As a coach, you understand that success is not solely determined by talent or skill, but also by consistent and effective training routines. Developing and maintaining proper workout habits is the cornerstone of athletic progress, enabling players to enhance their strength, endurance, agility, and overall performance. Join us as we delve into the significance of workout habits, share expert insights, and provide practical tips to help you and your team establish a solid foundation for success through dedicated and purposeful training.
6 Essential Workout Habits
Any serious player will surely tell you that there is a huge difference between just hanging out in the gym and actually working out. But what is that difference? How do you know if you’re taking the right approach and getting more out of your gym time than just fun? Here are 6 essential habits that can turn gym time into a productive workout?
Meticulously schedule every facet of your workout.
Plan out in advance the days, times, and length of your workouts as well as the skills you’ll be practicing. Decide beforehand what areas you want to improve and then map out drills that will help you achieve your objectives. Once the plan is made treat it like you’re going to work and don’t let anything keep you from carrying out your plan.
Use a workout partner.
Working out with someone else accomplishes three things. A) It forces you to be accountable. It’s hard to miss a workout or even take a short cut when someone else is counting on you. B) Practicing with someone else, even if it’s just a friend or a parent, allows you to use more complex drills; drills that require a passer, rebounder, or defender. C) Having a workout partner can add a competitive component to your sessions as you work to excel at every drill and to “beat” your partner.
Workouts should always include warming up and cooling down.
There are almost as many ways to warm up as there are players. I know players who swear by the benefits of active stretching and jogging while others are convinced they benefit most from jumping rope and stationary ball handling. The important thing is that you do something to elevate your core body temperature and to prepare your muscles for high intensity work. Afterwards, stretching for at least 10 minutes or more will help get rid of any lactic acid build up and will help reduce muscle soreness.
Keep a workout journal.
Write down everything – specific drills, repetitions, who you worked with, time spent, etc. Keeping detailed records will help make every practice session seem more important and will allow you to visually track your progress. Even more importantly, the information you record in your journal can and should be used to plan future workouts.
Do more than just shoot.
Working on improving your shot is absolutely necessary and should be taken very seriously. However, you mustn’t neglect everything else if you are serious about elevating your game. Current Clippers assistant and renowned skill development trainer Kevin Eastman says that every workout should include shooting, ball handling, and conditioning at the very least. If that advice is good enough for NBA players then its good advice for you too.
Use various speeds to accelerate improvement.
It may sound blasphemous to some players and coaches but “game speed” is not always the best speed. When skills are first being learned going slower is usually more effective than going too quickly. Then once the skill is learned the speed of the repetitions can be increased. As execution improves the speed continues to increase until it is actually faster than “game speed.” Eventually making things harder in practice will make things easier in games.
There’s nothing wrong with hanging out in the gym and socializing with your friends while you put up a few shots. To me it’s a lot more fun than playing video games or watching television and I know it would be for you too. However, if you’re serious about getting better then develop these 6 habits and spend some time hanging out and some more time working out!
Related: Basketball Shooting Workout
Resources:
Youth Basketball Coaching Made Easy
If you coach a K-8th grade team, we have hundreds of resources. All laid out in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step system to save you time and money. Check out coachingyouthhoops.com today!
If you found this useful, don’t forget to check out additional blog posts at TeachHoops.com. Also, check out TeachHoops on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
