Developing A Basketball Workout For High School & College Tryouts

Question:

Is there any way that you could send a workout schedule using your drills in order to be ready for some basketball try-outs in April? I’m a 6’2 guard and will go to college because of my shot. I really need to work on dribbling, defense, speed, and quickness in order to be up and going at the college level.

I know I said I’m going to college because of my shot, but I’d still love to continue to get my shot better and better.  I’d appreciate it if you could come up with a workout routine for me, even if it’s the same workout repeated daily or a 3 or 4 day different routine.

Response:

It is difficult to come up with a workout program without seeing you play or knowing how much time you have to work. I can give you some guidelines that might help you.

• You can’t work on everything at once. It is counterproductive because you don’t spend enough time working on anything to improve. Pick a couple of things you want to get better at and develop a plan. In general, it will take 6-8 weeks for any adjustments or new skills to take root. Probably longer in competition, so you have to stick to it.

• After you decide what you want to work on, pick some basketball drills in sets that you think will help you. What I mean by that is to pick 3 drills that are progressions (eg. jump shot, 1 dribble move, 2 dribble move) and that is a set. Work that set several days in a row. Then change to a different set.  Same thought, but different drills so you have some variation in your workout to fight boredom. After using the new sets for a couple of days, go back to the original set. Keep that rotation for a while.   As you gain more confidence and improvement, you can start to put in some new sets to work on different skills.  Remember, it takes more time to develop a skill than to maintain a skill. So as you move on, occasionally throw in some old stuff to maintain those skills as well.

• Be honest with yourself as to how much you practice. If you are alone every time you shoot the ball, you also have to rebound it. So, in reality, if you practice shooting for an hour, you are really spending 15 minutes shooting and 45 minutes chasing the ball. Make use of every minute you are on the court. Multi-task, but don’t mix skills. I use ball-handling drills to stretch out. I also use it to condition. You can use defensive drills as conditioners. That is what I mean by multi-tasking. However don’t mix skills. Don’t practice your dribble while practicing your shooting. There are no moves that will have you put the ball through your legs 3 times, change direction 4 times, spin twice and end up with a jump shot.  Then, the only thing you are practicing is ways to spend time on the bench.