Now getting back to my original topic, it is great that these players are working on their skills.  I love it, but here is where I have my issue.  Each day, as these players pass through my strength and conditioning area, they always inquire about stregnth and conditioning for basketball and my programs that I offer.  I always explain how valuable it is to their personal basketball development and their future as basketball players.  Once I do this, they are extremely excited about my programs and sports performance training as a whole, but each day these players continue to walk by as I train my groups and continue to say that, “they are going to come, tomorrow, or next week.”  Nonetheless, tomorrow and next week keep coming and these players just keep walking by. 

I honestly feel bad for them because next basketball season is going to come and they will be in the same physical shape as they were the previous year.  They will not be any quicker or more explosive and therefore unable to create their own shot or get their shot off over bigger, quicker, and more explosive players who did strength train in the off season.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to develop your body in the off season.  That is the time to put on size, increase your strength, increase your vertical, becom more explosive and quick.  The off season is the time to take your game to the next level, not only by developing your basketball skills but by developing your basketball strength, power, speed, quickness, agility, and conditioning. 

Let me know your thoughts on developing your basketball body by writing in the comments section below.

Also, if you are interested in my basketball strength and conditioning programs or any of my sports performance programs contact me directly through this site or register today at the New Jersey Sports Academy. 

See you on the court!

Rich Stoner

Elite Basketball Training, LLC

One of Coach Eastman’s main concepts that he feels should be included in every skill building workout is weak hand devlopment.  Working on this skill in a variety of ways will allow players to pass, dribble, shoot, and finish with their weak hand.  This can be done in a variety of ways, but one of the more basic ways is seen in the video below.  This video will show you how to incorporate weak hand development into a workout for beginners.  There will be videos to follow really soon on more advanced weak hand development drills, but if any of you know of some other ways to work on your weak hand please let the Elite Basketball Training community know about them by responding in the comments section. 

Train hard, be efficient, and I will see you on the court.

Rich Stoner

With my basketball team’s scrimmage schedule almost complete and the first game only four days away my team and coaching staff have been trying to focus on the little things that will make our team more efficient and ultimately more successful.  Too often, teams and coaches get caught up in the big picture, the entire offense, the whole defense, winning and as a result end up not doing any one of those aspects of the game well.  The little things are a necessity for the big things to work.  So leading up to our first game, our goal will be to fine tune the little things. 

What are the little things?  It depends on you as a coach and what your team is trying to accomplish.  However, for us, our “little things” focus this week will be on trying to fix the parts of the game that will make us a tougher team.  “Tougher” is a difficult word to define especially in sports.  Coaches are always making statements like, “We need to get tougher” or “We just did not play tough today,”  but what is tough?  Do tough teams have a bunch of MMA guys on the court imposing their will on the other team?  Not likely.  For me, toughness is defined by the little things that will make for big wins.  This includes proper closeouts instead of fly byes, boxouts instead trying to out jump your opponent, ball reversals instead of running the offense to the same side over and over, good shot selection in general and especially at the end of quarters or games instead of shooting a bad shot too quickly and giving your opponent an easy look with less then 10 seconds to play, protecting the basketball as if your life depended on it instead of throwing the ball all over the gym, sliding your feet into good early help defensive position instead of flailing your arms at the offensive player as he drives by you to the basket, taking a charge, diving on a loose ball, helping your teammates up after they do both, the list could go on forever.  Most all of these examples require a degree of physical toughness but ultimately require a multitude of mental toughness.  They require you to focus on the here and now, the right things, the little things, that matter at that specific time.  These aspects of the game may seem trivial, and definitely do not show up in box scores, but rest assured that you will never find a big time team that does not do them.   A big time team knows that it is the little things that count, they know that small hinges swing big doors.  That is why they are what they are…a success.

The idea of planning workouts came to me recently when I was asked about frequently changing the exercises in strength training workouts.  Advocates of this type of training feel that this is necessary in order to prevent stagnation; that doing different exercises every time out will prevent your body from adapting to your workouts thereby creating greater results.  Although this sounds like a great idea, it is not.  This type of training will produce small results, if any, and only leave you a frustrated gym goer.

The same can be said for basketball skill development.  Often times the types of skills that are trained and the drills that are used change with every workout.  Consequently the player never gets the chance to become successful at the skill that is being worked on, and you ultimately end up with players that are good at some things but never great at anything. 

Unfortunately, this is the approach to training that many coaches and players take.  Walking into the gym and doing what ever comes to mind on that given day will produce very few positive results.  In order to truly produce substantial results it is necessary to plan out your workouts not only for that day but for the week, month, or even the season.  It is also necessary to track all achievements in a journal or an Excel spreadsheet  so that you can see whether or not you are making progress.  Planning out your workouts and charting your progress will ensure that you will attain positive results.  If you know how many jumpers you made and took last time you went out and practiced then you know what to shoot for the next time out.  The same can be said for charting the amount of weight that you squatted or pressed or cleaned.  Charting progress will force you to compete against yourself, and whether you surpass your previous achievement or not, it will get you back in the gym the next day.  If you are successful in breaking a previous record, you will want to come back and do it again, and if you are unsuccessful at breaking your previous mark, you will also want to come back and do it again until you have. 

Simply walking into the gym and going through some fly-by-night workout cannot produce any noticeable results.  You must know what you are going to do at each workout long before you actually do it and each workout must have a specific and measureable goal to focus on.  In other words, have a plan, or you should plan to fail. 

I woke up this morning excited about the prospect of another great Thanksgiving Day.  Thanksgiving is among my favorite holidays not only because of the obsessive amount of good food that is consumed but because it is yet another opportunity to spend time with family and friends and give thanks for all that we have.  As well as being thankful for my family and friends, I am also thankful for you, my Elite Basketball Family.  As my loyal readers, you are my inspiration for creating this site and you drive me to work harder every day to give you more and more basketball information. 

Someone once said that, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”  In today’s time of great uncertainty, we should all be thankful that we have each other and for the friendships that we have created.  With that in mind, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

As I read the recent article from the Columbia Missourian Training puts Missouri Men’s Basketball Players on the Clock I could not help but smile.  The training routine that the Univeristy of Missouri’s men’s basketball strength coach David Deets puts the players through is just the type of rugged, no-nonsense training that I have been preaching on my site since I started it.  Missouri’s fast-paced and aggressive pressing style of play has forced Deets to come up with a strength and conditioning program that mirrors that style thereby ensuring that the players are in great shape, not only at the end of the game, but also at the end of the season.   However, this begs the question, why aren’t all teams training like this?

Being able to perform at the end of the game and the end of the season should be the goal of every team.  Deets feels that, “…other programs just want you to get strong so you can be strong on the court”  (Ruppenthal).  This is all well and good, but strength is not the only facet that basketball players need to work on.  Basketball players need be strong, powerful, and fast as well as change directions quickly and have great cardiovascular and muscle conditioning.  Thats why Deets says, “There’s not any standing around in the weight room. There’s not any sitting down.” and “signs such as ’40 Minutes’ and ‘No Excuses’ are written in large black letters on its weight room walls (Ruppenthal).  This is just the type of mentality that all teams should develop when training for their basketball season.  It pains me to see when players start pulling their cell phones out in the middle of a workout or a huddled together talking about some nonsense that does not pertain to the task at hand.  Texting through your workout will not get you to the championship nor will it get you in the shape that Deets and myself have been preaching. 

So, how does Deets get the Missouri men’s basketball players in tip top shape?  Primarily, by using a “shot clock.”  Using the clock means that all of his breaks are timed.  This limits the amount of time that the players can stand around and chat because the minute he blows his whistle, they must get back to there next set.  Not only is this a great technique for keeping your players on task (and one that all coaches can employ in their daily practices), but it is also game relevant since all timeouts are timed.  You have to admire this type of creativity and the creativity of some of his, as well as head coach Mike Anderson’s conditioning drills. 

“When they get to the court, players have to go through Anderson’s conditioning routine that he’s been running for years. It consists of running laps around the court, with sets of push-ups and sit-ups on the side in between series of laps. Once the second set of laps is complete, players do several sprints with their hands above their heads, which causes many of them to grimace” (Ruppenthal).

“The routine ends with a sprint-and-slide drill and a three-man weave, where players sprint down the court passing a ball and one player finishes the drill with a layup. Sometimes a ball filled with water is used, and the players have to throw it as high as they can as they pass it down the court. After the players catch the ball – which often knocks them back because of its weight – they have to lower the ball slightly and release it as if they were launching a full-court shot” (Ruppenthal).

This out-of-the box thinking that keeps the players in great shape but also focused.  In order to succeed, the players must commit themselves individually and also as a team to the intensity of this training.  Training through these adverse conditions will help build the mentality that together they can accomplish anything.  This is the type of mentality that good teams have, and since they have banded together through tough times already, they can draw on that mental strength to do it again. 

In creating his high-intensity workout for the Missouri men’s basketball team, David Deets has gone above and beyond the guidelines of normal training.  By utilizing a “shot clock” Deets is limiting the amount of down time his players can have and when combined with some of his creative conditioning drills the Missouri players are no doubt ready for their long and arduous season.  Furthermore, what Deets has done with his Missouri Tigers goes well beyond physically being able to perform at the end of a game but also guarantees that they will mentally be able to perform through the bumps in the road as well.  This is the type of training that all basketball programs should consider using going forward because it should be the goal of all programs to be able to withstand the rigors of the long basketball season. 

So as I sat there trying to be clever I mumbled out loud, “Breakfast is boring.”

And there you have it. That’s exactly how I came up with this title. But do NOT take this message lightly.

You have heard it a million times before, “You have to eat breakfast.”  So many times that you are probably tired of hearing the same boring message, but do you have any idea how many people I meet as a basketball coach that DO NOT eat breakfast? Too many to count, and many of them are basketball players.   It always fascinates me that a basketball player can go through the day without eating the most important meal of the day and expect to have energy for practice or a game.  It’s just not possible!

Look, I’m not crazy (well maybe just a little). I know you do not have much time in the morning, and that many of you just are not all that hungry right after you wake up.

So let’s look at this another way. You get up each morning and go to school  every day because you want to have a great life for yourself and play basketball of course, right? Day after day after day you go to school because you want the RESULT of that effort.

Well, IF you want to feel better, have more energy, and be a successful basketball player, you WILL eat breakfast every morning. Period. End of discussion.

Some things are boring. Some things just have to be done to get the result you want. For those of you that want to have energy all day long, breakfast is just one of those things.

See you on the court!

Rich Stoner

PS – Prograde Lean http://elitebasketballtraining.getprograde.com/lean  is a DELICIOUS chocolate meal replacement shake that I recommend to all my basketball players. It’s the perfect solution!