Complete Conditioning for Basketball Greg Brittenham
Presenting court activities and drills, this book shows how to devise a specific programme to enhance players' athletic abilities - speed, power, endurance, agility, co-ordination, balance and reaction time. The drills are designed to fit into a basketball practice routine, so players can work on conditioning and basketball skills at the same time. As players' athletic skills improve, so will their ballhandling, shooting, rebounding and defence. The book features the principles and specific fitness requirements for basketball conditioning; recommendations on strength training for basketball players; and guidelines and charts for developing a personalized strength-training programme. It also contains 15 flexibility exercises to help improve performance, avoid injury and enhance workouts; 9 exercises to enhance the "centre of power" and abdominal and lower back strength; 9 movement patterns to improve agility, co-ordination and speed for basketball; 11 fitness tests to determine individual training needs; 50 illustrated individual, small group, and court team drills with variations; and 12 detailed sample workouts for pre-season, in-season, and off-season. The conditioning programme is easy to follow, containing diagrams of all 50 court drills, and the book features photographs of veteran NBA guard Doc Rivers, demonstrating the techniques and exercises described in the book.