Resist For Speed

Hey Hoopsters!

Here is a tip that will progress you players on court lateral and liner speed quickly; Resist them for speed.

When I want to add more speed to any athlete I have to make them produce more force and more force quickly. So I use some resisted training methods on the floor.

If you take a fairly light band or tubing and put it around the players waist and ask them to perform short acceleration exercises in all directions (lateral shuffles/crossovers, forward accelerations, and angular accelerations) they will product more force. By doing this the athlete will get into a better stance due to the resistance. They will figure out they have to be lower to keep balance. Plus, they will be forced to lean properly and push harder into the ground. Make sure the resistance is not so heavy they have to completely change their movement pattern just to move.

Perform these exercises 1-2 times per week. Perform 2-3 sets of 3-6 repetitions on each side (for lateral and angular).

Precautions; you do not need to do this with heavy bands. It simply needs to make the basketball player move with more effort than they are normally use to- you can add a little resistance over time. If the athlete is not able to perform the drill well without resistance do not add resistance until they can. ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE TUBING OR BANDS ARE SAFE!

A great time to introduce and use the resisted drills would be after warm ups or just before a drink break during the first part of practice. The purpose of these drills are to improve speed and power- if you do them at the end of practice the players are too tires and won't be able to give full effort.

Let me know how this works out.

Play Hard,

Lee

PS: My new Basketball Speed 2 DVD has some great acceleration drills using tubing. Go to www.SportsSpeedEtc.com to learn more.