Off Season Workout Program

When you hear the words, offseason workout program do you feel like you just want to do anything else?

It’s summer time and we all love it! The sun is out, the water is cool, and all our friends are outside doing something fun.

I once heard Chauncey Billups state in an interview that growing up he lived, breathed, and played ball. His philosophy was that if he wasn’t out playing ball or working on his game that there was someone else, somewhere, who was working harder.

Billups said that if those two players would ever meet head to head that the player who worked harder would automatically have an edge.

What Billups is saying is not some foreign or ancient philosophy. Its common knowledge and everyone who plays at a professional level like Billups understand exactly what he’s talking about.

How do you think those players got to the level they are at today? Certainly some natural talent helped, but all of these players took it to the next level through a lot of hard work.

The formula is simple…

Working Hard = Improvement

So you have two options this summer. You can spend everyday with your friends having fun and relaxing or you can hit the gym (or outside court) and work on improving your game.

I’m not saying that you can’t have fun or you need to play basketball 24/7, I’m just saying that you need to accurately delegate your time.

You can find a way to spend three or four hours a day in the gym can’t you?

Offseason Workout Program

The ideal offseason program will combine endurance (staying in shape) with drills that help improve your overall game.

The toughest part of an offseason program is the lack of a coach. Some may be fortunate enough to find a coach or teammate who is willing to work as hard and as much as you are. But that’s rare so you’ll likely be by yourself.

What does offseason conditioning teach you? It teaches you exceptional discipline, commitment, and responsibility among other desirable traits.

If you can work hard consistently and through a long duration in the offseason you’re already gaining a huge advantage over your competition.

Targets

Conditioning : Running is important because it will “keep your legs.” When you have your legs under you it will prevent you from picking up lazy habits.

You should try to get a good conditioning workout four to five days every week. Make sure you take a couple of days off.

Mix up the conditioning by running long distance one day and focusing on sprints the next.

Shooting: Never underestimate the importance of shooting. But don’t just shoot to shoot. What this saying means is that you should shoot with a purpose. Challenge yourself by making six out of ten three pointers from a certain location. Focus on mechanics and gain consistent repetition.

Ball-Handling: This is especially important for guards obviously, but big men could also gain an advantage by having above average ball handling for their position. There are literally hundreds of different ball handling drills so pick and choose freely.

Defense: How can you play defense when you are by yourself? Easy, create an imaginary friend. In all seriousness you can improve your defense just by working on your positioning and shuffling your feet.

Passing/Rebounding: Most of these drills require a friend to help out, but you can do a few alone. Check out some great individual passing and rebounding drills.

Free-throws: This should be the last drill you work on. Free-throws are incredibly important and every player should strive to improve until they consistently shoot 90% in games. Never shoot free-throws first thing. You should shoot free-throws at the end when your legs are tired and your focus drained. This is the nearest you can get to resembling an in-game situation.

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