Heal Up
Injuries are a given for athletes. But before you get ready for school, you must acknowledge and address any uncared injuries you might have. If you ignore something small now it may turn out to be a big issue later. If some rest, ice, and Advil do not fix it, a professional opinion is highly recommended. Don’t wait till school starts, do it now!
Self-Evaluation
It is important for you to evaluate vital aspects of your training, such as strength, explosiveness, agility, flexibility, reaction, and power. A comprehensive training program is highly recommended at this point, regardless of your strengths and weaknesses. Prioritize each area of your workout by addressing your performance consistently.
What to Work On
At this time of the year, your focus should be on increasing bull body strength and power. Work your entire body and address each muscle group from your head to toe. Your workout must be progressive ad you can add resistance over time ensuring proper posture is maintained while working out.
For basketball, it is advised to work roughly between six and fifteen reps. It is important to keep within an appropriate repetition range.
Other Areas of Your Training
Flexibility and mobility: Before your workout, you can do an active warm-up and a dynamic stretch and save static stretching for afterwards. You must make sure to do appropriate movements and not cause and injuries to yourself.
Conditioning: You do not kill yourself with intense pressure conditioning workouts before school has started. You need some decent conditioning with your strong skill work. Mixing in some cross-training is always a good idea, such as biking, pool, jump rope, etc. Being in perfect basketball shape is not obligatory, however; you do want to show up on day one with an A-quality fitness. This type of conditioning will make it easier to get into the actual basketball shape.
Nutrition: Have you heard the famous saying; you are what you eat. Most basketball players are keen on gaining body weight, meaning they must take in more calories than they burn. For this, a proper diet plan is required. If you are a player looking forward to gaining weight, you should aim to gain one pound each week for 6 straight weeks and show up to the coach on day one with an additional 5-10 pounds of muscle.
Rest and recovery: To maximize your performance, you must keep in mind your rest and recovery. If you are going to be in an intense training program in August, make sure you allow your body time to recover. If necessary, taking 3-4 days off is alright! You won’t lose as much as you will gain by taking those few days off.
