Training Cycles For A Basketball Player

I am designing a years training program for a basketball player who is at an academy level.
I will be providing four cycles, a macrocycle, mesocycle and two detailed microcycle
Key components of fitness for the player to improve are:
Position: small forward 6ft 4 age 18- They are generally the most versatile player in the team. Should be an explosive player because they have to rebound the ball and have the strength to be able to guard the bigger players in the post.
Muscular Endurance – Basketball is a continuous game that goes on for 40minutes. It requires a high level of muscular endurance for continues jumping throughout the game e.g. for rebounds through out the game, for shooting the ball or for doing lay ups for the legs, the arms they need to constantly dribble, catch the ball, shoot the ball and pass.

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Importance: Muscular endurance allows the player to give continuous maximum effort through out the game with out fatigue affecting performance. The higher the level of endurance the better the performance as the sports requires constant jumping and sprinting (Muzawazi 2010). It is important that he has this because the athletes on an international level play a more intense game and it requires more energy to be exerted than on a national level that he is used to.
Muscular Strength – it is important that he has strength, as the description I put of his position above that he would have to guard bigger opponents. He would also need to help him when rebounding the ball to able to hold opponents off and also when he is being fouled while in the act of shooting, he would be able to have the strength to then attempt scoring.
Power: the ability of a muscle to exert maximum force instantly in an explosive burst of movements in one muscular contraction. The two components of power are strength and speed (Neate, 1996). I will be focusing on improving his vertical leap ability in the preseason. It is important for him to have a greater leaping ability because then he can shoot jumper higher to shoot over taller players, contest for the rebounds with the taller players by being able to get off the ground quicker by being more explosive.
Agility- A high level of agility is important at getting past agile defenders.
Importance: having the ability to change direction without loosing speed and staying in control is a very important at being a good basketball player. Whether it is a tall who is not as agile as the smaller players but is more agile than his big opponents gives him an advantage.
What are the goals?
The athletes goals are that they want to perform well enough in the first part of the season at get recommended at to try out for the England U20 team.
When are they to be achieved?
The national team trials are to be held at the late December early January. They will be identified in the macrocycle.
How are they going to be achieved?
It has to be a double peak season as they will have to peak end of December early January for the trails then peak again late March for league playoffs and Cup finals and early April for international tournaments.
Periodisation model
I will be using the Matveyev model of Periodisation which puts the year plan into 3periods of training. There is a preparation, competition then the transition (the off season). The problem I have is with this model is that I need my athlete to peak at two parts of the season that is the middle and at the end of the season. The problem with this type of model of periodisation is that it doesn’t allow for two peaks that I want my player to have so I have to try and achieve that by varying the intensity of training with my athlete. I didn’t use models that allowed two peaks because they were not fitting to the basketball seasons.
Cycles
A microcycle lasts for five to 10 days for my program it will be a week cycle. It takes a week in from the mesocycle and shows it in as much detail as possible.
A mesocycle usually covers four to 12 weeks it takes a part of a year cycle and shows a more detailed.
A macrocycle can last from 10months to 4 years. This is can be used to plan season after season until a major event e.g. Olympics or can be planning for a major event that occurs each year e.g. playoffs.
Programs
Month
Jul
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
April
May
Jun

Pre-season

Season

Offseason
Strength training
Basic
Maximum

Maintain

Recovery
Power
Plyometrics
Maintain
Agility
Drills
Maintain
Endurance
Continuous
Anaerobic
Maintain
Maintain
Events
T
P/I.T
Intensity
Medium
High
High
Medium
High
Medium
High
low
low
Key
T- England trails
P-Playoffs
I.T – International Tournament
Strength Training
As my athlete has not done much strength training I chose to start basic because it means that it gives them time to build a foundation for them to then start lifting heavier weights. It is important to prepare the body by targeting all of the major muscle groups, tendons, ligaments and joints helping to prevent injury (Bompa 1999).
Maximal Strength part of the off season is not to build muscle or bulk up the player but is to increase the amount of maximum force he can produce from his muscles. Increase maximal muscle has to be specific to the sport and the movements involved. A more appropriate exercise however is a barbell squat, which closely matches the movement pattern of the vertical jump. Taken a step further, jump squats are even more specific to jumping and it’s not surprising that they increase vertical jump performance to the greatest extent (Wilson, Newton, Murphy, Humphries 1993). Though the athlete may undergo some hypertrophy because of the neuromuscular adaptations to the chronic stress of lifting heavier weights. The fast twitch fibres become thicker and increase their efficiency of the glycolysis. There will also be the conversion of the Type 11a fibres known as fast oxidative glycolytic fibres; they have the ability to adapt themselves depending on the athletes training. This is because basketball is a game that relies on the anaerobic energy systems more than the aerobic system. I will be using free weights because the athlete will have to control the bar which means not only will they be recruiting monitor units for muscles being worked but also those which help gain control of the bar, stabilise it and maintain body balance (Wilmore, Costill 2004).
Power
Plyometrics-I included Plyometrics because it is perfect for increasing my athlete’s vertical leaping ability. It helps make the covert the maximal strength into power so that it is more specific to the sport. Strength is not useful unless it is can either be exerted when needed in a specific movement in the sport. Plyometrics is known as the jumping training, it is proposed to bridge the gap between speed and strength training. Plyometrics uses the stretch reflex to facilitate recruitment of motor units (Wilmore, Costill 2004).
Muscular endurance
I chose to start with aerobic training even though the game of basketball focuses on using the anaerobic systems. I chose to do this because Bompa (2005) suggest that starting with aerobic endurance first then secondly anaerobic is important because increasing the aerobic endurance allows for physiological improvements such as cardiovascular efficiency, biochemical improvements of increased mitochondria and capillary density and thus resulting in the greater diffusion and use of oxygen and the breakdown of fat and the removal of lactic acid.
Agility
I included agility to make sure that the athlete doesn’t lose it because of hypertrophy that might occur from the strength training. He might increase in mass which might make it harder for him to move around swiftly. So putting agility drills in the preseason is to bring his agility back up to what it was in the previous season because he would have lost some in the off-season and then maintain it over the strength training period.
Mesocycle
Month
Late March
April
May
Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Strength training
x
x
x
Power
x
x
Agility
x
x
x
Endurance
x
x
x
Skill and Strategies
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Intensity
H
L
M
L
L
L
L
Matches
1
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
International Matches
0
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
I took this mesocycle from the most important part of the season. The playoffs and the international tournaments happen after each other. The play offs occur during the week before a half term and then the international tournament happens in the first week of the half term and allows for a rest week during the second week of the half term.
Training in the weeks before the season ends is high because I want him to push the boundary he has been playing at mid season so that in the weeks of the playoffs and tournaments his strength and explosive ability has peaked as he might decrease in strength from doing medium intensity after peaking in December/January. I want his skill to peak because once he has the physical attributes to compete he will need his skill level to be at its highest all season so that he may dominate opponents and make an impact on his first appearance on the international stage.
During the play off week and the international tournament week training will be low intensity consist of mostly skill and strategy based sessions because there will be no time in the week with 3 or 4 matches to have set up sessions to improve the components of fitness. The aim is to get as much rest as possible and spent time working on set plays and refining skills to win the tournament as physical preparation has already taken place.
Microcycle
Power phase (August-September) – goal is to increase muscular power. Rest muscles for 2-3 minutes between sets and exercises. Do low reps at a high intensity which means doing it as fast as possible. 1-3 sets of 2-4 reps., 3 times a week.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Crunches, twist crunches
Crunches
Russian Twist
Crunches,
REST

REST

Legs: DB jump squat, jump lunges, Calf raisers
Sideline touch and elbow shot
4×10
Total body: Clean and jerk
Baseline the top of the key shot.
4x 10
Total Body: DB hang snatch, hang cleans
Plyometrics
Squat Depth Jump (4×10)
5 shuttle suicides
Upper Body: Bench Press, Incline press

Legs: stiff leg dead lifts, leg press.
Calf raisers
T-Test agility drill
3 attempts
Skill work
Arms: Biceps curls, triceps extensions
Skill work
Upper Body: DB incline, DB military
5 shuttle suicides

Lane agility drill
3attempts

Plyometrics
Box Jump
As I has stated above the table those are the number of reps and sets targeted to be done for each exercise unless stated otherwise in the table.
At this point of the pre season I have started including basketball specific endurance drills so that athletes are preparing start preparing a shooting when they are tired mentality which is needed many times in basketball. Players that can shoot the ball well late into a game, stand out and also become the go to guys on their team because that attribute allows them to win games for their teams e.g. Kobe Bryant scores a lot of his points in they last quarter because the defence is tired as he has the endurance to keep going at them while everyone in his team becomes tired which means he gets the ball more. Having him practise drills after doing endurance work, helps him refine his technique even more because when he can do the skills and perfect the correct technique when he is tired it not only allows him to perform better when he isn’t tired but also helps build the mentality required for the late stages of the game.
I also introduced the interval training for the endurance drills because basketball is a sport that mainly uses the anaerobic systems. As Bomba, Carrera (2005) stated that basketball is uses the ATP-Pc system 80%of the time. So training this system is important to the athlete’s performance as he will need to get it to peak condition so that he can perform his at a highest level possible throughout the whole game.
The agility drills are to be done between 10-20seconds to keep them specific to the energy system being used and they will also involve stopping starting and changing in directions and running forwards and backwards and sidestepping. This is defiantly specific to the sport of basketball as all these movements occur in the sport so it also improves the ability to move effectively around the court.
Microcycle 2
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Crunches, twist crunches
G
A
M
E
D
A
Y

R
E
S
T
Crunches,

R
E
S
T

Skill work
Sideline touch and elbow shot
4×10
Legs: stiff leg dead lifts, leg press.
Calf raisers
5 shuttle suicides
Plyometrics
Squat Depth Jump (4×10)

Strategies/plays
Upper Body: Bench Press, Incline press
Lane agility Drill
X3
T-Test agility drill
3 attempts
Skill
Drills
Plyometrics
Box Jump
Arms: Biceps curls, triceps extensions
5 shuttle suicides

Skill drills

Maintenance phase/Sport specific exercise – goal is to maintain muscular power. Rest 2-3 minutes between sets and exercises, Doing low reps and high intensity which means 1-3 sets of 2-4 reps, 2 times a week
The point of this in-season training is to maintain the athlete’s physical gains they have obtained over the summer (preseason). Its also time for the athlete to improve and refine their dribbling, shooting techniques etc but most importantly to improve on their teamwork so that he can have a successful season as part of the team because that the way most scouts will get attracted, by a winning team. So by reducing the strength training, power and agility training to twice a week high intense session it brings him to a maintenance level and increasing the skill based work makes for time to improve his skill level.
How I will be testing for improvements
Test will happen at the beginning, middle and end of pre season and 5weeks before an important event.
Vertical Jump test
Figure 1
“For many years, tests such as the standing broad jump and vertical jump have been used as field tests to evaluate an individual explosive anaerobic power.” (Powers, Howley 2007)
I will use this test at the beginning, middle and end of the preseason. I will do it again at the end of November so that I can establish whether or not he has maintained his gains before the trails. This measures not only the vertical leap of a player but it is also used to find out how much explosive power they have. Wall can be used for this measurement as illustrated in the figure 1 or a vertex machine can be used to measure the vertical leap.
Figure 1 shows how the test is performed.
Athlete is to stand and reach as far as possible and label the point as M1. The athlete will jump from stationary position and see mark the highest point they reach as M2. The distance between M1 and M2 is recorded and compared to the norms.
This test is valid because in basketball there is constant jumping throughout the game so the test applies directly to the match.
Strength
Although the bench press is not the most sport-specific strength test for basketball, it is a reliable assessment for upper-body strength. Evaluation standards have also been established for the bench press and so I am going to use it as a test.
The athlete will perform two warm-up sets of approximately five to ten repetitions. Followed by a three minute rest, I will load the barbell with an amount of weight that I have deemed appropriate for the athlete. The weight selection was chosen in order to fatigue the athlete in less than eight repetitions. So I decided to that 50kg would be enough for a good weight as he is only starting weight lifting. I also decided that this weight would be best as the NBA tests athletes at 90kg and they are elite athletes. This protocol has been used in predicting 1RM and has been shown to be reliable and valid (Brzycki 1993)
Lane agility drill
Figure 2
The point of this test is to see the ability of an athlete to maintain speed and body control while changing direction.
Set up cones as shown in the image.
Figure 2 shows how the test is to set up and the movement the player is to take http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/agility-lane.htm
Sprint forwards to the baseline.
At the cone, change movement to a side shuffle to the right across the baseline.
At the next cone back pedal up the lane to the foul line, then side shuffle left back towards the start line.
Then do it in reverse back to the start line.
Having the ability to change direction without loosing speed and staying in control is a very important at being a good basketball player. Whether it is a tall player who is not as agile as the smaller players but is more agile than his big opponents gives him an advantage.
Norms
Vertical Jump Test
% Rank
Females
Males
1-10
76.20 – 81.30 cm
86.35 – 91.45 cm
11-20
71.11 – 76.19 cm
81.30 – 86.34 cm
21-30
66.05 – 71.10 cm
76.20 – 81.29 cm
31-40
60.95 – 66.04 cm
71.10 – 76.19 cm
41-50
55.90 – 60.94 cm
66.05 – 71.09 cm
51-60
50.80 – 55.89 cm
60.95 – 66.04 cm
61-70
45.71 – 50.79 cm
55.90 – 60.94 cm
71-80
40.65 – 45.70 cm
50.80 – 55.89 cm
81-90
35.55 – 40.64 cm
45.70 – 50.79 cm
91-100
30.50 – 35.54 cm
40.65 – 45.69 cm
Table reference: (D.A. Chu 1996) shows elite athlete norms
I expect to see my athlete enter the top 40% of athletes for him to compete on an international at the age of 18. As he is not an elite athlete yet but to be on route to I expect him to be in that top 40%.
Lane agility test
position
males
females
guards
10.2 – 10.9
13.0 – 14.5
forwards
11.0 – 11.4
14.6 – 15.5
centres
11.5 – 12.3
14.6 – 15.5
FIBA Assist Magazine, 17, 2005, p62 Norms
I expect to see my athlete increase in strength so that he can is able to maintain body control while colliding with opponents. I expect to see him increase in explosive strength so that he can leap of the ground faster than most opponents so that he can contribute to rebounding for the team and shoot over most opponents. His increase in physical attributes should allow to gain an extra advantage over the players in the league and for him to have a firm base for him to start on for his international team.
Referencing
Muzawazi A.T – Basketball Regime, Training and Testing (2010)
Powers S .K, Howley E.T- Exercise Physiology (sixth edition) 2007
Neate D., P.E essentials 1996
Bompa T.O, Haff G.G Periodisation: Theory and Methodology of Training (2009)
Bompa T.O, Carrera M – Periodisation Training for Sports. Third edition (2005)
Wilmore J.H, Costill D.L- Physiology of sport and exercise 3rd edition (2004)
Wilson G.J, Newton R.U, Murphy A.J, Humphries B.J – The optimal training load for the development of dynamic athletic performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1993 Nov; 25(11):1279-86