And remember, Prograde is also celebrating President’s Day this entire week by offering a $15 savings on any Prograde Protein purchases! Just click on the link above for all the juicy details on the sale.
See you on the court,
Rich Stoner
Elite Basketball Training, LLC
PS – In case you missed it on Monday, here is a delicious Protein Ice Cream recipe from Jayson also.
Agility, or the ability to change directions without losing speed, is as vital to the game of basketball. It is a skill just like ball handling or shooting and therefore it can and should be improved upon. Throughout the course of a basketball game, basketball players are constantly changing directions both offensively and defensively. Consequently, agility training should be a necessity for all basketball players during their workouts.
There are many different agility drills that can be used to increase a players basketball specific agility. These drills include but are not limited to the pro agility drill, T-Drill, and three cone drill. When performing any of these agility drills, it is important to include the different movement patterns that basketball players use such as sprinting, sliding, and backpedaling. When doing so, think about the ways a player moves in a game and incorporate those patterns into the drill. In other words, have them sprint, then slide, then backpedal all within the same drill. This will increase their basketball agility in a way that is more specific to the actual basketball game.
The basketball agility drill in the video below is called the box drill. During the drill, you will hear me encouraging them to plant their foot hard in order to change direction quickly and keep their speed. You will also see the players performing the basketball agility drill with the basketball. This aspect of basketball agility training is highly important, but often forgotten. Basketball players need to be able to change direction without the ball becuase it happens so often during the game, but so does changing directions with a basketball. Consequently, they need to practice changing directions with the ball too. By doing so, they will become a more explosive and dynamic offensive player.
There’s a reason I’m always telling you to eat small, nutritious meals frequently.
And there’s a reason why I harp on starting that trend each day with a solid breakfast.
No, I’m not talking about hitting a fast food joint for a Bacon, Egg and Cheese biscuit packed with a zillion calories.
Look, I know many of you just can’t stand eating breakfast. And I know many of you just don’t have time. But I’ve just gotta get it into your head – and so do you.
If you want to speed up your metabolism you MUST eat breakfast.
Now, please don’t take that to mean I want you to just grab a bagel with cream cheese. Or a doughnut…or a pop tart….or a danish.
I want you – and trust me, you do too – to get some solid nutrition. Especially some protein.
Perhaps you can imagine this:
You wake up with a smile on your face. You’ve been exercising regularly and it really has picked up your metabolism, so you’re hungry in the morning. (Which is a GOOD thing.)
You enter the kitchen a little bit groggy, but very much looking forward to what’s about to happen next.
You take out your canister of Prograde Lean and within moments you’re drinking a delicious chocolate shake. One that fuels your body and sets the tone for your metabolism all day long with 35 grams of protein.
MMMMM…it’s good. And you love the fact it also provides 8 grams of fiber so it keeps you feeling full until your next small, nutritious meal.
“Life is good”, you think to yourself.
Just imagine: Breakfast made easy AND delicious.
Lucky for you my partners over at Prograde Nutrition are celebrating Valentine’s Day early this year and have put their out-of-this-world delicious chocolate Prograde Lean Meal Replacement shake on sale this week at 14% off!
I’m going to make this very brief. My partners over at Prograde Nutrition – the ONLY supplement company I truly trust – are celebrating Valentine’s Day a little early this year.
How?
Well, they are putting their out-of-this-world delicious chocolate Prograde Lean Meal Replacement shake on sale this week at 14% off!
That’s some serious savings for you chocolate lovers looking for a thick, rich and simple way to fit in those nutritious meals you have been missing. The same skipped meals that have been turning your metabolism into a slow crawl.
In my previous segment on the effects of the lack of playground basketball, the focus was on making free throws. When I was younger, there used to be 30-40 guys on any given night trying to play basketball at the park by me. In order to get on the court, five guys had to make their free throws, and if they did not, they had to sit out the game and hope that they made them the next time. Having to make your free throws under that kind of pressure is tough and very game like. Let’s be realistic, no one wants to sit out a game. This is game time pressure that cannot be replicated in every day practice and there needs to be more of it. Pickup basketball not only forces players to make their free throws, but also to adjust and learn new skills throughout the course of the game.
During the summer months when pickup basketball dominated the playgrounds, I would play almost every night because the level of competition was top notch. The collegiate players were all back from college and I being a high school player wanted to play against players who were better than me. In doing so, I learned my weaknesses as a player. In other words, if my crossover kept getting picked, I learned to adjust. If I could not get my jumper off, I learned to adjust. In a way, playing pickup basketball gave me a list of skills to work on the next day during my workout. That’s how it was all summer, workout in the morning and pickup games at night. This is a great method to use when training for basketball. By doing so, players learn what skills work and do not work in real competitive games.
If you ever get the chance, head over to Rucker Park or The Cage on West 4th Street in Manhattan and take a look at how good some of those players are. They play day in and day out against great players. As a result, they learn how to adjust, they learn how to get better. This is all a result of playing against great players on a daily basis. It is a result of playing pick up basketball at the playgrounds and unfortunately it is something that does not happen enough nowadays.
In the next and final installment of The Effects of a Lack of Playground Basketball I will focus on how pickup basketball teaches players how to cope with the pressure of making big shots and big stops in order to get a win.
