff. That makes it very important that the players enjoy what they do so they will be motivated to work on there own. For this to happen, not only do the players have to enjoy the work, but they must see some tangible evidence of their own improvement. They need to have some goals so they have some idea that they are moving forward. In the pre-season, usually the coach supervises and he can provide specific guidance and motivation. Important in this guidance should be a healthy dose of teaching, especially the concepts of where the particular work will fit in during the season.

Below are some general off season work out ideas.

You must adapt them to your age groups as they will have different levels of skill and different potentials. However, there are enough similarities between the groups that you should be able to use the ideas across the board. Weight work should be reserved for your older groups and should be done under the supervision of someone who is qualified to teach basketball related resistance training.

Off Season

Running is important but, NO RUNNING WITHOUT THE BALL IN YOUR HANDS. This is a great opportunity for players to work on their ballhandling, passing and shooting on the move. Tell a player to run a mile, he might do it grudgingly, ask him to try to dribble endline to endline using various types of dribbles just watch him go. Full court lay ups is a great way to condition and hone fast break skills. Isolate how your players will get shots during your season (off screen, off penetration, etc.) and set up drills that will prepare him for those. Give the player a goal for each drill. Instead of giving him "shoot 100 per day," or "shoot for an hour," give him, "how long will it take you to make 50 shots." He then can either beat the time in his next workout or try to beat the makes in the same tie frame. That will motivate him to go hard thereby working on his conditioning and shooting skill.

Preseason

Once you start your preseason workout, it changes a little bit. Depending on the limitations placed on you by your league, state or association you might have to adjust a little bit, but every level will allow you to condition with without a ball. Just because you might not be allowed to “run a practice” doesn’t mean you cannot practice your skills and team situations. We used to drill the individual pieces of our defense in game situations but without an offense. In other words, instead of just doing defensive slide drills, we would work on baseline cutoffs, help and recovers, full court recovery lanes, wing denial, etc. This had a multi-pronged effect, team building, conditioning, skill work and by the first day of practice we had our entire defense installed. You can probably do the same thing with your offense (run break lanes and options instead of sprints).

No workout is effective if players won’t do them. The challenge is to find ways to workout that are effective, rewarding, fun and not too time consuming. Having a player work out once is good, twice is better, but having a player who wants to work out is the best of all. Giving your players something that they find relevant to their game, instead of just running or lifting will help to motivate your players to work all year 'round and preseason or off season programs will not even be necessary.

Don Kelbick
- Editor, BreakthroughBasketball.com
- Player Development Coach, http://www.donkelbickbasketball.com

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How about weight lifgting? Any suggestions on specific exercises?

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Hi Robert,

We plan on adding fitness information to our website and other recommendations in the near future.

I have included some other thoughts in our 20 Player Tips report which you can sign up for at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/toptips.html

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i play basketball and volleyball and this year since it is my 1st year in high school i might do softball. but to stay in shape i do cross country and track because basketball is alot of running so i have to stay doing distance running and speed running which sometimes can make you tired!
Go mEtEoRs!!!!!!!!!!!!!ThOrNtOn fRaCtIoNaL nOrTh hIgH sChOoL!!!!!!!!
myspace.com/poohntay

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hi my name is nyasia and i am 15 i play basketball but the season is over now, but i want to know what i can do to stay in shape during summer and possibly buid muscle in my arms and cavs any suggestions?

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Hi Nyasia,

Play and practice. Find some pick up games and play. Make sure to also spend times working on your game. We have tons of drills you can use at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/basketball-drills-players.html

Use these drills to practice your footwork, ball handling, shooting, etc.

For building muscle, I would focus on your whole body. We have plenty of tips in our 20 FREE Player Tips ebook that you can sign up for at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/toptips.html

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I am a soph at a comm college. Last season i had limited playing time because of players that have been there before me. Well they are leaving this year so I have a chance to be capt. After the season ended i took too much time off and I need tips on how to get back in shape fast! Especially with my shooting ball handling and defense and conditioning.

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What is a good shooting workout?

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It all depends on your skill level and what your goals are. One good shooting workout for you may be a bad shooting workout for another person.

If you have bad form, there is no use going through a Steve Nash shooting workout.

If you're Steve Nash, there is no use going through an introductory shooting workout.

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im in a dlilema as I do not know which sport to chose to do in the off season of basketball. my choices are either volleyball or cross country. Which one is the better choice?

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Hi Pepe,

First, I would ask which one you are truly passionate about. Volleyball or cross country?

From an athletic standpoint, I think volleyball is a better choice, because it focuses more on explosiveness and quickness. While cross country, you do a lot of long distance running, which doesn't translate well to the sport of basketball.

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I am curious...you say that cross country isn''t as beneficial, yet I watched my child run cross country the past two years and saw AMAZING difference in the basketball play. Stamina on defense is obvious...but there was also quickness developed. Their xctry coaches seem to vary the training on different days with hills, short and long intervals, and some days just long slow distance. Their stretching, agilities, crunches, and whatever else they do before practice is quite extensive from what I understand...and who knows what else...but beyond all else, what I have witnessed in my child and some of the other kids that ran cross country was an amazing difference. Even those same kids last year were commenting on how at the first week or so of "basketball conditioning" some of the football players were throwing up, etc...while all the runners were just breathing a little heavy, but able to continue on...sure they still need to continue to build on their quickness skills during basketball, but I would think if their lungs were developed from running prior to basketball season, then the added focus of agility would be better attained.

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and lets face it...most of the players wouldn''t run before season with the same focus as they would in a group and guided session... with hopefully knowledgeable coaches....

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Hi Lynn,

You bring up some good points and thank you for sharing your thoughts.

I put together a blog post on some thoughts about cross country: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/blog/index.php/can-cross-country-hurt-your-game/

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