Basketball Drill Help

A lot of basketball trainers have their players doing silly drills. Just this past week I was working with a player who was describing his history with other basketball trainers. When I asked him to go into detail with some of the practices he began to tell me about a well known basketball trainer who has players dribble two basketball while going through a speed ladder drill. I started hysterical laughing at the joke that has become of some basketball training. I can understand the usage of two basketball in certain drills however a speed ladder should not be implemented during a skill drill. There is no rational reason to combine the two. When you combine a skill drill with a speed drill, something is lost in both categories. A person, no matter who that person is, will lose speed and concentration on their skill drill during one of the combination jokes.

After my laughter was over, I described how a sensible trainer would have put a player through a workout;

1. Speed Ladder Drills
2. Single Ball Handling Drills
3. Double Ball Handling Drills

Notice I do not combine the two since there is no chance any player on this Earth can maximize his or her ability with both at the same time. It just amazes me that there are people who consistently try to make things more difficult than they need to be.

Another one of my past favorite (achem sarcasm) is the old push-ups on basketballs routine. This not only represents one of the higher risks of wrist, neck, and shoulder injury but is also plain stupid. Sometimes people forget that just because they can do something it does not mean the general public or a large percentage of people will be able to do without negative recourse. Instead of push-ups on basketballs I recommend;

1. Keg Push-Ups.

This method will keep the hands in a neutral placement thus protecting the shoulders from undue stress. The elbows will also remain tucked and provide more of a realistic feel of shoving strength. My KEG CONDITIONING training course describes this, twelve other exericses and countless informational tidbits that are critical to know for effective strength and conditioning.

Please and I say please do not get involved in any silly nonsense like push-ups on basketballs or two ball ball handling drills during a speed ladder. Keep your training simple, effective, and progressive.

Coach Lemanczyk