Strong to the Hoop
Jerry Martin, MA, CSCS, is the Coordinator of the Strength and Conditioning Program at the University of Connecticut. He has been a finalist for the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s College and Professional National Strength Coach of the Year Award (1994 and 2001). He was also the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the United States National Women’s Field Hockey Team that took a bronze medal in the 1996 World Cup. Andrea Hudy, CSCS, MA, is the Associate Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at UConn. She was Coach Martin’s assistant with the United States National Women’s Field Hockey Team from 1996 to 1998 before taking over head strength and conditioning duties from 2000 to early 2002. Andrea Hudy, CSCS, MA, is the Associate Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Connecticut. Jerry Martin, MA, CSCS, is the Coordinator of the Strength and Conditioning Program at the University of Connecticut. He has twice been a finalist for the NSCA’s College and Professional National Strength Coach of the Year Award. Both have also worked with the United States National Women’s Field Hockey Team.
Training & Conditioning, 12.8, November 2002, http://www.momentummedia.com
In planning strength and conditioning programs for student-athletes, it’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of sets and reps and which exercise works better than another. While these aspects of planning are very important, at the University of Connecticut, we also feel it’s critical to pay attention to all that surrounds the actual workout plan.The key to truly getting the most out of our student-athletes, we have found, is looking at the task from a holstic perspective. This includes holding our staff to a level of excellence, embracing a team approach to sports medicine, and motivating student-athletes in a positive way.
To accomplish this, we believe in the pursuit of excellence not only for our student-athletes but for ourselves as well. Strength and conditioning is a dynamic field, and one of our goals is to always keep up with its changes.
Each member of our staff is currently certified by the NSCA and has or is working on a Master’s degree in kinesiology, biomechanics, physiology, or another related field. This is important so that all staff can analyze, discuss, and make decisions relating to the legitimacy of a new idea in the field and what may or may not provide an advantage.
The strength and conditioning staff also meets once a week for a journal review session or a lecture from a guest speaker, often a professor in our school’s kinesiology department. This weekly session is used to keep the staff abreast of current research and aware of new topics in the area of strength and conditioning.
Another critical part of our program is its interaction with others in the athletic department. Our program is under the direction of the sports medicine department, which allows better integration of athletic training with strength and conditioning. It also affords us interaction with other sports medicine professionals such as kinesiologists and nutritionists.
The sports medicine department meets once a week to review all injured student-athletes, and it is each strength coach’s responsibility to meet daily with athletic trainers to consult about injuries, limitations, and alternatives for the student-athletes. We’ve found that this communication not only keeps everyone on the same path, but builds trust and professionalism that trickles down to the student-athletes.
We feel these steps put us on the path for then pursuing excellence in our student-athletes. We have two overriding goals in this area. One is to provide student-athletes with personalized instruction during workouts tailored to meet the demands of both their sport and position. Number two is to provide a safe, positive, and effective environment in which we can help them fulfill their athletic potential.
Behind our goals is an overall philosophy of strength and conditioning: Training to increase force production is the foundation of building an athlete’s performance. Athletic performance is based on a number of physical variables, primarily strength, power, agility, speed, reaction, and recovery. Of these, strength is especially important. By simply increasing force production either concentrically or eccentrically, many of the other performance parameters will automatically improve.
This holistic approach has helped Connecticut athletes attain some of the highest honors in their sports. In this article, we’ll show you how we apply this philosophy to the strength and conditioning of our men’s basketball team.
INTERACTING WITH SPORT COACHES
The beginning of every season brings new student-athletes, which means new challenges and expectations. Because of this, we schedule a preseason meeting with the head coach to review his philosophy of game style and strategy. We also talk with the coach about how each athlete fits into the success of that year’s team.
At the University of Connecticut, we have never followed the same training regime for two consecutive years. This is because we have never trained the same group of players two years in a row.
The same principles are followed year to year, but certain aspects will change according to the coach’s philosophy, the team’s expectations, and individual athletic needs. For example, the head coach may change his style of play to more full-court pressure, which may require a higher level of anaerobic conditioning, or man-to-man defense, where lateral quickness may play a more important role.
The “training age” of each athlete—the number of years an athlete has consistently spent strength training and conditioning—is another component that we must examine in order to maintain an effective training environment. When there are a greater number of upperclassmen, we have a higher training age, which allows us to do more basketball-specific training. However, there are times when the majority of the basketball athletes have a low training age, so we refocus our goals toward technical training and teaching the fundamentals of strength and conditioning.
ATTAINING THE EDGE
As a strength and conditioning staff, we emphasize quality of coaching and quality of training by maintaining certain standards in the weightroom. We require team gear so our athletes approach weightroom activities as a practice. Music is not played so that we can communicate and give constant feedback on technique. Athletes are scheduled to use the weightroom as teams. When a UConn men’s basketball player—or any athlete, for that matter—is in the weightroom, it is his weightroom. He will never wait for a piece of equipment, socialize with teammates, or look for something to do—planned activities are provided for each player at all times.
One intangible that most successful athletes have in common is competitiveness. A competitive environment helps to push athletes to accomplish more and to be accountable to himself, his teammates, and the coaching staff. This can be a difficult environment to create in a weightroom setting, where there are no wins and losses, and the strength coach is always under time constraints. Therefore, all of our weightroom competitions are reliable, easy to perform, and require less than five minutes.
A simple way to get athletes competing against each other in the weightroom is to take one of the sets of bench presses or squats in a workout, calculate the predicted one-repetition maximum, and post the relative strength scores in a rank order. Another example is having the team perform an exit challenge such as a clap push-up contest. The athlete will have a set individual goal that he has to meet along with a cumulative team goal. If the goals are not met, they perform an extra rep of a conditioning activity as a consequence.
Competitions can also be conducted with every member of the team at once. For example, in the preseason we often include team shoulder and arm work, which we model after the Final Four tournament. Every player starts with the same weight and performs 64 reps of the same exercise, such as shoulder work with a 45-pound plate. After a 30-second rest, they then all do 32 reps of biceps work with 10-pound weights. They all then perform 16 reps of another exercise, followed by eight reps, then four reps. For the final exercise, which we call the championship playoff, the whole team performs an exercise until only one person is left still able to do it. These exercises not only relate to basketball-specific movements, but are something the whole team can do together.
It is important that we are innovative with our competitive atmosphere so that we can teach athletes how to compete under pressures similar to those they will face on the court. Goals like winning are easy to quantify—either there is success or failure.
If the athlete is having a slump or difficulty achieving certain goals on the court, one way to help elevate his self-esteem is by creating a positive environment in the weightroom. If he is successful in the weightroom through hard work, he will maintain a positive self-image, and hopefully, transfer his work ethic back to the court. If the athlete can push himself mentally through the physically demanding resistance training activities, he will not only become stronger physically, but also mentally, which will transfer to his game.
Repetitive maximal effort is one of the hardest things an athlete needs to become familiar with in the weightroom. One way to make it easier for athletes to consistently give it their all is by providing workout sheets that prescribe loads, reps, and sets so they know what to expect. Another way is to coordinate activities by setting the exercises into a circuit and keeping work-to-rest ratios strictly timed. This sets the tone that athletes must basically survive in the weightroom—there’s not much choice other than to work at high intensity for a long period of time.
For example, we use timers with loud audible signals. Athletes need to give their maximum effort for a prescribed time, such as 40 seconds, then rest for 20. When the 20 seconds are up, they hear a signal that tells them it’s time to get right back to work. Often, everyone is doing the same thing at the same time, so it’s easy to yell out instructions that apply to everybody.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
In order to give some specific examples of what we’re talking about, let’s take a look at how the UConn weight-training philosophy shapes a specific team’s workouts. The UConn men’s basketball strength and conditioning developmental schedule is broken down into four seasons: preseason, in-season, postseason, and summer.
The workout plan shown in Tables One through Three is a general overview of our conditioning program. As mentioned before, every year is different, so this plan is tweaked depending on each team’s specific needs.
The program is based on a non-linear periodization model. This allows for constant variety and adaptability on a day-to-day basis. The goals of our resistance-training program are to constantly implement new stresses to increase muscle endurance, muscle strength, and muscle power.
Our program design is based on structural whole-body movements that incorporate total-body power output. For example:
• Functional multi-joint exercises are used to facilitate increases in muscle mass that will best transfer to the court.
• Multiple sets are performed in order to increase the duration of stress on the particular muscle group. One can also vary exercises simply by changing the position of the hands or feet in order to target a different stress line of a muscle group.
• The order of the exercises is also taken into consideration. For example, large muscle group exercises are completed first so that fatigued small muscle groups do not limit the work done by the larger muscle groups in core lifts.
• The strength and conditioning coaching staff, working with our athletic trainers, also examines common sites of injury and concentrates on training the musculature around a specific joint in order to withstand the forces that may cause athletic injuries.
• Finally, the stresses that are placed on the muscle are constantly evaluated to avoid plateau.
The goal for preseason conditioning is to increase body mass, work capacity, strength, and, most importantly, the capacity to repeat high-power movements over an extended period of time. We also take advantage of the extra time we have with student-athletes during this phase to emphasize lifting technique.
Medicine-ball torso training is used as a warmup almost every day of the week. Overhead passing, chest passing, bounce passing, and rotational passing altering foot positions are emphasized. The flexibility portion of the workout stresses functional movements. Speed development, ballistic movements, multidirectional lunging with twisting, backpedaling, and skipping are all used for warmup activities.
Every day of the four-day cycle, the weightroom workout begins with a unilateral variation of an Olympic lift. This is followed by a bilateral Olympic lift. We employ both types of lifts because basketball players sometimes use one leg to jump (for example, on a layup) and at other times they use two (rebound).
The exercises in Table One are based on four different body parts: Legs, shoulders, chest, and back. On days one and three, legs and shoulders are the focus. On days two and four, chest and back are the focus.
The goal for in-season work is to keep body mass and continue to increase strength throughout the season (see Table Two). Since the in-season period is the most crucial part of the year, non-linear periodization is utilized so we can continue to train for endurance, strength, and power.
During this training phase, athletes train the opposite of what was done at practice. If synchronous high-power repetitive movements were emphasized in practice, the resistance training will focus on asynchronous recruitment. This is done through high-volume, low-load, and medium-intensity workouts. Conversely, if there is a recovery practice, shoot-around, or travel day, the athletes will perform a low-volume, high-load, and high-intensity workout.
During the season, box jumps are used as an alternative to Olympic lifting in order to decrease our focus on the technical skills of Olympic lifting and increase our focus on strength training and maintaining body mass. During these lifting sessions, all body parts are used in order to keep muscle soreness to a minimum during the week.
The goal at the beginning of the off-season is active recovery. The postseason schedule is generally very similar to the preseason schedule, and thus we won’t provide a separate table for it. However, we do change the conditioning activities.
After a long season, the focus is on new activities in order to keep the athletes’ attention. These include pool workouts, relay competitions, spinning, and ultimate soccer.
The goal for the summer is to make sure athletes comply with the summer workout regime, whether they are at school or at home. It is imperative that we remind them of their yearly goals and inform them that strength should not be constantly varying throughout the year. For strength to remain somewhat consistent, they must continue training at a high intensity throughout the summer. The summer weight-training schedule is similar to the in-season schedule, but more focus is placed on the Olympic lifts (see Table Three).
Since strength and conditioning must be custom-tailored for injured and rehabbing athletes, it is necessary for the staff to always have on hand alternative lifts to fit their needs. For example, if an athlete has multidirectional shoulder instability, an alternative would be to perform dumbbell bench presses on the floor. This will limit the amount of horizontal abduction at the shoulder joint, therefore protecting the shoulder from injury. Another example is when an athlete has an injured elbow or wrist, the strength coach can substitute Olympic lifts and other explosive training with resisted sled pulls or box jumps.
UConn athletes succeed on the court because of the work they do before and after games. By carefully crafting individualized workout plans for every training phase that increase each athlete’s physical strength, as well as his or her mental strength, motivation, and connection to the rest of the team, we help them reach their full athletic potential.
Table One: Preseason Strength and Conditioning
Warmup for all days:
• Dynamic warmup including functional MB training
• Torso training
• Functional flexibility training
Day 1 (Monday)
Resistance Training
One-leg barbell hang power snatch
Hang power clean
Squat
Swiss ball leg curl w/ hip ext.
Alt. DB split-stance military
Team shoulder and arm work
Double-clap push-ups
Lat pull-down
Conditioning
On-court conditioning (agility)
Day 2 (Tuesday)
Resistance Training
One-leg power jerk
Barbell hang power snatch
Bench
DB incline
Weighted pull-ups
Ground-based one-arm DB row
MB shoulder workout
Lateral step-ups
Conditioning
Low- to medium-intensity plyos (stadiums)
Day 3 (Thursday)
Resistance Training
One-leg DB box jumps
Barbell split/power jerk
Barbell forward lunge
DB sumo dead lift
Upright row
Bicep curl to shoulder press
Lateral single clap push-ups
Alternative pull-up
Conditioning
On-court conditioning (multidirectional acceleration and deceleration)
Day 4 (Friday)
Resistance Training
One-leg DB split/power jerk
Two-leg DB box jumps
Incline
DB bench
Ground-based one-arm row
Seated row
Slide-board workout
Light overhead lateral step-ups
Conditioning
Active recovery—pool or spinning
Table Two: In-Season Strength and Conditioning
Day 1 (Post-Practice)
DB split box jumps
Lateral step-ups
Bench
Ground-based one-arm row
Team shoulder work
Biceps
Day 2 (Post-Practice)
DB box jumps
Lateral lunge
Incline
Pull-ups
Upright row
Triceps
Day 3 (Supplementary)
DB lateral box jumps
Squat
DB chest
Any back
DB military
Any arm
Table Three: Summer Strength and Conditioning
Warmup for all days:
• Dynamic warmup including functional MB training
• Torso training
• Functional flexibility training
Day 1 (Monday) Muscle Power Day
Resistance Training
Hang power snatch
Bench
Front squat
Bent-over row
Military press
DB lateral lunge
Conditioning
20-minute aerobic activity or optional play
Day 2 (Tuesday)
Conditioning
Competitive on-court conditioning
Day 3 (Wednesday) Muscle Hypertrophy Day
Resistance Training
Incline
DB/barbell lunge
Pull-ups
Alternating DB upright row
Leg extension
Leg curl
Clap push-ups
Conditioning
20-minute aerobic activity or optional play
Day 4 (Thursday)
Conditioning
Competitive stadium stair relays
Day 5 (Friday) Muscle Strength Day
Resistance Training
Hang power clean
Jerk
Any chest
DB upright row
Ground-based one-arm DB row
Squat
Conditioning
20-minute aerobic activity or optional play
