1)     Lateral Lunges- Trains the hips, gluteals and hamstrings. It also trains the athlete to move correctly in the lateral direction.

2)     Lateral Shuffle- (with or without resistance) Also work well to train correct lateral movement.

3)     Lateral Step Ups- Emphasize development of the athletes hips, quadriceps (especially outer) and glutes.

Many knee ACL injuries occur when athletes place too much stress on their knees and not enough stress on their hips during deceleration. In other words, the hips are often under-used during sports activities. These exercises will help strengthen the hips. Any serious athletic exercise program would be incomplete without these exercises.

Joe Sidoti Strength and Conditioning Coach

Kennedy Catholic High School

914-772-0128

joes@hvc.rr.com

Technorati Tags: basketball, lateral lunges, lateral shuffle, Lateral speed, lateral step ups, practice, quickness, workout program

Every Off-Season strength-training program should be designed to take the athlete to the next level. The athlete should have the mindset of becoming as powerful as they can become. Basketball is a game of limited rest so the workouts must be with limited rest. You must keep the workouts at the highest intensity possible. This off-season program will show the athlete how to build an incredible base of power, speed, and endurance, so that fatigue will not be an issue as the athlete starts the season.

Every workout should start off with at least a 10-minute dynamic stretching routine. The weight training routines will start with a more endurance type training. The athlete will start off with high reps (20 reps 1 set). As the weeks progress, the number of reps required for many exercises will decrease and the weight will increase…adding the aspect of strength training to coincide with the power and endurance training.

I also stress that even when the weight increases you should never take more rest in between sets (30 seconds). This will keep challenging the body at a higher level each week. This will give the athlete the base of power, speed, and endurance they will need to start the season in top condition. The athlete should aim to make each strength training workout as time efficient as possible, thus making the workout brief yet very intense. This can only be accomplished by minimizing rest intervals between sets to induce the overall training effect. All this can be accomplished with two or three well planned full body workouts each lasting about one hour. These workouts should include weight training, plyometrics, medicine ball training and speed training.

The Workout

1.  We will super set on the upper body (super sets are performing one set of two exercises, each directly after the other with no rest)

2.  Only rest 30 seconds between sets

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­______________________________________________________________________

Ten Minutes of Dynamic Stretching

Upper Body

• Chest- Bench Press (ten reps) + pushups (10 reps) = one set (four sets)

• Back- Lat pull down (ten reps) + one armed bent over row (ten reps) = one set (four sets)

• Shoulders- Military press (ten reps) + up right rows (ten reps) = one set (for sets)

• Biceps- 21’s (three sets of 21)Triceps- Dips (three sets of 15)

Legs

• Jump Squats-  (Three sets of 15)

• Lunges- (Three sets of 10)

• Side Steps Ups- (three sets of 10)

• Stiff Legged Run- (Three 15 second sprints)

• Calf Raises- (Three sets of 20)

• All leg exercises will improve vertical leap, lateral movement, and speed

Abs

• Reach Through- (Four sets of 15)

• Russian Twists- (Once set of 30)

• Sprint or Jog for at least 15 minutes.

This workout should only take 1 hour or less. Remember each week you should decrease the reps and add weight. This will keep challenging the body and making the body stronger and better conditioned. I also recommend introducing new exercises for each body part. This will cause muscle confusion, which will eliminate plateaus.

Joe Sidoti

Strength and Conditioning Coach

Kennedy Catholic High School

E-Mail: Joes@hvc.rr.com

Technorati Tags: basketball, college, endurance, high school, NBA, power, speed, training, work out

I was playing ball the other day, and I usually play with this guy who’s in his late 30’s who coaches a high school basketball team. Now, I’m faster and a little bit stronger than him and he still manages to out-jump me on every rebound. To be honest, I was sick of gettin’ embarrassed.

So, I tried to bring up why he jumps higher than me even though he’s like one inch shorter, but of course my pride came into play. I didn’t want to ask an advercary how he’s better than me. So, I initiated a conversation about the practice regimens he gives his kids. He starts talking about it, you know the same old same old…sprints, lay-ups, and passing. I start asking if he’s got any big guys, he said no, none at all. I laughed and said they must suck, to which he responded we went undefeated last season. There’s my opening. I asked him, ‘don’t your guys just get roughed up on the boards if they’re all short?’ He said ‘no, I got a secret. It’s something my dad taught me when I was a kid, and growing up I was usually the shortest but I could jump the highest.’

So here’s what he told me…

He said to do two types of vertical jumps in succession straight for like a minute and do about 5 sets a day.

• The first one you bend your knees and your hips and hold it for like 5 seconds before jumping, and then jump as high up as you possibly can.
• Then when you land you do the same bending but jump up immediately and then when you come down you do the jump where you hold it for 5 seconds, and so on and so on.

So, that’s it. I’ve been doing it for about a week now and I haven’t seen anything drastic yet but I haven’t played in a while. I think I should be able to get out and play sometime this week and hopefully I’ll see some sort of results, or at least get one rebound over this guy.

Technorati Tags: Basketball advice blog, basketball coaching tips, Basketball jumping tips, Basketball Training Tips, How to increase vertical leap, How to jump higher, Jump training, Sports Training, Vertical Jump Tricks

To Do List To Ruin My Reputation

By Josh Howard

1. Admit to smoking weed
2. Tell everyone I threw a party before a playoff game
3. Get caught doing 94 mph in a 55mph zone
4. Let the world know about my view about my country’s national anthem

Surely that’s the end of the list. Right? Well before Josh Howard does anything else to make himself look worse, let’s talk about his most recent moronic move in which he tells everyone that he doesn’t ‘celebrate’ the national anthem(who celebrates the national anthem? I usually just sing along or acknowledge it, I leave the pinatas out of it).

At a celebrity flag football event hosted by Allen Iverson, rapper Los attended the event unfortunately for Howard, with a camera. While the Star Spangled Banner is going on, Howard is seen ignoring the song and then comes up to the camera and says the following…

We got the Star Spangled Banner goin’ on right now, I don’t even celebrate that $@!*…I’m black.

Josh Howard on the star spangled banner

What a fool. How disrespectful can you get? I guess Josh took the phrase bad publicity is better than no publicity. Here’s some advice, lay low ’till the season starts and shut your mouth.

Here’s the link to the video…http://youbeenblinded.com/video-josh-howard-doesnt-celebrate-the-national-anthem/2001

Technorati Tags: Allen Iverson, Allen Iverson Flag Football event, Celebrate National Anthem, Celebrity Flag Football Event, Dallas Mavericks, Josh Howard, josh Howard bad press, Josh Howard because im black, Josh Howard comments on national anthem, Josh Howard Olympics, Josh Howard Party before playoff game, Josh Howard quote national anthem, Josh Howard quotes, Josh Howard Speeding, Josh Howard Star Spangled Banner, Josh Howard USA comments, Josh Howard Weed, Josh Howard Weed Quotes, Los, NBA, Rapper Los

This year’s induction ceremony into the basketball hall of fame included the biggest names in basketball in the modern era. The class included two of the greatest big men of all time in Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon, along with Ewing’s coach, Pat Riley.

Ewing vs. Olajuwon

Surprisingly in their career they were never really compared, probably because one was in the East and the other in the west, but let’s be one of the first to do so. Who’s career was better? Olajuwon averaged 21.8 points a game during his 18 seasons in the NBA compared to Ewing’s 17 points a game during his 17 seasons. All though Ewing was revered as more talented, looking at Olajuwon’s career as a whole shows that he was in fact a better player. Olajuwon holds the NBA record for blocked shots with 3840(amazing number), and most importantly has two NBA titles under his belt. Ewing has 0.

Not the best, but darn near close

Pat Riley and his 5 rings were inducted into the hall of fame this weekend along with Hakeem and Patrick. Riley ranks 3rd all-time in wins and led both the Lakers and Heat to NBA titles. His one blemish on his record was his inability to win a championship with the aforementioned Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, and company. If he picked up a title or two then who knows where he would’ve ranked. Either way his coaching style has emanated throughout the NBA and he has set a style that coaches decades from now will knowingly or even unknowingly replicate.

Does Dickie V deserve to be in this class?

You betcha baby!! Sorry, had to do it. It is true though, Dick Vitale does deserve to be in the hall of fame as his, ahem, unique style brought him fame, fortune, and ultimately respect. He is the voice of college basketball and you can’t make it big in college hoops without your name being yelled out on ESPN followed by an emphatic ‘baby!!’

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Something smells fishy. At least in San Fransisco, where the Warriors are looking deeper into Monta Ellis’s injury that he reported. After one month after signing a huge deal with the Warriors, Ellis revealed that he has an ankle injury that will keep him out for at least three months.

Reports are that the Warriors do not believe the explanation Monta gave his team and that they are launching an investigation into the situation. Maybe this is a bad idea by the Warriors to upset their most valuable asset. Ellis has been the Warriors most integral player and has shown enough promise that last month the Warriors inked him to a long-term deal.

Is this report true? The San Fransisco Chronicle says that they are not investigating and that the medical trainer who was said to look into the injury isn’t even on the same continent. This whole situation seems very confusing.

From what I learned in the past couple of months of wild sports stories, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And, something has to be up. It does seem sketchy that Ellis would conveniently report an injury for the first time after he signed a lucrative contract. Personally I think all off-season injuries should be investigated for the integrity of contracts. These players sign contracts that say you can’t do this or that or the contract will be void if you get hurt. The Warriors has to look at this from a business stand point. If a client doesn’t follow his or her contract properly you don’t look past it and say ‘just don’t do it next time’.

If this situation is under investigation and things come out saying that Ellis lied in any way, he needs to be punished. A precedent needs to be set.

Technorati Tags: Contract Problems, Ellis Ankel Injury, Ellis Ankle Injury, Ellis Ankle Injury Story, Ellis Contract, Ellis Contract Void, Ellis Injury, Ellis Injury Contraversy, Ellis Injury Explanation, Ellis Injury Fake, Ellis Injury Lie, Ellis Injury Real or Fake, Golden State Warriors, Monta Ellis, Monta Ellis Ankle Injury, Monta Ellis Contract Warriors, Monta Ellis Injury, Monta Ellis Injury Problems, NBA Contract Agreements, NBA Players Injury Contract Problems, NBA Season 08-09, San Fransisco, San Fransisco Basketball, San Fransisco Basketball Team, San Fransisco Chronicle, Sean Connolly, Sean Connolly Basketball, Sean Connolly Sports, Sean Connolly Writer, Warriors don't believe Ellis, Warriors Investigate Ellis Injury, Warriors Investigation Ellis Injury

United States’ redemption is complete. The story is over and they did what they needed to do. Now let’s look at the results of this competition that pitted NBA teammates against eachother.

Preceding the Olympics there was a lot of talk about NBA players heading east to Europe. Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and even Lebron James said that they would consider playing in Europe. There’s more money to be made there and a completely different atmosphere, something that they may easily welcome.

Now, I don’t know whether there was any validity to the comments but if there it’s not there any more. The rest of the world is in no competition with American basketball. Not only that but the international rules are not condusive to a successful career. The game seems to be sloppy, choppy, and reckless. A career ending injury is basically imminent.

I appreciate what international players have brought to the NBA, but the last thing I want to see is NBA players going to Europe. David Stern and the NBA need to do whatever they can to prevent this. Call me selfish, but I want these guys over here so I can watch them, too bad Europe.

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For 19 minutes and 59 seconds in the first half, Australia’s game plan was perfect. Nearly everything went like it was drawn up. But a demoralizing buzzer beater from Deron Williams ended that perfect gameplan and launched the US to a 116-85 win.

The plan was simple for Australia. Defend the paint, make open shots, hope that the US shoot poorly from the line and from behind the arc. Australia stayed back, defended the paint well, allowed the US to shoot and it seemed like it was working. They made a couple of big threes and nailed open shots. The US shot horribly from the line in the first half, and the threes just didn’t seem to be falling. Things looked positive for the Australian side that were rumored to be capable of upsetting the dominant US. So, with all this going Australia’s way, how did they lose?

How did Australia lose, or better yet how did the US win? Offensive rebounding. In the first half the US had more offensive rebounds,13, than Australia had for a total,12. When playing a team that includes Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Carmello Anthony, the last thing you want to do is give them second chances. Kobe and company cleaned up the boards, picking up second and even third chances that kept them ahead in the first half.

In a game like this, Australia just wanted to keep their head above water. And, towards the end of the 2nd quarter it seemed like the Aussies were doing so. They were until Deron Williams pushed their heads underneath the water with a buzzer beating 3 pointer at the end of the 1st half. With the US holding on to a 9 point lead, a lead that they didn’t deserve with the way they were shooting from the line, Williams put all that Australia upset talk to rest. Williams broke free with the clock running out and tossed up a three with the clock running out. He drained it and drained whatever hopes Australia had in beating the USA.

The buzzer beater by Williams catapulted the US to a 17-0 run in which they scored 14 straight to start the 3rd quarter. What at one point was a managable 9 point deficit with seconds left in the first half had turned into a 26 point deficit before the Aussies could get warmed up for the second half.

This win puts the US one step closer to the top level of the podium, which now seems inevitable. Redemption is imminent for this US squad and their no nonsense aproach instilled by coach Mike Krzyzewski is the main reason.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Olympics LeBron James, Australia Basketball, Australia Basketball Olympics, Australia vs. USA, Carmello Anthony, Defense US Mens Basketball, Deron Williams, Deron Williams 3 point shot at end of half, Deron Williams buzzer beater Australia, Deron Williams Olympic Buzzer Beater, Deron Williams Olympics, Deron Williams Olympics Three Pointer Buzzer Beater, Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant, Kobe Bryant Olympics, LeBron James, LeBron James Olympics, Mike Krzyzewski, Mike Krzyzewski USA Olympics Basketball, Mike Sheshevski, Mike Sheshevski Basketball Coach, Offensive Rebounding US Mens Team Olympics, Olympic Basketball, Olympic Mens Basketball, Olympics Stats Basketball, Rebounds Mens Olympics USA, Sean Connolly, Sean Connolly Basketball, Sean Connolly Sports, Sean Connolly Writer, Shooting Basketball US Mens, Team USA, Team USA Basketball, Team USA Beats Australia, Team USA Carmello Anthony, Team USA Gold Medal Beijing, Team USA Kobe Bryant, Team USA Lebron James, Team USA Victory, Team USA Victory Over Australia, US Basketball, US Mens Basketball, US Mens Basketball Australia, US Mens Basketball Olympics Stats, US Mens Basketball Results, USA beats Australia, USA wins Gold Medal Olympics 2008 Beijing

It’s been two years since the FIBA Championships in which the Greeks picked apart the US National Team to win the FIBA Championship leaving LeBron James and US disappointed. In their first challenge in this Olympics the US National team defeated Greece, holding a Greek team that put up 101 in their last meeting to a mere 69 points.

This victory by the US is more about the Greeks beating themselves than the US beating the Greeks. Greece decided to play a one-on-one type game, a game that is no match to a team that has Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh off the bench. They failed to get going offensively as Wade’s defensive gambling paid off as he had 6 steals in the game. But, is this the true Greece?

After winning the first two games, it seems as if the Greeks will make it past the group stage easily. Now, European teams have been known to do this…under perform, resting their players making it seem as if they are worse than they really are and then when the elimination round comes around, a completely different team shows up. Now, this routine has been argued about as to whether it’s really done, and whether it’s smart, unethical, or just plain stupid. Either way it doesn’t matter if you’re USA.

No team is short of any tom-foolery but if the Greeks truly did this on purpose takes the cake. Whether it will pay off or not is yet to be seen. I like the idea of resting your players for the next round to a certain extent, but to risk putting them in a bad rhythm for the rest of the Olympics is beyond me. One thing’s for sure though, Kobe Bryant, LeBron, and company are playing too well right now to be fooled by this.

So far throughout this Olympics and even exhibition games leading up to them, it seems as though the mantra of the team is not to underestimate any team at all. So I don’t see how they will underestimate a team in the latter rounds. If this move was done on purpose by the Greece national team, it will be a move done in haste as the Redeem Team will have golds around their necks.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Olympics LeBron James, Basketball Rumors Olympics, Beijing Olympics, Beijing Olympics 08 Mens Basketball, Chris Bosh, Chris Bosh 08 Olympics, Chris Bosh Bench, Chris Bosh Bench Olympics, Did Greece lose to USA on purpose?, Duane Wade, Duane Wade 08 Olympics, Duane Wade Basketball, Duane Wade Olympics, Dwayne Wade, Dwayne Wade Defense, Dwayne Wade Defense against Greece Olympics, Dwayne Wade Defense Gamble Olympics, FIBA Championship, FIBA Championship Greece, FIBA Championship LeBron James, Greece, Greece Basketball, Greece Basketball Argument, Greece Losing on purpose basketball olympics, Greece vs. USA Basketball, Greeks vs. Americans Basketball game, Kobe Bryant, Kobe Bryant 2008 Olympics, LeBron James, LeBron James Olympics, mens basketball olympics fotos, Mens Basketball Olympics Photos, Mens Olympic B-ball photos, Olympics, Olympics 08, Olympics 08 Basketball, Olympics Greece vs. USA Basketball, Redeem Team, Sean Connolly, Sean Connolly Basketball, Sean Connolly Sports, Sean Connolly Writer, Unethical Play Basketball, US Mens Basketball Team, US Mens National Team, USA, USA Basketball, USA Basketball Olympics, USA Basketball Olympics Rumors, USA Mens Team Olympics 08 Gold Medal

If you forgot how great Michael Jordan is, just watch this video please. He’s at a basketball camp and a kid asks Jordan who would win in a one-on-one game between him and Kobe Bryant. Jordan responds, “in my prime, not even a contest.” It’s Jordan being Jordan.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqlBUj9bFC4&feature=related]

How amazing is that. I know he’s not up against NBA players but it’s obvious that he still has it. You know after that he was thinking…hmmm, maybe my Bobcats need a guard.

I just love how confident he is when he’s playing, there’s no doubt in his mind that he’s going to miss, even with his eyes closed. Earlier this season when Kobe was on a tear, I began to wonder…maybe he is good as Jordan. I’ll tell you this right now, Jordan at 45 years old is better than Kobe is now or will ever be.

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