Offseason Conditioning
Offseason conditioning provides an opportunity for basketball players to improve their energy system efficiency and prepare for a long, intense season. Players in great condition will enjoy competitive edge over their less prepared opponents who will fatigue sooner and spend more time on the bench as a result of poor performance. Overall well conditioned athletes will be able to recover more quickly between exercise bouts and perform at higher level during and between games.
The body relies on two energy systems: anaerobic (energy production without oxygen) and aerobic (energy production via oxygen), to provide for energy during exercise. As basketball is estimated to be 85% anaerobic and 15% aerobic, subsequent conditioning programs should be anaerobic in nature, featuring short spurts of high intensity exercise.
The early offseason conditioning program will be relatively longer in work duration and lower in exercise intensity, the exercise bout is designed to tax end phase anaerobic system; the fast glycolytic energy pathway. As you progress through the weeks conditioning protocols will decrease in exercise duration and increase in exercise intensity.
Also note if you engage in social basketball during this period you might need to manipulate training sessions and workload accordingly to avoid overtraining. Common signs of overtraining include: lack of motivation, decreased energy, decline in strength training performance etc.
| 4-Weeks Conditioning Workout | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| WEEK | SESSION | WORKOUT | REST INTERVAL |
| 1 | 1 | 3x400m stride | 3 min |
| 2 | 4x400m stride | 2.5 min | |
| 2 | 1 | 5x400m stride | 2.5 min |
| 2 | 6x400m stride | 2.5 min | |
| 3 | 1 | 8x200m stride | 2 min |
| 2 | 10x200m stride | 2 min | |
| 4 | 1 | 10x200m stride | 1.5 min |
| 2 | 12x200m stride | 1.5 min | |
Neal Wen is the Strength and Conditioning coach for some of the best basketballers in Australasia. Neal is currently the head strength and conditioning coach for the Melbourne Tigers and many other National Representative athletes as well as the Director of sports performance at AUBD performance. Neal's passion and innovating methodologies have him positioned as one of the leading experts in sports performance for basketball this side of the world.