2014 Summer Training Guide: Basketball
Program by Alan Stein, strength coach for the DeMatha Catholic High School boy’s basketball team, owner of Stronger Team and former high school strength coach for Kevin Durant.
What Matters Now
Most high school basketball players need to add weight to fill out their frames. It’s a by-product of being young and tall. Kevin Durant was no different in his high school days—he couldn’t even bench 185 pounds before the NBA Draft. Now he’s the MVP, because he committed to adding strength and size. That’s your goal this off-season.
What This Program Will Do for You
The program will make you basketball strong—not a world champion lifter. KD is the epitome of that. He is still tall and very slender, but you don’t see him getting knocked off the ball or out of his position on the court.
In high school, Durant was even leaner. So, he committed to this program, which adds about one pound of muscle per week over eight weeks—assuming your diet supports your workouts. And, it increases strength and the potential for power. The stronger you are, the more force you can produce. The more force you can produce, the higher you can jump and faster you can run. You’ll be able to perform your basketball skills at a higher level for a longer period of time before fatigue sets in.
Key Tips for Success
Lifting more weight over the course of the program is important, but basketball players’ bodies mostly aren’t designed to be good lifters. Focus on how well you’re lifting, not how much you can lift.
Intensity is the most important factor in determining your results. If you’re capable of doing 10 Pull-Ups but you do only eight, you need to up the intensity. Take each set close to the point where you can’t perform another rep. If you choose the correct weight, you will reach muscular fatigue within the provided rep range.
Consistently attempt to lift more weight and/or do more reps with each workout. If you do the same thing every week, you won’t get any stronger. The best way to monitor progress is to record all workout data on a workout card.
Check out the full 2014 Summer Training Guide.
Featured Basketball Exercises
Barbell Front Squat: Develops lower-body strength, which is the foundation for sprinting and jumping.
Single-Leg RDL: Improves glute strength one leg at a time, which helps you leap up from your left and right leg.
Med Ball Slams: Makes long shots and passes easier to execute with perfect accuracy by building a powerful core.
STACK Basketball Summer Training Guide
This article originally appeared on STACK.com: 2014 Summer Training Guide: Basketball
