Off-season Fall training for the Basketball Season
As the start of school draws near, coaches and players are preparing for the season already. What coaches can do during this period with their players differs from state to state, but you can bet that coaches have instructed them what to do in these critical months. My teams in Seattle and Chicago were given a workout schedule and were expected to show improvement by the start of practice in November. However, the amount of players that are fully committed to these workouts can be usually counted on one hand. Check out the Coaching Corner on the website to hear what high school coaches are doing around the country to prepare for the season and coaches can also take a look at the links to some great coaching sites for their playbooks.
Here are what some coaches from around the country are doing to get ready for the season:
“A lot of my players participate in Fall Sports, so it’s important that the rest of the team stay in top condition. We focus primarily on weight training, 3 days during the school week and the players are encouraged to practice their individual skills during their off days.”
- Coach Alex Nava, Head Boys Basketball Coach, Natalia H.S., Natalia, TX
“We lift three days a week (bench, squat, and clean), condition three days a week (speed, agility, jump boxes, core), and have two days of open gym. We test both our weight training and conditioning and reward our guys if they achieve certain levels in their training. We start the second week of school and go until the wednesday before the first practice.” - Coach Tom Livatino, Head Boys Basketball Coach, Loyola Academy, Wilmette, IL
“We begin our fall workouts our second Monday back to school on August 31st, for legality purposes our workouts, open gyms, shot club, and conditioning are open to anyone. We work in the weight room Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, we have a strength coach so he sets up workouts that are skill specific for basketball. Since we only have one gym we work out a schedule for open gyms around girls volleyball. When we go open gym we play games up to 5 points, all buckets are 1, winners stay on, when a team scores the winning bucket the player must also hit a free throw to win the game. If he misses the opponents get the ball and the score reverts back to what it was before the bucket was scored. We also have what we call our morning shot club where any kids at the school can come in the morning to shoot. No coaching just an opportunity for them to get shots in during the off season.” - Coach John Bonk, Head Boys Basketball Coach, Nazareth Academy, La Grange, IL