For the last month myself and Lachy have been taking young basketball athletes from the Sunshine Basketball Academy through their paces on a Saturday morning. Our job involves about 30 minutes of warm up, running technique, plyometrics, speed and agility before the kids hit the court for their basketball session.
One thing that is quickly obvious is the amount of basketball these kids play. The season is never ending, they'll go from a WABL (state league) season straight into a domestic (social) season all the while have school-based commitements, possibly even multiple age groups as well. Whatever the setup, it's a lot of basketball!
Load management aside, I'm sure that could be another post. Today I want to talk about the scietific principles as to why these athletes should be lifting weights.
Below is what us Sports Scientists know as the Force Velocity Curve. In simple terms it shows us that when we lift heavy things our Force output (measured in N) is high but in turn the velocity is slow. The converse is also true, when we do unweighted movements the force output is lower but the velocity of the movement is faster.
So, back to our basketballers, playing all that basketball is providing a huge volume of unweighted, high velocity movements. When it comes to preparing these athletes and helping them get better, a common question in S&C pops up:
Do they need more of the same?
Power is a huge determing factor when it comes to performance. It is the product of force x velocity. So, increasing either force or velocity will improve our power output, in the case of our basketballers we can think of them being maxed out when it comes to velocity. More unweighted movements added to their schedule isn't going to dramatically increase their performance. They don't need more of what they are already getting in spades.
Added to this are limits in our ability to increase unloaded movement velocity.
What would help is increasing the force component of the equation. This shifts the force velocity curve to the right, so for a given load the athlete will move it faster resulting in a greater power output. We increase our ability to create force by lifting moderate to heavy loads within a progressive resistance training program. We take this harnessed ability to create more force add it to the already high volume of high velocity movements Basketballers are doing and we've built a greater capacity to perform.
Obviously an entry point for resistance training is needed and we aren't just going to throw these kids under heavy loads straight away. But, as we continue to coach these kids and prepare them with warm-ups, speed and agility work Lachy and I will be reinforcing the importance of a progressive resistance training program and the benefits it will have on their overall performance.
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