Articles & Resources

By Brendon Ziegler

The off-season is upon us; it came a little quicker this year than we would have liked, so back to the drawing board.  The off-season is a great opportunity for skill acquisition which our players and coaches will do a great job with on court. We will have nine solid weeks before the guys will go home for a month in June.

In the weight room we will begin this off-season much like all the others with a steady diet of volume.  The first three weeks, we will re-establish work capacity, with high repetitions in our lifting.  We generally use 8-10 reps on our strength work which for the first cycle will include exercises like front squats, snatch liftoffs, RDLs, step downs, overhead presses, pull-ups, etc.  We will also power clean and power snatch in reps of 4-5.  We will do stop versions of these exercise, since I am not a huge fan of doing block or hang work with the basketball players who have been previously lifting off the floor.  So we will add a pause above the knee or mid-thigh to remove momentum and really work on accelerating the bar through a very short range of motion.  The thought behind this is to increase the rate of force development and the ability of the athlete to accelerate from a completely static position.

In our movement drills we will scale our progressions back to the earlier versions.  Starting the off-season with simpler versions of our movement drills helps reestablish the physical qualities we mean to effect.  By introducing advanced drills, especially since many of the drills are removed during the in-season we would see poor movement pattern and speed. We revert back to static versions of our jumping drills, static broad jumps, vertical jumps, medial lateral hops, lateral bounds etc.  Sprinting drills are pretty simple: wall drills, ankling, A-skips, build-ups, 10-20 meter sprints, and some alternate leg bounding.   Change-of-direction drills are limited to activities such as slides, resisted slides and some basketball specific agility drills.

Work Capacity is further developed with activities such as slide board, medicine ball circuits and tempo runs.  This increased capacity for work will help us get the body and its tissues through difficult workouts later in the off-season.  We really won’t perform any high intensity conditioning until late summer.

Finally it is this at this point in the year that we will re-address some of our foundational training methods.  Although these exercises serve us in some capacity throughout the year it is at this stage they are most prevalent.   Planks, clams, hip flexion, hip extension and internal and external rotation exercises are taken back to earlier progressions to shore up movements.  We will progress these exercises and the hope is that they gain complexity and intensity and thus become functional.
What we do throughout this first month is far from innovative.  We put emphasis on quality of movement; it has to be done right. 

All Credit is due to: Al Vermeil, Erik Helland, Jeff Macy, Roger Neilson & Don Chu

Read this article on Andrew Bynum and how George Mumford helped him have breakout year for the LA Lakers by clicking HERE.

March Madness offers some of the best unscripted drama in the entertainment industry.  Movies and literature would be critically chastised for overdoing the amount of plot twists and surprise endings the real life theatrics of our nation’s NCAA Tournament produces nightly.

The Cinderella stories are compelling.  America is a sucker for the rising underdog.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t note my tremendous respect for our conference rival VCU.  Excuse the tangent, but their run has been fantastic for the Colonial Athletic Association.  And are CAA teams really underdogs at this point?

Stew on these numbers for a moment.  Since the 2006 NCAA Tournament, the CAA is 4-2 vs. the Big East, 3-0 vs. ACC, 2-1 vs. the Big Ten, and a combined 2-2 against the Pac 10 and Big 12.  The CAA is a combined 11-5 vs. BCS conference foes over the past five seasons.  News flash to
prideful “expert” analysts… when the CAA has more than twice as many wins as losses against powerful high-majors its not twice as impressive they’re capable, you’re twice as wrong when you continue to devalue this league and question a CAA at-large bid.  If we’re pointing to numbers and figures such as SOS and RPI to keep VCU out of the tournament, can we instead point to the numbers above to keep the mid-major at large bids coming?

College basketball is not governed by algebraic logic.  That A is greater than B, and B is greater than C has no bearing in a match-up of A vs. C.
University of Richmond defeating VCU 72-60 in December, and Kansas vanquishing Richmond 77-57 meant nothing in a match-up of Kansas and VCU with a trip to the Final Four on the line.  RPI and SOS are completely irrelevant when the moment demands you rise to the occasion and play. The CAA has done that, time and time again.

What makes the tournament so memorable, Cinderella and heavy favorite alike, is the fantastic moments of delivering under so much pressure.  Few people will ever dare to test themselves the way these kids are tested. To hone in, feel the fear of failure, ignore it and produce on a national stage is awe inspiring.  While I’m passionate about the CAA’s tournament success, perhaps the greatest performance of the entire month of March took place without you even realizing.

In the Division II national semifinals between BYU-Hawaii and undefeated West Liberty, BYU-H guard Jet Chang put on one of the greatest performances you can imagine.  West Liberty came in 35-0 and it was going to take a special effort from BYU-H to overcome the multiple weapons the WLU Hilltoppers boasted.

How impressive was Jet’s performance?  Forty-three points on 14-17 shooting 7-9 from downtown and 8-9 from the line.  Those are videogame numbers. (Enjoy it here – just simply sign up and access it via Internet Explorer - http://nbasst.com/s/?id=X6XLQ2FMDHM6BKJT9XM2KHG55X ).

He followed it up with 35 points in a three point loss in the National Championship game. When the moment demanded he rise, his focus was other-worldly.  In the Final Four he averaged 39 points and shot 73% from three.  Just ridiculous.

What kind of zone was Jet in? The experience, its definition and its conditions, vary slightly for everyone.  Simply put, you know when you're there.  And you don't arrive there accidentally. The zone is a mental state, often credited first to Mihaly Csikszentmihayi, of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.  It seems to involve a measure of proper pre-game preparation, determination, and proper game circumstances. Feeling like your jump shot is working is useless if coach has you sitting next to him.  The experience of being in the zone begins to snowball with each game possession and suddenly the rhythm of the game is easily tuned to. You make the right pass, the proper box out, the defensive rotation the team needed and everyone’s favorite part, you feel like you can't miss. Watching Jet in the zone was compelling drama, perhaps the most compelling of the entire NCAA Tournament. So many players have raised their level to provide special performances. Arizona's Derrick Williams may have skyrocketed himself into the top overall draft pick and Kemba Walker has exemplified leadership, big plays and fight. But Jet rose to the moment in the national championship game. The biggest moment his level can offer. As we watch the Division I Final Four this weekend, we'll see other great players raise their game to the moment as well. Just know, it's not by accident. Preparation, potential, and focus mesh to create special performances under heated circumstances few people will ever face.  Enjoy the moments and unscripted drama.

Click HERE to read "The Home Stretch" written by Art Horne and featured in Dime Magazine (pg. 34-37)

Click HERE to view this article by University of Richmond's Strength and Conditioning coach, Jay DeMayo.

Congrats on getting your team to the 2011 Sweet Sixteen Jay!

by Art Horne

So your basketball season ended earlier than you had wished.

Hey, there’s always next year right?

But what makes you think that next year will end any different than this year?  Sure, there’s always that touted incoming freshman that everyone is talking about, or that transfer from another school that is sure to help your team make that championship run.  But freshman always take time to mature and transfers have to sit out for a year per NCAA rules. So it looks like next year starts with you – and next year starts now!

In Geoff Colvin’s book, Talent is Overrated, he points to one of the greatest NFL players of all time as an example of an athlete that overcame a lack of “talent” (many would argue that Rice was clearly the most talented wide receivers of all time) by simply outworking his opponents in the off-season.

    
So what made Jerry Rice so good?

1. He spent very little time playing football

a. “Of all of the work Rice did to make himself a great player, practically none of it was playing football games.” (pg. 54)  It’s clear once you compare the amount of time in a game, and then more closely at the amount of time that Rice spent on the field that the time there paled in comparison to his other football “related” activities.  So what does Jerry Rice and football have to do with hoops?

b. Try this on for size – many athletes always look to play as an means to improve their game, but how many shots do you get during a summer pick-up game vs. time with a teammate (coaches can’t be with players in the summer) working on your left-hand hook shot?  You could probably count on one hand the number of times in an afternoon of summer pick-up games that you were able to execute a particular shot.  In contrast, a specific shot can be practiced and rehearsed over and over in preparation for real time execution.

c. Pick-up games are required? Great – stop using them to run slow, argue and BS – use it as your summer conditioning and insist that you guard the opposing team’s best player each and every time.  Defensive work is probably the one skill that is hardest to do (and probably impossible) on your own.  Use this time with others to work on skills that REQUIRE others, and dedicate the majority of your other free time to individual skill development.

2. He designed his practice to work on his specific needs

a. “He (Rice) had to run precise patterns; he had to evade the defenders, sometimes two or three, who were assigned to cover him; he had to outjump them to catch the ball and outmuscle them when they tried to strip it away; then he had to outrun tacklers. So he focused his practice work on exactly those requirements.” (pg. 55)

b. Most athletes won’t admit that they are not good at a particular skill.  It was the ref or some other outside force that kept the ball from dropping in the hoop, time and time and time again.  Before working on those specific skills players must be brutally honest with themselves and admit that they don’t have a complete skill set to compete at the highest level.  Sure you may be able to windmill dunk or you have a killer back-to-the-basket post move, but is your skill set complete or evolved to the point where you can make the leap to the next level?

c. A quick look at your shooting percentage at the end of the basketball season will clearly demonstrate whether you have earned the right to shoot from beyond the arc.  Still think you have what it takes to play in the NBA? Grab two rebounders and shoot uncontested 3-pointers up to a hundred – if you didn’t make 75 then you need to swallow your pride, find a coach and ask him how you can improve you stroke.  NBA 2-guards make 75/100 and elite shooters like Ray Allen make 80-85.

 
d. You’d have to play an entire days worth of pick-up games before you have an opportunity to make 75 3-pointers – very little time should be dedicated to actually playing the game if you are looking to improve a specific skill.

3. While supported by others, he did much of the work on his own

a. The collegiate basketball season starts Oct 15th with official practices and ends with the national championship the first week of April (if you’re lucky). That leaves 7 months of individual work that can be accomplished before team practices begin again.  More than half the year can be dedicated to individual work and skill development.

4. It wasn’t fun

a. Basketball athletes rarely ever work on skills that they’re not good at simply because failure really isn’t that much fun. Imagine being a decent shooter, say 35% from three-land?  It’s not bad, but to make it to the next level a minor tweak or change may be necessary to get your percentage above the 40% range.  So you make a few adjustments and begin shooting from beyond the arc with your new and improved shooting technique – do you think you’ll shoot better or worse for the first week?

The answer is worse.

Not to mention now going through this process during a “friendly” game of pick-up with your boys reminding you that you missed again your last trip down the court.

b. Rarely will athletes work through this “learning” period, especially when they’ve experienced “success” with their previous form.  If you’re going to work on a skill that you’re not great at you must first be prepared for failure – lock in and accept that it won’t be fun this summer (fun comes next season when you’re making it rain from beyond the arc!)

So looking at just one football star clearly doesn’t constitute a scientific study of any kind, and still the question remains, why are some people simply more successful at sports than others, or at any skill for that matter?

Consider a study conducted in the early nineties examining a music academy in Berlin to discover why some violinist were better than others.

The Role Of Deliberate Practice In the Acquisition of Expert Performance by Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Romer. Psychological Review. 1993, Vol. 100. No. 3. 363-406.

 
Summary points:

1. Practice Makes Perfect: When asked to rate the relevance of music-related activities and non-music-related activities to their progress towards becoming the very best, solitary practice was far and away number one.

2. The More The Merrier: Although they all knew that this practice was essential, they didn’t all do it.  The two top groups, (the best and the better violinists) practiced by themselves about 24 hours a week on average. The third group (the good violinists) practiced by themselves only 9 hours a week.

3. Solitary Practice Is Essential: Each violinist recognized that the most important activity, the solitary practice was neither easy nor fun!

“When they rated activities by effort required, solo practice ranked way harder than playing music for fun, alone or with others, and harder than even the most effortful everyday activity, child care.  As for pleasure, practice ranked far below playing for fun and even below formal group performance, which you might reasonably guess would be the most stressful and least fun activity.”

4. No Outside Help Needed:  Although solo practice does not require outside help – no coach or instructor is needed – and thus completely in the control of the individual and almost limitless, only those that chose to practice more became excellent at their skill.

“Solo practice is unusual among music-related activities in that it’s largely within the individual’s control.   Most other activities – taking lessons, attending classes, giving performances – require other people’s involvement and are therefore constrained.  But with 168 hours in a week, a person can practice by himself or herself just about without limit.  In fact, no one in the study came anywhere near spending every available hour on practice.
So all the violinists understood that practicing by themselves was the most important thing they could do to get better. Though they didn’t consider it easy or fun, they all had virtually unlimited time in which to do it. On those dimensions, they were all the same. The difference was that some chose to practice more, and those violinists were a great deal better.” P. 59

Summary:

As much as you’d like to believe it, practice, deliberate and focused practice isn’t much fun.  You’ll experience failure many more times than success if you are truly working on skills that need improving.  Whether it was Jerry Rice running stadium stairs or world class violinists practicing for hours on end, both learned to love the process of getting better and realized that failure in the moment (games or recitals) when it matters the most, is far less fun than any amount of practice.

“There are two pains in life, the pain of preparation and the pain of regret.”

Register now for our Conference on June 3-4th, 2011.  Seats are limited!

by Mike Boykin

Ernst Heinrich Weber was a professor of physiology at the University of Leipzig in the 1830s and is considered to be the founder of experimental psychology.  One of his many claim-to-fames was as the pioneer of the “just noticeable differences” (JNDs) principle, also known as the difference limen or the differential threshold.  Some of Dr. Weber’s experiments, watered down, involved handing a blindfolded individual a weight, followed shortly by a second weight.  The subject was then asked if the second weight was lighter, heavier, or the same as the first.

After numerous experiments, Dr. Weber noted that the smallest discernable difference between two stimuli was not an objective, quantitative value.  Instead, it was subjective and varied with the magnitude of the stimulus.  The equation thus derived was delta*I/I= k, where delta*I is the JND, I is representative of the original intensity, and k is termed the “Weber constant” that (although later proved wrong) denoted the ratio between the two previous values.  While Weber’s original belief- that a constant ratio was representative of the entire breadth of magnitudes a stimulus could impose on a sensory system- was wrong, the message can still pertain qualitatively to a periodization model.  Due in part to the limited nature of this post, I will not attempt to quantitatively find the JND of forces applied in the weight-room.  Instead, understand that there are certain loads that will feel different to your athletes, and certain loads that only appear significant on paper.  So how can we apply the concept of noticeable differences to the weight room in a percentage-based model?

The central nervous system’s perception that a weight is heavier or lighter is often more important than the fact itself.  Arbitrarily throwing numbers on a card for your athletes to follow adds stress to the wrong microcycles.  There are times in the year when you want athletes to feel trashed, times when they need to feel refreshed, and times when you’re on cruise, but still want to subtly increase intensity, volume, or work capacity.  During a deload week for example, the intensity and volume may appear to drop off, yet if this qualitative value does not reach the threshold of the JND, you’re wasting your time.  On the other end of the spectrum, as coaches, we need to find, and ultimately cross, the noticeable fine line when we want to push and impart stress onto our athletes.  Yet significantly exceeding this value may lead to maladaptation.  In addition, noticeable differences are not the same value for everyone- they’re dependant on the individual’s existing strength.  Just because your stud athlete can add fifty pounds to the bar with each consecutive set, doesn’t mean he should; and it certainly doesn’t mean the redshirt freshman next to him needs to either.  Dictating certain numerical values through relative percents allows for group modifications and ensures that the team is peaking together.  Due to the subjectivity of the JND, it appears that a percentage-based model that accounts for differences in how weights are perceived relative to a certain benchmark, may allow for individualized programming that collectively impacts the team.

Information and help was provided by Dr. Dane Cook, Ph.D., an Exercise Psychologist at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.