How To Be an Elite Athlete
Which helps exponentially with being a better basketball player
Before I retired and found out being an athlete never actually stops
My 14 pro athlete tips on how to be a better athlete AND basketball player
Never stop training and learning how to move your body more efficiently. And then, once you can learn to do that, continue to progress moving your body in ways that keep you athletic (fast, flexible, coordinated, stable, injury-proofed, and strong) as you get older.
If you are 10% more athletic because of athletic training, what will that do for your statistics on the court? Why not try a human habit experiment and hire a sports performance trainer or personal basketball strength/conditioning coach three days a week for a month and see what it does for your game!?!?
Fight the urge to take the path of least resistance. Being a better athlete is about making body movement, fitness, and sports performance training a priority habit in your life (learn about RFD squats, knees over toes lunges, pushup plyos, planks, single leg bounding to elevated squats, tempo running, T-tests, sprinting, Raptor tests, K-box, ViPR training, etc).
Inspiration is never as important as the discipline of maintaining a positive habit.
Motivation is never as powerful as the accountability of the fitness team or coach that pushes you outside your comfort zone every day.
Do basketball athlete training that challenges your mindset, your fitness, and your athletic body simultaneously, so you can reward yourself with stuff that isn’t good for you from time to time (and not worry about the Oreos, dark chocolate, gummy bears, a night out, etc).
Lift weights with an eccentric, isometric, and concentric focus. Try a ViPR lift at home or come to Swish House. Concentrate on different tempos of pushing weight (i.e. pushing the bench press up), resist the downward force of weight slowly and under tension (i.e. slowly lowering the bench press to your chest), and then see how long you can hold weight under tension and in suspension for a certain amount of time (holding the bench press halfway up over your chest).
Stop lifting weights with always having two feet on the ground. Basketball athletes rarely move, jump, push, pull, run, sprint, play, or balance with two feet on the ground, so why would we only train with two feet on the ground?
In the off-season, sprint as fast as you can two to three times a week at different lengths or times. I usually like to do pyramids starting at 20 meters, going up to 1000 meters with different lengths, sets, or times I have to run.
Hang your running/cycling/basketball/soccer shoes on your front doorknob, or put them on your car seat, or in your bathroom sink. Make it impossible to not pick them up and put them on every day.
Periodize your workouts by increasing either intensity, tempo, volume, velocity, or strength by 5–10 percent every week for four weeks before taking a light week, and then starting that cycle over.
Doing even one set to failure (like you can’t get one more rep or go any longer) can make you a better athlete. So if you can’t get in the basketball gym, or don’t have a lot of time to lift, pick five bodyweight exercises you can do to failure: aka… pushups, single-leg rear elevated squats, planks, single-leg wall sits, handstand pushups, or single leg glute bridge isometric holds).
Talk to your doctor or medical professional before doing anything. Make sure your body and health are ready to be an athlete before you hurt yourself.
Make sports performance training, HB Elite Basketball Training, or if you’re an adult, Swish House, a hybrid sport and fitness company, your new habit.