52 Weeks A Year

If you are serious about becoming a better basketball player you need to have a year-round training program. That program should include strength and conditioning training, skill development team structured practices, and a rest and recovery phase. These phases are usually defined as;
Off-season
Pre-season
In-season
Post-season
Each season can be further broken down into cycles.
The true challenge in Canada, is defining when these seasons are. High school ball runs into provincial club ball. Club ball runs into AAU ball, and if you are involved in the Provincial or National programs, these will collide with the above seasons too. The truth of the matter is you have to make choices, about what your goals are and how you can reach those. You can’t do everything at once and hope to gain strength, better your skills, while playing games for all of those teams. One way to make sense of it is to work backwards with this problem. Ask yourself, where you want to play in your post high school career. What level do you want to play at? What venue, will the coaches of where I want to eventually play, see me? If they can’t see me, they won’t know about me, I’ll fly under the radar and miss my opportunity.
Off-SeasonDuring the Off-season, approximately 21 weeks, players should concentrate on building up their body. It should include strength and conditioning program that will not only focus on brining a stronger body to the next season, but also help prevent and protect the body from injuries. The off-season should include speed, quickness, agility drills, and sport specific exercises and movements that help make you quicker on the court. It goes without saying that a proper stretching program should also be part of all phases.
Pre-seasonDuring the Pre-season, approximately 8 weeks, players should concentrate on honing their skills. Strength training focus should change to more sports specific, injury prevention type of resistant training. Conditioning should become more sports specific. Conditioning can all be done with a ball in your hands. Working on skills and conditioning at the same time.
In-seasonDuring the In-season, approximately 19 weeks, players should continue to work on their bodies. Amount of weight, reps and frequency will change to accommodate playing games and team practices. It’s important that an appropriate program is adhered to. If you stop with strength training you will end up being your weakest during play-offs when you want to be strong. Rest and recover play an important role.
Post-seasonDuring the Post-season, approximately 4 weeks, players should take the time to have both a physical and mental break. Your body and mind will need time to recover. At the end of this phase, you can begin to train slowly gearing up for the next Off-season.

If you would like more detail about each of these seasons, please contact me.