The purpose of this article will be to discuss the strength & conditioning and performance enhancement aspects of training athletes within the sport of basketball. The most challenging aspect of training basketball players is dealing with their schedules; in many cases they no longer have an official off-season due to the number of competitive opportunities they can participate in year-round.
At Lewis Fitness and Performance, it is not only our job to design strength & conditioning programs to help athletes get stronger, more flexible, more explosive, and less likely to become injured, but it is also our responsibility to educate athletes, parents, and coaches about aspects of overall athletic development based on information from scientific research, developmental organizations (at the national and Olympic levels), and from other top professionals in our industry.
Understanding and providing the best balance of all of these developmental aspects is paramount in the optimal long term athletic development of young athletes.
In today's day and age, basketball is one of the easiest sports to fall into what is termed “The Early Specialization Trap.”
What is the early specialization trap?
It is essentially where developing adolescent athletes play only one sport for the majority of the year. This becomes a trap because the schedules of most basketball seasons run consecutively over the majority of the year. The school year season ends and oftentimes practices for the AAU travel season have already begun.
For high school athletes the AAU season is oftentimes looked at as a better opportunity to gain exposure and recruitment potential, even when compared to their high school season. The AAU season typically runs until the start of preseason open gyms for the next school years’ competitive season.
Elementary and middle school students have similar opportunities by participating in multiple leagues throughout the school year along with travel leagues and camps throughout the summer time.
Early specialization could be covered at length in a post twice as long as the one you are currently reading; there have been entire research-based textbooks written on the topic, but I will be covering the basics within this post.
Early specialization is a two-sided coin; the first side has to do with the long-term mental outlook an athlete has on their sport. Many research articles and texts talk about the eventual burnout and loss of motivation athletes who specialize early often deal with. The question we often hear is, “What if my child really loves basketball and is not interested in playing any other sports?”
This is an extremely tough question because even if it is true and the athlete really only loves basketball, that doesn't ensure that the answer will be the same into the future. Having an understanding as a parent that athletes need a wide variety of different athletic experiences from a mental standpoint, not just physical, is important for their long term outlook on their sport.
It is important for parents to take some time with their athletes after a competitive season to determine their motivation moving into the next opportunity. It is very difficult for parents to determine the overall motivation of their young athlete. Especially if they are developing their skill efficiently and showing signs of success, it becomes even more difficult.
Parents see their children improving and they automatically assume that their child is getting just as much enjoyment participating as they are watching it all happen. That is why it is that much more important to sit down and actually have a discussion about how the young athlete is doing mentally to determine which direction they want to go in the future.
The other side of the developmental coin is the physical side. Research shows that early specialized athletes are statistically injured more often than those playing multiple sports. This has more to do with developing a young child's overall athleticism then having them experience multiple competitive sport environments.
When young athletes play multiple sports there is a greater likelihood for them to acquire a larger array of athletic qualities. This is where the previous question comes up again: “What if my child really loves basketball, and it's the only sport they want to play?” The answer is simply, they need to also participate in an athletic developmental program that will provide these opportunities, but do so in the most efficient way possible due to the year-round schedule that most basketball athletes present with...
At Lewis Fitness and Performance, it is not only our job to design strength & conditioning programs to help athletes get stronger, more flexible, more explosive, and less likely to become injured, but it is also our responsibility to educate athletes, parents, and coaches about aspects of overall athletic development based on information from scientific research, developmental organizations (at the national and Olympic levels), and from other top professionals in our industry.
Understanding and providing the best balance of all of these developmental aspects is paramount in the optimal long term athletic development of young athletes.
In today's day and age, basketball is one of the easiest sports to fall into what is termed “The Early Specialization Trap.”
What is the early specialization trap?
It is essentially where developing adolescent athletes play only one sport for the majority of the year. This becomes a trap because the schedules of most basketball seasons run consecutively over the majority of the year. The school year season ends and oftentimes practices for the AAU travel season have already begun.
For high school athletes the AAU season is oftentimes looked at as a better opportunity to gain exposure and recruitment potential, even when compared to their high school season. The AAU season typically runs until the start of preseason open gyms for the next school years’ competitive season.
Elementary and middle school students have similar opportunities by participating in multiple leagues throughout the school year along with travel leagues and camps throughout the summer time.
Early specialization could be covered at length in a post twice as long as the one you are currently reading; there have been entire research-based textbooks written on the topic, but I will be covering the basics within this post.
Early specialization is a two-sided coin; the first side has to do with the long-term mental outlook an athlete has on their sport. Many research articles and texts talk about the eventual burnout and loss of motivation athletes who specialize early often deal with. The question we often hear is, “What if my child really loves basketball and is not interested in playing any other sports?”
This is an extremely tough question because even if it is true and the athlete really only loves basketball, that doesn't ensure that the answer will be the same into the future. Having an understanding as a parent that athletes need a wide variety of different athletic experiences from a mental standpoint, not just physical, is important for their long term outlook on their sport.
It is important for parents to take some time with their athletes after a competitive season to determine their motivation moving into the next opportunity. It is very difficult for parents to determine the overall motivation of their young athlete. Especially if they are developing their skill efficiently and showing signs of success, it becomes even more difficult.
Parents see their children improving and they automatically assume that their child is getting just as much enjoyment participating as they are watching it all happen. That is why it is that much more important to sit down and actually have a discussion about how the young athlete is doing mentally to determine which direction they want to go in the future.
The other side of the developmental coin is the physical side. Research shows that early specialized athletes are statistically injured more often than those playing multiple sports. This has more to do with developing a young child's overall athleticism then having them experience multiple competitive sport environments.
When young athletes play multiple sports there is a greater likelihood for them to acquire a larger array of athletic qualities. This is where the previous question comes up again: “What if my child really loves basketball, and it's the only sport they want to play?” The answer is simply, they need to also participate in an athletic developmental program that will provide these opportunities, but do so in the most efficient way possible due to the year-round schedule that most basketball athletes present with...
This is is exactly what we provide at Lewis Fitness & Performance (LFP). Find out more about our basketball specific programs by clicking here. We begin with a baseline assessment of movement qualities that all athletic components and skill are built upon. This ensures the efficiency of the program and allows us to design an individualized plan to fully develop a basketball athlete with a minimal effective dose of exposures that still allows them to continue to develop their skill on the court, and does not take them away from opportunities to showcase their skills and abilities. This and the combination of LFP with year round basketball allows a “specialized” athlete to avoid many of the injury and athletic development pitfalls that the research has shown to exist in early specialized situations.
So let’s get into the actual design of our basketball specific training programs at Lewis Fitness & Performance.
Within this article we will discuss three aspects of training basketball players:
1) The unique body makeup of most basketball athletes and how it affects their programming.
2) The most common injury found in basketball and what effects this has on our program.
3) Common ways basketball players try to train themselves, which is often more harmful than beneficial.
Beginning with the first particular point: the unique body makeup of basketball players; this is a scientific term called anthropometry, which is defined as the scientific study of measurements and proportions of the human body.
This is extremely important when designing athletic development programs for basketball players due to their longer limbs in both the upper and lower bodies for they will not have physics on their side when it comes to absorbing and creating forces compared to athletes with shorter lever arms.
This is simply saying that most basketball players are not built for the type of work that is typically or commonly done in a weight room because of their height.
This does not mean that it is not an extremely important aspect of their overall athletic development, performance increases on the court, and their ability to stay healthy from an injury standpoint.
This needs to be addressed because these unique human characteristics predispose certain athletes to select the sport of basketball. Those athletes that are taller, quicker and extremely athletic have much greater success rates then shorter less athletic participants. As the years go by, especially on the male side of the sport, the ability to jump higher becomes even more important for overall success due to the fact that a higher percentage of skills occur above the rim.
So what does this mean from a training design standpoint for a basketball player?
Resistance Training For Basketball Players
Lower body strength training is an integral part to any well-designed basketball development program. The sport requires them to jump high, change direction quickly, sprint with high velocities, and fight for position on the court both offensively and defensively.
High levels of lower body strength allow for increases in all of these attributes. Due to their body anthropometrics, basketball players are not efficient at what are termed bilateral movements, especially when under load.
These movements such as squats (knee dominant) and deadlifts (hip dominant) typically need a unilateral substitution for basketball players to ensure effectiveness for safety and increases in strength.
Strength training movements such as a rear foot elevated split squats (RFESS), or Bulgarian split squats, are used as a substitution for back squatting. In some of our collegiate basketball strength & conditioning programs (such as the one we use for the Mercyhurst University men’s team) we will do some bilateral squatting activities, but the load (either a barbell or sandbag) is placed in the front of the body which puts them in a more favorable anthropometric position when executing the movement.
We also take into consideration the joint anthropometry when adding these movements and provide many of our athletes (based on the initial movement assessment) with a heel raised option to allow for better squat patterning.
Andrea Hudy, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the University of Kansas Men’s Basketball team, has provided all of the Jayhawks with Olympic weightlifting shoes which have a built-in elevated heel for the same reason.
From a budgetary standpoint we opted for standing on a three-quarter inch high beam while squatting the Mercyhurst Men. The Mercyhurst men's team trains four days a week during their preseason. Their primary knee dominant lift is the rear foot elevated split squat, but due to there increased volume of training days within a week we have also included a bilateral squatting exercise within their program.
These are used sparingly with younger basketball athletes, who typically only train two times per week. In the video accompanied with this post you will see different single leg squat variations and also a comparison of a bilateral squat.
So let’s get into the actual design of our basketball specific training programs at Lewis Fitness & Performance.
Within this article we will discuss three aspects of training basketball players:
1) The unique body makeup of most basketball athletes and how it affects their programming.
2) The most common injury found in basketball and what effects this has on our program.
3) Common ways basketball players try to train themselves, which is often more harmful than beneficial.
Beginning with the first particular point: the unique body makeup of basketball players; this is a scientific term called anthropometry, which is defined as the scientific study of measurements and proportions of the human body.
This is extremely important when designing athletic development programs for basketball players due to their longer limbs in both the upper and lower bodies for they will not have physics on their side when it comes to absorbing and creating forces compared to athletes with shorter lever arms.
This is simply saying that most basketball players are not built for the type of work that is typically or commonly done in a weight room because of their height.
This does not mean that it is not an extremely important aspect of their overall athletic development, performance increases on the court, and their ability to stay healthy from an injury standpoint.
This needs to be addressed because these unique human characteristics predispose certain athletes to select the sport of basketball. Those athletes that are taller, quicker and extremely athletic have much greater success rates then shorter less athletic participants. As the years go by, especially on the male side of the sport, the ability to jump higher becomes even more important for overall success due to the fact that a higher percentage of skills occur above the rim.
So what does this mean from a training design standpoint for a basketball player?
Resistance Training For Basketball Players
Lower body strength training is an integral part to any well-designed basketball development program. The sport requires them to jump high, change direction quickly, sprint with high velocities, and fight for position on the court both offensively and defensively.
High levels of lower body strength allow for increases in all of these attributes. Due to their body anthropometrics, basketball players are not efficient at what are termed bilateral movements, especially when under load.
These movements such as squats (knee dominant) and deadlifts (hip dominant) typically need a unilateral substitution for basketball players to ensure effectiveness for safety and increases in strength.
Strength training movements such as a rear foot elevated split squats (RFESS), or Bulgarian split squats, are used as a substitution for back squatting. In some of our collegiate basketball strength & conditioning programs (such as the one we use for the Mercyhurst University men’s team) we will do some bilateral squatting activities, but the load (either a barbell or sandbag) is placed in the front of the body which puts them in a more favorable anthropometric position when executing the movement.
We also take into consideration the joint anthropometry when adding these movements and provide many of our athletes (based on the initial movement assessment) with a heel raised option to allow for better squat patterning.
Andrea Hudy, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the University of Kansas Men’s Basketball team, has provided all of the Jayhawks with Olympic weightlifting shoes which have a built-in elevated heel for the same reason.
From a budgetary standpoint we opted for standing on a three-quarter inch high beam while squatting the Mercyhurst Men. The Mercyhurst men's team trains four days a week during their preseason. Their primary knee dominant lift is the rear foot elevated split squat, but due to there increased volume of training days within a week we have also included a bilateral squatting exercise within their program.
These are used sparingly with younger basketball athletes, who typically only train two times per week. In the video accompanied with this post you will see different single leg squat variations and also a comparison of a bilateral squat.
The next lower body exercise that we will address is the deadlift, it is simply picking weight from a stationary position off of the floor. The deadlift is the only bilateral lower body strength exercise that we include with the majority of our athletes; this exercise is the primary exercise we utilize to place the most absolute load on an athlete system. A good program has an optimal mix of absolute load and relative loads in different planes of motion (more on this a little later).
The bilateral deadlifting variations are all executed with a trap bar as compared to traditional barbell with all of our basketball athletes. When deadlifting, a traditional barbell places the hands in front of the shins at the beginning of the lift, and in the front of the thighs as the bar moves to a fully extended position.
The trap bar places the hands initially on the lateral side of the shins, and as the weight is lifted the center of the bar essentially moves through the middle of the body. This allows for athletes of different heights to execute the movement more effectively and in a safer manner without decreasing the intensity of the exercise.
This movement is also accompanied by numerous single leg deadlifting variations utilizing a variety of different implements (Kettlebells, cable machines, barbells, ultimate sandbags).
The other aspect when comparing bilateral versus unilateral lifting techniques is the primary mechanism used within the sport. The sport of basketball primarily requires its athletes to jump off of one leg, sprint and change direction in a unilateral fashion and therefore the majority of their training should logically reflect this.
Some basketball players may argue that they jump better off of two legs compared to one. This may be true, but the factor that cannot be ignored is that when a basketball player jumps off of two legs to go up and grab a rebound or attempt a dunk, they enter the jumping motion by absorbing all of the force created by moving towards the hoop on one leg and then propel their body upwards off of both.
A true bilateral jump typically only happens one time in a basketball game, during the initial tip off of the game. All other jumping aspects in the sport are unilateral, or have lateral aspects to the movements. This is the primary reason why unilateral strength training and unilateral plyometric training should be the predominant quality when looking at developing the lower body of a basketball athlete.
When conducting a needs analysis on the sport of basketball we not only find a predominant unilateral focus when it comes to jumping, sprinting and cutting, but we also find movements in multiple planes of motion.
Traditional strength and conditioning is conducted in what is called the sagittal plane (straight up and down or forward or backwards). The sport of basketball operates in the sagittal plane, but also the frontal plane (side to side), and the transverse plane (rotation of the body). Our ultimate goal is to improve performance on the basketball court, so our training must match the demands the sport places on its participants with appropriate movement qualities, volumes, and intensities.
The system of training that we utilize to match the demands of sport is the Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT) system. The system primarily uses the Ultimate Sandbag (USB) to execute the system, but can utilize other tools as well (kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, etc.). For more information on how we use the DVRT System with basketball athletes click here.
The definition of the system in its simplest form is it gives the ability to progress and regress a movement/exercise with multiple components other than just adding or decreasing weight. One of the biggest factors from an athletic standpoint is the ability to manipulate the weight of the USB in multiple planes of motion, therefore replicating the strength and power production/absorption qualities needed within the sport.
The bilateral deadlifting variations are all executed with a trap bar as compared to traditional barbell with all of our basketball athletes. When deadlifting, a traditional barbell places the hands in front of the shins at the beginning of the lift, and in the front of the thighs as the bar moves to a fully extended position.
The trap bar places the hands initially on the lateral side of the shins, and as the weight is lifted the center of the bar essentially moves through the middle of the body. This allows for athletes of different heights to execute the movement more effectively and in a safer manner without decreasing the intensity of the exercise.
This movement is also accompanied by numerous single leg deadlifting variations utilizing a variety of different implements (Kettlebells, cable machines, barbells, ultimate sandbags).
The other aspect when comparing bilateral versus unilateral lifting techniques is the primary mechanism used within the sport. The sport of basketball primarily requires its athletes to jump off of one leg, sprint and change direction in a unilateral fashion and therefore the majority of their training should logically reflect this.
Some basketball players may argue that they jump better off of two legs compared to one. This may be true, but the factor that cannot be ignored is that when a basketball player jumps off of two legs to go up and grab a rebound or attempt a dunk, they enter the jumping motion by absorbing all of the force created by moving towards the hoop on one leg and then propel their body upwards off of both.
A true bilateral jump typically only happens one time in a basketball game, during the initial tip off of the game. All other jumping aspects in the sport are unilateral, or have lateral aspects to the movements. This is the primary reason why unilateral strength training and unilateral plyometric training should be the predominant quality when looking at developing the lower body of a basketball athlete.
When conducting a needs analysis on the sport of basketball we not only find a predominant unilateral focus when it comes to jumping, sprinting and cutting, but we also find movements in multiple planes of motion.
Traditional strength and conditioning is conducted in what is called the sagittal plane (straight up and down or forward or backwards). The sport of basketball operates in the sagittal plane, but also the frontal plane (side to side), and the transverse plane (rotation of the body). Our ultimate goal is to improve performance on the basketball court, so our training must match the demands the sport places on its participants with appropriate movement qualities, volumes, and intensities.
The system of training that we utilize to match the demands of sport is the Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT) system. The system primarily uses the Ultimate Sandbag (USB) to execute the system, but can utilize other tools as well (kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, etc.). For more information on how we use the DVRT System with basketball athletes click here.
The definition of the system in its simplest form is it gives the ability to progress and regress a movement/exercise with multiple components other than just adding or decreasing weight. One of the biggest factors from an athletic standpoint is the ability to manipulate the weight of the USB in multiple planes of motion, therefore replicating the strength and power production/absorption qualities needed within the sport.
The addition of this system of training into our program at Lewis Fitness & Performance has given us the ability to create a more real world strength quality that transfers to the basketball court more readily than any other form of training.
Injuries In Basketball
The second area of consideration when designing basketball strength & conditioning programs are the common injuries found within the sport. One of the most common injuries in basketball is an ankle sprain; here are multiple factors that lead to this high incidence of injury. The nature of the game calls for athletes to share a small space under the basket, jump up for shots, and rebounds where the likelihood of landing on unstable surface (i.e. another players foot) it’s fairly high.
The sport also requires athletes to undergo extreme changes of direction, which if athletes do not possess an understanding of change of direction (COD) techniques, or have the strength, the possibility of turning an ankle is much higher.
Another consideration to take into account is the equipment that is typically worn on the lower body by basketball players. This is a big one as it is commonly overlooked.
The footwear, of the high-top variety, is drastically over-constructed and provides a false sense of stability to the lower limbs; his over-construction of the shoe does not allow the natural force absorbing capabilities of the foot and ankle to operate efficiently.
It also takes those forces and drives them up the kinetic chain into the knee where other problems can arise over time (more on that later as well). When issues arise, usually an ankle sprain, the addition of an ankle brace to the high top shoe may allow them to continue to compete in the short-term, but will surely lead to further problems down the line if rehabilitative strategies and strengthening do not occur.
Basketball organizations and shoe companies are beginning to realize the error in their ways and therefore you are now seeing an influx of a lower profile, less constructed footwear for the sport of basketball.
From an anatomical standpoint, over 25% of the bones in the human body are located from the shin down. This is powerful.
The structure of a high top shoe, especially if accompanied by an ankle brace, essentially takes all of these bones and the function of the joints and makes them incapable of absorbing force (from an injury standpoint), or producing as much force (from performance standpoint).
The foot and ankle are not only primary considerations when designing strength & conditioning programs, but they are also taken into a very high consideration from a college recruiting and potential draft status into the NBA.
Our staff gained some insight into this process during a presentation by Todd Wright, the head strength & conditioning coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, during his talk at the Perform Better Functional Training Summit in 2016. Coach Wright discussed the medical examination of the foot and ankle and it's bearing on the draft status of the athletes the 76ers were considering in the draft.
The combination of the findings within the assessment compared to the injury history the athlete had in high school and college were all collected to determine if the player would be considered in the draft.
Regardless of the test results, a plan of attack was put forth from a medical and training standpoint for when and if the player would be drafted by the 76ers. This was a process that Coach Wright also utilized at the University of Texas during his time spent in Austin with college athletes as well.
Injuries In Basketball
The second area of consideration when designing basketball strength & conditioning programs are the common injuries found within the sport. One of the most common injuries in basketball is an ankle sprain; here are multiple factors that lead to this high incidence of injury. The nature of the game calls for athletes to share a small space under the basket, jump up for shots, and rebounds where the likelihood of landing on unstable surface (i.e. another players foot) it’s fairly high.
The sport also requires athletes to undergo extreme changes of direction, which if athletes do not possess an understanding of change of direction (COD) techniques, or have the strength, the possibility of turning an ankle is much higher.
Another consideration to take into account is the equipment that is typically worn on the lower body by basketball players. This is a big one as it is commonly overlooked.
The footwear, of the high-top variety, is drastically over-constructed and provides a false sense of stability to the lower limbs; his over-construction of the shoe does not allow the natural force absorbing capabilities of the foot and ankle to operate efficiently.
It also takes those forces and drives them up the kinetic chain into the knee where other problems can arise over time (more on that later as well). When issues arise, usually an ankle sprain, the addition of an ankle brace to the high top shoe may allow them to continue to compete in the short-term, but will surely lead to further problems down the line if rehabilitative strategies and strengthening do not occur.
Basketball organizations and shoe companies are beginning to realize the error in their ways and therefore you are now seeing an influx of a lower profile, less constructed footwear for the sport of basketball.
From an anatomical standpoint, over 25% of the bones in the human body are located from the shin down. This is powerful.
The structure of a high top shoe, especially if accompanied by an ankle brace, essentially takes all of these bones and the function of the joints and makes them incapable of absorbing force (from an injury standpoint), or producing as much force (from performance standpoint).
The foot and ankle are not only primary considerations when designing strength & conditioning programs, but they are also taken into a very high consideration from a college recruiting and potential draft status into the NBA.
Our staff gained some insight into this process during a presentation by Todd Wright, the head strength & conditioning coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, during his talk at the Perform Better Functional Training Summit in 2016. Coach Wright discussed the medical examination of the foot and ankle and it's bearing on the draft status of the athletes the 76ers were considering in the draft.
The combination of the findings within the assessment compared to the injury history the athlete had in high school and college were all collected to determine if the player would be considered in the draft.
Regardless of the test results, a plan of attack was put forth from a medical and training standpoint for when and if the player would be drafted by the 76ers. This was a process that Coach Wright also utilized at the University of Texas during his time spent in Austin with college athletes as well.
From a training standpoint, we begin looking at mobility, or the ability of the joint to move through its full normal range of motion with stability, of both the big toe and the ankle complex.
The biggest restrictions that we see in basketball athletes are limited movement of the big toe (both passively and actively) and a decrease in dorsiflexion of the ankle (the ability to drive the knee past the toe with the full foot staying in contact with the floor).
Exercises designed to improve ankle dorsiflexion need to be carefully designed based off of the individual assessment of each athlete. Some athletes may present with limited ankle dorsiflexion due to a tight calf muscle, others may present with an injury history of the ankle that may include bony abnormalities or changes that have altered normal bone articulation within the joint, therefore limiting range of motion.
It is also important to consider whether or not the athlete experiences pain when they take the ankle joint to it's altered end range.
It is important for strength & conditioning professionals to remove pain signals whenever possible when trying to improve the mobility or range of motion of a joint. Pain will almost certainly lead to further compensations that will either decrease the potential improvements in performance, or lead to increases in potential injuries in other areas of the body.
We have many different techniques to help athletes improve the mobility of the ankle and the big toe, but the key is to assess each athlete individually to determine the most appropriate technique to utilize based on the symptoms they present with.
If done incorrectly, they could actually do more harm than good or at the very least give them no benefit at all and therefore waste precious time that they could be dedicating towards the improvement of other qualities that will help them on the basketball court.
This makes the initial assessment process even more important to determine the appropriate plan of attack from a programming standpoint; the importance of the assessment also indicates that a done-for-you program you purchase on the internet or get from any of the basketball coaches you meet along the way will most likely be ineffective and/or potentially harmful!
The best program for you is one that is specifically designed based on movement qualities you initially present with (an assessment) and then meets you where you are at physically and also from a developmental standpoint. Interested in finding out program specific for your athlete, click here.
Another extremely common injury site is general pain in the knee. Surveying basketball players, you typically will have a harder time finding someone without, than with.
Often times basketball players end up visiting the athletic trainer, physical therapist, or getting a full orthopedic assessment. Many times the diagnosis has something to do with what they call a patella femoral syndrome - essentially the femur, or upper leg bone, is not tracking well with the patella (kneecap).
This chronic misalignment over time can lead to pain and inflammation at the knee joint and gets diagnosed as a patella femoral issue. In the sport of basketball these issues are sometimes diagnosed as growing pains, as basketball athletes tend to be taller and it is not uncommon for athletes growing very rapidly to experience pains due to growth.This occurs because during adolescence, development of the long bones, especially the femurs (thigh bones) grow extremely fast, while the soft tissues, the tendons, ligaments, and muscles are slower to adapt.
This scientific fact can lead to pain and discomfort if soft tissue interventions are not put in place. It is important to determine whether the pain is associated with rapid growth or if compensation at the foot/ankle (as previously mentioned) or the hip is the culprit in this pain producing scenario. Or a combination of, or all of, the above.
The knee is a fairly simple joint and a common site for pain in basketball athletes, but it is very rarely the fault of the knee structures to cause the pain associated in that area.
You can look at some of the more unfortunate instances within the sport of NBA basketball to gain some insight into this phenomenon.
Penny Hardaway, Greg Oden and Yao Ming were all dominant forces within the sport; they all had shortened careers due to injury.
Ming was forced to retire due to knee pains that were associated with a series of foot and ankle surgeries he had throughout his career. Fortunately for Ming there was an understanding of how the compensations created by the surgeries on his foot and ankle, which exacerbated the compensations at the knee and was the cause of his pain.
The biggest restrictions that we see in basketball athletes are limited movement of the big toe (both passively and actively) and a decrease in dorsiflexion of the ankle (the ability to drive the knee past the toe with the full foot staying in contact with the floor).
Exercises designed to improve ankle dorsiflexion need to be carefully designed based off of the individual assessment of each athlete. Some athletes may present with limited ankle dorsiflexion due to a tight calf muscle, others may present with an injury history of the ankle that may include bony abnormalities or changes that have altered normal bone articulation within the joint, therefore limiting range of motion.
It is also important to consider whether or not the athlete experiences pain when they take the ankle joint to it's altered end range.
It is important for strength & conditioning professionals to remove pain signals whenever possible when trying to improve the mobility or range of motion of a joint. Pain will almost certainly lead to further compensations that will either decrease the potential improvements in performance, or lead to increases in potential injuries in other areas of the body.
We have many different techniques to help athletes improve the mobility of the ankle and the big toe, but the key is to assess each athlete individually to determine the most appropriate technique to utilize based on the symptoms they present with.
If done incorrectly, they could actually do more harm than good or at the very least give them no benefit at all and therefore waste precious time that they could be dedicating towards the improvement of other qualities that will help them on the basketball court.
This makes the initial assessment process even more important to determine the appropriate plan of attack from a programming standpoint; the importance of the assessment also indicates that a done-for-you program you purchase on the internet or get from any of the basketball coaches you meet along the way will most likely be ineffective and/or potentially harmful!
The best program for you is one that is specifically designed based on movement qualities you initially present with (an assessment) and then meets you where you are at physically and also from a developmental standpoint. Interested in finding out program specific for your athlete, click here.
Another extremely common injury site is general pain in the knee. Surveying basketball players, you typically will have a harder time finding someone without, than with.
Often times basketball players end up visiting the athletic trainer, physical therapist, or getting a full orthopedic assessment. Many times the diagnosis has something to do with what they call a patella femoral syndrome - essentially the femur, or upper leg bone, is not tracking well with the patella (kneecap).
This chronic misalignment over time can lead to pain and inflammation at the knee joint and gets diagnosed as a patella femoral issue. In the sport of basketball these issues are sometimes diagnosed as growing pains, as basketball athletes tend to be taller and it is not uncommon for athletes growing very rapidly to experience pains due to growth.This occurs because during adolescence, development of the long bones, especially the femurs (thigh bones) grow extremely fast, while the soft tissues, the tendons, ligaments, and muscles are slower to adapt.
This scientific fact can lead to pain and discomfort if soft tissue interventions are not put in place. It is important to determine whether the pain is associated with rapid growth or if compensation at the foot/ankle (as previously mentioned) or the hip is the culprit in this pain producing scenario. Or a combination of, or all of, the above.
The knee is a fairly simple joint and a common site for pain in basketball athletes, but it is very rarely the fault of the knee structures to cause the pain associated in that area.
You can look at some of the more unfortunate instances within the sport of NBA basketball to gain some insight into this phenomenon.
Penny Hardaway, Greg Oden and Yao Ming were all dominant forces within the sport; they all had shortened careers due to injury.
Ming was forced to retire due to knee pains that were associated with a series of foot and ankle surgeries he had throughout his career. Fortunately for Ming there was an understanding of how the compensations created by the surgeries on his foot and ankle, which exacerbated the compensations at the knee and was the cause of his pain.
A few years earlier the understanding of how dysfunction at the foot and ankle could show up as pain in the knee were not as widely understood or recognized. At that time both Penny Hardaway and Greg Oden underwent microfracture surgery on their knees; the technique of this surgery was literally drilling small holes at the base of the femur, tibia, or patella (wherever the pain site is). The theory is that these holes, or microfractures, will undergo a healing process and the new tissue will operate pain-free.
Unfortunately for those two and many others, this surgery not only was ineffective, it has since been deemed medically unnecessary due to its treatment of the pain site as opposed to the pain source.
The pain site vs. pain source conundrum has been a point of tension between outdated medical practitioners and those continuing to further their knowledge and learn better and more effective ways of treating and aiding athletes in their recovery from injury.
As strength & conditioning professionals we have firmly interjected ourselves into the continuum of care when it comes to the treatment of athletic based injuries.
The knowledge garnered from the development of our assessment process and the vast depth of experiences we have had over the last 15 years of working with athletes, healthy and recovering from injury, has lead to this interjection into the continuum.
Pain site treatment methods are not unnecessary, and often times it is the initial medical intervention, but it cannot stop there as the CAUSE of the problem has yet to be addressed.
From a basketball athlete perspective we often use an analogy of knee pain being like the smoke alarm going off; you can take the batteries out of the smoke detector (pain site treatment), but you must uncover the movement dysfunction (pain source treatment) in order to confidently return the athlete to the court without the increased likelihood of them returning with pain again.
I also want to state that the treatment protocols that I'm referring to are going to be injuries that are accompanied with chronic pain symptoms that have gradually increased over time. This could also be categorized as an overuse-type injury in the athletic world.
The pain site treatment method is one that is based on the treatment of acute/trauma based injuries. They are extremely successful in the treatment of athletic injuries that are caused by trauma in contact or collision sports; in these types of athletic injuries the site of the pain is caused by trauma to that same site.
The confusion is often in an overuse type injury; the site of the pain is almost never the cause of the pain, and the treatment plan needs to reflect the complexity of this type of injury.
Vertical Jump Programs: Do or Do Not?
The third and final building block of the development of basketball players that I want to address today is increasing the vertical jump of a basketball player.
The jumping ability of these athletes is a great differentiator within the sport. Therefore it typically takes precedence over all other developmental components that basketball players, coaches, and parents want to focus on.
Due to its popularity, vertical jump training programs are readily available for purchase on the internet. These are all one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter jumping programs that for some may truly increase their vertical jump, but for others (and probably the majority) it will surely lead to injury (such as patellar tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, or just general joint aches and pains in the lower body); these are all symptoms of poorly designed plyometric programs.
I'm sure by now you have gained an appreciation of how the foundational movement quality that athletes possess dictates the program in which they are prescribed from a strength & conditioning standpoint.
These types of programs clearly ignore or omit this prequalification screening process for the exercises they are prescribing. They are also outcome-based, with the only measurement being the increase in your vertical jump, which is troublesome.
Through our program this is not a priority until each athlete individually possesses the ability to land efficiently, effectively, and consistently.
They need to develop the eccentric strength and motor control to land before we ever put an emphasis on the height at which they can jump. We always use the analogy with our athletes that “I don't care how fast your car can go until I know how well your brakes work.”
This ensures not only the effectiveness of our program, but more importantly the long-term safety of what we have our athletes go through. A brief search for vertical jump improving programs on the internet has left us with a general consensus that most of the exercises that are selected are beyond the initial capabilities of the average adolescent athlete.
If done long-term, they will surely lead to detriments in performance and potential injury into the future. We have also had basketball athletes in the past who have added these types of programs to their weekly list of activities and we have had to deal with a number of overuse type injuries from higher volumes and intensities of plyometric training.
To come full circle, most young basketball athletes will improve their vertical jump height by learning to land correctly and building the strength to do so. They do this by completing plyometric activities that focus on landing strength, but there needs to be more; a sound, whole body strength program needs to be included as most athletes need to prioritize overall strength beyond any other athletic component.
By building strength they will increase their ability to jump higher, run faster, and change direction more efficiently, especially if done concurrently or, with all components are developed in one holistic program. Interested in increasing your vertical jump the right way? Find out more here.
Unfortunately for those two and many others, this surgery not only was ineffective, it has since been deemed medically unnecessary due to its treatment of the pain site as opposed to the pain source.
The pain site vs. pain source conundrum has been a point of tension between outdated medical practitioners and those continuing to further their knowledge and learn better and more effective ways of treating and aiding athletes in their recovery from injury.
As strength & conditioning professionals we have firmly interjected ourselves into the continuum of care when it comes to the treatment of athletic based injuries.
The knowledge garnered from the development of our assessment process and the vast depth of experiences we have had over the last 15 years of working with athletes, healthy and recovering from injury, has lead to this interjection into the continuum.
Pain site treatment methods are not unnecessary, and often times it is the initial medical intervention, but it cannot stop there as the CAUSE of the problem has yet to be addressed.
From a basketball athlete perspective we often use an analogy of knee pain being like the smoke alarm going off; you can take the batteries out of the smoke detector (pain site treatment), but you must uncover the movement dysfunction (pain source treatment) in order to confidently return the athlete to the court without the increased likelihood of them returning with pain again.
I also want to state that the treatment protocols that I'm referring to are going to be injuries that are accompanied with chronic pain symptoms that have gradually increased over time. This could also be categorized as an overuse-type injury in the athletic world.
The pain site treatment method is one that is based on the treatment of acute/trauma based injuries. They are extremely successful in the treatment of athletic injuries that are caused by trauma in contact or collision sports; in these types of athletic injuries the site of the pain is caused by trauma to that same site.
The confusion is often in an overuse type injury; the site of the pain is almost never the cause of the pain, and the treatment plan needs to reflect the complexity of this type of injury.
Vertical Jump Programs: Do or Do Not?
The third and final building block of the development of basketball players that I want to address today is increasing the vertical jump of a basketball player.
The jumping ability of these athletes is a great differentiator within the sport. Therefore it typically takes precedence over all other developmental components that basketball players, coaches, and parents want to focus on.
Due to its popularity, vertical jump training programs are readily available for purchase on the internet. These are all one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter jumping programs that for some may truly increase their vertical jump, but for others (and probably the majority) it will surely lead to injury (such as patellar tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, or just general joint aches and pains in the lower body); these are all symptoms of poorly designed plyometric programs.
I'm sure by now you have gained an appreciation of how the foundational movement quality that athletes possess dictates the program in which they are prescribed from a strength & conditioning standpoint.
These types of programs clearly ignore or omit this prequalification screening process for the exercises they are prescribing. They are also outcome-based, with the only measurement being the increase in your vertical jump, which is troublesome.
Through our program this is not a priority until each athlete individually possesses the ability to land efficiently, effectively, and consistently.
They need to develop the eccentric strength and motor control to land before we ever put an emphasis on the height at which they can jump. We always use the analogy with our athletes that “I don't care how fast your car can go until I know how well your brakes work.”
This ensures not only the effectiveness of our program, but more importantly the long-term safety of what we have our athletes go through. A brief search for vertical jump improving programs on the internet has left us with a general consensus that most of the exercises that are selected are beyond the initial capabilities of the average adolescent athlete.
If done long-term, they will surely lead to detriments in performance and potential injury into the future. We have also had basketball athletes in the past who have added these types of programs to their weekly list of activities and we have had to deal with a number of overuse type injuries from higher volumes and intensities of plyometric training.
To come full circle, most young basketball athletes will improve their vertical jump height by learning to land correctly and building the strength to do so. They do this by completing plyometric activities that focus on landing strength, but there needs to be more; a sound, whole body strength program needs to be included as most athletes need to prioritize overall strength beyond any other athletic component.
By building strength they will increase their ability to jump higher, run faster, and change direction more efficiently, especially if done concurrently or, with all components are developed in one holistic program. Interested in increasing your vertical jump the right way? Find out more here.
Wrapping Everything Together
In conclusion, the sport of basketball places very unique demands on it’s participants; those athletes typically have qualities that give them distinct advantages in the sport of basketball, but not as many in the world of strength & conditioning.
Due to the physical demands of the competitions and practices, and the long-term scheduling demand it places on the athletes from a year-to-year basis they must include some form of athletic development in addition to their basketball skill development.
This athletic development program will need to ensure that it builds them up as opposed to breaking them down. This is another far too often overlooked aspect here.
The long-term nature of their sport will lead to their eventual breakdown physically if it is not addressed. The year-round schedule, the traveling, the increased physical nature of the game as athletes become older will all contribute to this.
Developing as an athlete and increasing their strength, body mass, power capabilities, speed, quickness, and change of direction will all lead to increases in performance on the court and also decrease their likelihood of injury.
Our program at Lewis Fitness & Performance can be optimally designed for each basketball player individually, while also taking into account the other basketball activities they have on their schedule.
In-season training is essential for the long-term success of a basketball player because they never truly have an off-season; one season conveniently leads to the next. We are here to educate athletes, parents, and coaches on the importance of overall and complete athletic development, balance of activities, and the general well-being of these young athletes, while they are on the pathway to effectively accomplish it all.
Thanks for reading and taking an interest and how we are #ChangingTheWaySportsPerformanceIsDone
Click here to schedule your free strategy session where we will cover all the aspects discussed above, and more!
In conclusion, the sport of basketball places very unique demands on it’s participants; those athletes typically have qualities that give them distinct advantages in the sport of basketball, but not as many in the world of strength & conditioning.
Due to the physical demands of the competitions and practices, and the long-term scheduling demand it places on the athletes from a year-to-year basis they must include some form of athletic development in addition to their basketball skill development.
This athletic development program will need to ensure that it builds them up as opposed to breaking them down. This is another far too often overlooked aspect here.
The long-term nature of their sport will lead to their eventual breakdown physically if it is not addressed. The year-round schedule, the traveling, the increased physical nature of the game as athletes become older will all contribute to this.
Developing as an athlete and increasing their strength, body mass, power capabilities, speed, quickness, and change of direction will all lead to increases in performance on the court and also decrease their likelihood of injury.
Our program at Lewis Fitness & Performance can be optimally designed for each basketball player individually, while also taking into account the other basketball activities they have on their schedule.
In-season training is essential for the long-term success of a basketball player because they never truly have an off-season; one season conveniently leads to the next. We are here to educate athletes, parents, and coaches on the importance of overall and complete athletic development, balance of activities, and the general well-being of these young athletes, while they are on the pathway to effectively accomplish it all.
Thanks for reading and taking an interest and how we are #ChangingTheWaySportsPerformanceIsDone
Click here to schedule your free strategy session where we will cover all the aspects discussed above, and more!