For youth basketball players, the offseason remains a time for personal improvement. You want to get bigger, stronger, and faster for your upcoming season. You also want to develop those important skills to take your game to the next level. To improve during your basketball offseason, you’ll need focus and a clear plan.
Summer remains a pivotal part of the season for more than just the coaches looking to make the most of the offseason. It’s during spring and summer where developing players can sharpen their basketball skills ahead of tryouts in the fall and the winter’s regular season.
While there are ways to maximize training, when looking to improve during your basketball offseason, you should consider these five key areas.
Rest and Recover
Following the end of your basketball year, the first step to improve during the offseason is to rest and recover. This remains especially true if you sustained an injury during the season. However, even if you made it through your schedule without getting hurt, your body still needs time to recuperate.
Coming off an injury, it’s important to check in with your doctor to see if you’re healthy enough to compete in summer league or AAU basketball. The last thing you want to do is aggravate a pre-existing injury which could harm your availability for the coming season.
Heading into your basketball offseason, one of the best ways to improve is to take a timeout. Don’t jump right in to strength training and conditioning. Shift your focus to another hobby or outlet. After a period of rest and recovery, even consider playing another sport to help further develop your body.
Strength Training to Improve This Basketball Offseason
Th next key area to improve during this basketball offseason is strength training. No matter your current level, working on your body can only help your performance. This is especially true if you’re playing up a level in youth basketball. And ideal offseason development program sees three days of strength training per week.
A full-body workout three times a week stands as perhaps the best way to improve during the basketball offseason. A program of this style provides more volume that a normal “arm day” and “leg day” split. Doing a full-body routine three times weekly allows for greater development at a more consistent pace. You should be focused on growing your muscles at this point.
Make sure your workout program starts with a decent warm up exercise to get your blood flowing. From there, consider the following exercises to help you improve this basketball offseason. Some of the best exercises for this include Goblet Squats, Dumbbell Bench Press, Pull-Ups, Standing Overhead Press, and Bicep Curls.
Your routine should include three sets of a weight you can handle with good form. Consider eight to 12 reps per exercise. Rest a minute between sets. As you progress through your program, add weight once you notice you can complete 12 reps with good form. The ideal schedule to improve this basketball offseason sees you workout on three, non-consecutive days per week. (Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, for example.)
Skills to Improve This Basketball Offseason: Ball Handling
Ball handling stands as one of the most important skills for basketball players at any level. So, it makes sense that to improve this offseason, you work on your handle. Developing a solid dribbling routine helps maximize your improvement efforts, especially since you don’t need a gym to practice this skill.
A good place to start with ball handling skills is control. Make sure you can manipulate the ball equally well with both hands in stationary dribbling exercises. To level up in this process, add a second ball to your stationary work. This improves awareness, control, and focus. Another exercise to incorporate is dribbling with one hand while tossing a tennis ball with the other.
Once your stationary work is compete, move on to ball handling drills on the move. Use cones if you have them and weave up and down a set space. Progress to crossovers, pull-backs, and back-the-back dribble moves. Incorporate hesitation moves as well. Once you’ve got that down, add more advanced dribbling practice.
Skills to Improve This Basketball Offseason: Shooting
The next step in your offseason program to improve for your next basketball season is shooting. If you want to see the floor consistently next season, you must be able to knock down shots when you’re open. Your ability and position should dictate some of the aspects to your shooting regimen.
Each shooting workout should consist of at least 100 jumpers. These shot attempts should be spread out to different areas of the floor, but it’s important to get shots up. Shooting is a repetitive motion, so you’re developing muscle memory with each workout. Work on developing rhythm to your shot attempts, focusing on repeating good form. Step into your shots with proper footwork. Remember, bring your weak side foot forward first.
Make sure your shot attempts come from spaces on the floor you would find yourself in a game. It makes little sense to perfect a post game if your coach never sets you there. If you can partner with a teammate for rebounding and passing, that might make things simpler. This also help with catch-and-shoot practice.
Finish your shooting workout with a set of at least 20 free throws. Make sure you repeat the same motion and routine to perfect your form.
Agility and Conditioning
As your basketball season draws closer, it’s time to incorporate agility and conditioning drills. These exercises help you improve during the offseason and give you a head start for the next basketball season. Don’t double up agility and condition with your strength training. These exercises should come on those days you’re not working through your strength training program.
One good agility drill to try is called the “Lane Agility Test.” This begins with you on the left elbow of the floor. Start by sprinting from the free throw elbow to the baseline. From there, laterally shuffle to the right lane line. Then, backpedal to the free throw line. Finally, laterally shuffle to your original starting point.
Complete this exercise at least three times. Make sure you’re facing the baseline throughout each rep. Don’t shift or lean your shoulders. Try to complete each rep as quickly as possible.
When you shift your focus to condition, consider High Intensity Interval Training. If you’ve been working to improve throughout the basketball offseason, you should be in pretty good shape at this point.
For this exercise, start on one baseline and sprint the length of the court to the opposite baseline. Turn and sprint back to complete the first rep. One set of this exercise includes four reps, or four sprints up and back. As you continue through your program, add more sets to this training exercise. But don’t forget to include a rest time, ideally 45 seconds, between sets.
The offseason remains a time rest and reflection for some basketball coaches. This is a time when you can gather your thoughts and plan what the next season will look like. Coaching a basketball team can be an all-encompassing undertaking. Being a coach takes time and devotion. To do it well, you need both a micro and macro approach. Coaches need to do more than game plan or practice plan. Coaches must remember they are leaders, and the offseason provides a chance for you to become a better leader.
Here’s a look at five ways to become a better leader for next season.
Have Confidence
You have complete power over your attitude, which will have an impact on everything you do in life. Having an optimistic outlook fosters confidence. Without appearing haughty or smug, you must have a strong sense of self-worth and confidence in your talents. It may sound cliche, but a successful leader is someone who feels good about themselves.
Nobody will follow a person who doesn’t have confidence in themselves. A strong work ethic and preparation lead to confidence. You know you didn’t do what was required to prepare if you go into a game and aren’t confident you can win.
Have Compassion
Compassion and empathy are crucial for effective leadership. Selfishness is incompatible with successful leadership. To be a better leader, even in the competitive world of basketball, you must have compassion.
Do you play for the scoreboard or the scorebook if you are a player? Do you compete for the name on the back of the jersey or the one on the front? As a coach, do you pay attention to the opinions and suggestions of your players?
Show your respect for and genuine concern for your teammates and opponents.
Raise Expectations
You can anticipate it from people you lead if you do everything to the best of your ability. You can count on your teammates and players to do the same for you if you consistently arrive on time, put in a lot of effort, and give your all during every practice, exercise, and game. But you have to have faith that your athletes and teammates can live up to this expectation.
A good leader will inspire their followers to follow their example. You want to be the kind of leader who elevates everyone else’s performance. Set a high standard, then guide people toward it.
Lead By Example
“Do as I say, not as I do” is an outdated proverb in today’s society. If you want to become a better leader, you must expect as much of yourself as your players. You want the people you are leading to expect it of you. Before you can hold anyone else accountable, you must first hold yourself up to that bar.
You must arrive on time if you want your athletes or teammates to do the same. Get to know your players if you want them to know every play in your playbook. People gravitate toward leaders, so act like one.
Learn From Your Mistakes
Becoming a better leader means taking risks you might not have planned on before. Taking these calculated risks might lead to mistakes along the way. But if you want to be an effective leader, you need to allow those mistakes to happen. The key is to learn from them. Discover what went wrong and way. After that, it becomes a matter of making sure those same mistakes don’t happen again.
Summer remains a pivotal part of the basketball season for more than just the coaches looking to make the most of the offseason. It’s during spring and summer where developing players can sharpen their basketball skills ahead of tryouts in the fall and the winter’s regular season.
Players can use the five P’s to help them maximize their basketball offseason training. Prep, Practice, Push, Partner, and Pace provide plenty of purposes for players to pursue. It’s never too early to start training for your next basketball season. Here’s a look at those five P’s to get you off your gaming chair on the court.
Prep For Your Offseason Training
Just like coaches, players need to prepare for their offseason training. You’ll want to ensure a plan of attack when entering the gym for any workout session. To do this, each player should prep and plan their approach. What skills do you want to develop? What drills can you incorporate?
Offseason prep provides valuable time to consider your goals. Knowing what you’d like to achieve ahead of time will help you maximize your time in the gym. Customize your prep to fit your specific goals, beyond what offseason training goals your coaches may have set for the team. If you want to get stronger, build your workouts around the weight room. If you want to increase your shooting range, set your sights on shooting drills.
Practice Your Position During Offseason Training
While having a versatile skill set is always valuable, practicing your specific position during your offseason training provides the quickest route to playing time. If you spend your individual workout time on shots you won’t or will rarely see during a game, you’re sabotaging your offseason training. The different positions on a basketball team trend to create different scoring opportunities on the floor.
Ball-handlers should practice scoring off ball screens, penetration, and catch-and-shoot opportunities. Wing players could build their workouts around coming off ball screens, catch-and-shoot/drives, and scoring from a triple-threat position. Post players can work on scoring down low, their face-up/mid-range game, and offensive rebound finishes.
Of course, there’s more to each position than just these drills, but focusing on specific skill development will help maximize your offseason training. Working solely on isolation touches or three-point shooting limits the effectiveness of your time in the gym.
Push Yourself During Offseason Training
One key to maximizing your offseason training time is keeping a close eye on your pace. While it’s okay to start slowly, your workouts should eventually build to practice your moves at game speed. Not only does this help develop your game-specific skills, it also adds a layer of conditioning to your training program.
In addition, playing with pace adds value to your training by building muscle memory. There’s a reason why it’s called “game speed.” Practices tend to run slower, especially during specific drill work. Pushing yourself to practice at game speed only helps your confidence grow as a player.
Partner Up
Practicing alone limits what you can do. So, finding a partner opens the door wider to maximizing your offseason training. You and your partner can work on a variety of skills and drills that solo workouts can’t incorporate. This is particularly true when trying to complete shooting drills. Having a rebounder and a passer can help improve the flow and efficiency of your workouts.
Adding a partner to your workout also provides a layer of accountability to what you’re trying to accomplish. You’ll probably face days where you lack the motivation to go to the gym. Having a partner in tow means you’re more likely to stick to the schedule you developed at the start of the offseason.
Pace Yourself in Offseason Training
Trying to do too much in too little a time will also sabotage your offseason training efforts. It’s important to pace yourself throughout the spring and summer so as to not suffer burnout. Staying consistent with your approach helps maximize the effectiveness of your workouts. Stick to the schedule you set at the start, and remember to consider whatever team practices and camps your coach may have in mind.
It’s important to work on multiple skills for your position, but also make time for strength training. Participating in offseason programs for other sports will also help with conditioning and avoiding basketball burnout. If you’re only working on basketball skills this offseason, set yourself up with a reasonable schedule to maximize your training efforts.
