Strategy & Program for In-Season Basketball Program

I’m coaching both JV and varsity at a small high school

I’m coaching both JV and varsity at a small high school. About 20 players in total.

The simplicity of our strength regimen is:

-only 3 workouts per week

-only 3 exercises per workout

-only 1-3 sets of each exercise

And each workout is OPTIONAL. I set them up after relatively short (but competitive) practices, or even games.

Why optional?

Why such short workouts?

1. Because I’m taking 20 kids who otherwise would have no strength training during the season.

2. Because I want them to learn strength training as an enjoyable skill for life.

I want to see kids building a self-driven work ethic.

I want to see kids who understand why they’re doing each exercise.

This takes time.

So even 1 set of full squats, self-driven, is a win.

Last note before the program:

99+% of basketball teams do NOT full squat.

Through my knee problems from age 12 to 20, every trainer and doctor I went to told me NO full squats.

I truly believe this was an understandable mistake.

You can now do your own research and find recent studies backing up why it’s okay to full squat.

Over the past 7 years I’ve made by far (perhaps to the point of nausea for some) the most regression videos and articles on full squats.

But even before these recent studies and even before all my content on full squats…

The majority of the 1990s Chicago Bulls were full squatting, thanks to strength coach Al Vermeil.

As strength coach, Vermeil helped the San Francisco 49ers win a Super Bowl!

When he left the 49ers and took over the Chicago Bulls strength program, they barely had a weight room.

By 1991 (their first championship season), the Bulls had a well-built weight room and in-season lifting program.

Vermeil was strength coach through their first 3peat (3 championships in a row!).

To this day, he’s the only strength coach to win NFL and NBA championships.

Whether someone full squats is a personal freedom.

I don’t even make my teams full squat!

I set up the workouts. I teach why. And about 80% of the students choose to do the workouts and full squat.

It is acceptable to not full squat.

What’s not acceptable to me is that I grew up obsessed with the 1990s Chicago Bulls, yet was completely unaware they did full squats, and fooled into thinking full squats are bad.

Now…

My 3 Go-to, In-Season Workouts

[I’ll show pictures of each progression after the program list]

Full Squat 5-10 reps

Ham Roller Progression 5-10 reps

Full Pull-up 5-10 reps

Slant Step-up 10-20 reps

Hanging Knee Raise 10-20 reps

Full DB Shoulder Press 5-10 reps

Single-Leg Calf Raise 5-10 reps

Back Extension 10-20 reps

Inverted Row 5-10 reps

Then I let them ask me questions if they want to do even more work, and I use my ATG skills based on their requests.

Full Squat 5-10 reps [video link for demo]

Ham Roller Progression 5-10 reps [progression is from 2 legs, to 2-up-1-down, to 1 leg]

Full Pull-up 5-10 reps [If you can’t do a pull-up, use legs to assist, fight down, repeat, and over time, you may get strong enough.]

Slant Step-up 10-20 reps [Slope, distance of step, and assistance/load all affect difficulty.]

Hanging Knee Raise 10-20 reps

Full DB Shoulder Press 5-10 reps

Single-Leg Calf Raise 5-10 reps

Back Extension 10-20 reps

Inverted Row 5-10 reps

Yours in Solutions,

Ben

ATG Online Coaching (for form coaching, this program is in the Sports section)

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