Day 21: Run Forrest, run

This article is part of the series “30 days to being a better basketball player“.

A basketball court is quite small compared to fields that sports like soccer, rugby and hockey are played on, but you still cover a whole lot of ground during a game.

We’ve already spoken about strength training. Running up and down the court requires a lot of stamina (or cardiovascular endurance), so if you want to be able to contribute meaningfully during a game, you need to be able to get up and down the court as many times as necessary, and as fast as you can.

In other words, you have to be fit!

Cardiovascular training

There are a lot of ways to get fit, such as jogging, cycling or specific cardio exercises. Some are more suited specifically to basketball than others, but in general anything that improves your fitness levels and allows you to perform at higher levels for longer periods is a good thing.

To incorporate this in your practice you should include cardio exercises like jogging, running, skipping, or everyone’s favourite – “suicides” (check out number 8 here if you don’t know what those are).

Interval training

Interval training is one way to specifically improve endurance for basketball. This is effectively using a combination of fast and slow running to stimulate aerobic endurance and anaerobic power. Read this Men’s Health article that details some basketball specific interval training exercises (be sure to read page 2 of the article as well).

Keep going

Conditioning matters immensely.

Look to include some of these basketball conditioning drills in your regular workouts. We also recommend having a look at this 12 month conditioning program from sport-fitness-advisor.com.

By getting fit and being able to play the way you want when you want, you will see an improvement in your game and you’ll enjoy playing a lot more.

Tags: 30 Days, cardio, cardiovascular, endurance, heart, interval training, running