Best way to improve basketball conditioning

The #1 best type of conditioning for basketball is to...play competitive basketball with referees. The type of basketball that you are tired and playing really hard.  However, typically pick-up basketball is slow paced whereas real games with referees are closer to the basketball I'm referring to. 

Another great variation of conditioning by playing basketball can be:

• 1v1 full-court defense there & back, taking 2 players.

• Playing FIBA 3v3 (with continuous play and no checks)

• Playing 1v1 (with continuous play and no checks). An example is 7-dribble 1v1

• Playing Small-sided Games (which is as effective as HIIT Training [read study])

Again, the importance is to play at an intensity that you would play in a real game with referees. If you're a coach, instead of playing regular pick-up, you can tell the players that they have to play full-court defense.

worst way to improve basketball conditioning

You have to mimic the sport and energy systems that are utilized in the game.  Basketball is dynamic and the most common movement in the game is walking and the movements that cause the most fatigue are short sprints and changes of direction. It is important to have a good aerobic base in order to play the game; however, if you are in decent shape the most common mistake that I see for conditioning is people jogging for miles at a slow pace, this is Aerobic/Oxidative conditioning and only one of the four systems of basketball. You need to have variation in your training by performing: High Quality Speed, Anaerobic Conditioning, Speed Conditioning and Oxidative Conditioning, see below for more details.

some other ways to improve conditioning

The work to rest ratio basketball is 1:4 so this means for every second that you play hard in the game you are resting 4 seconds.  So when we're doing non-basketball conditioning we want to mimic this ratio.  If you don't have others to play the game, you can still improve your conditioning with some of the following drills:

• Slow Long Distance (preparatory before High Intensity)

• High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) with a basketball in your hand (Keep work to rest ratio of 1:4)

  • Tabata Workout (Small Space)

  • Sprint Conditioning (Large Space) Workout

  • Change of Direction Work (ie. Box Drill or Lane Slides) (30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest, 3-5 sets)

  • Basketball small-space dribbling (kill the grass)

  • Full-court dribbling & full-court finishing

  • Metabolic Injury Prevention Running

  • Speed and Skill Training

• Lactate Retention Method

There are a few other energy systems that we want to train when conditioning, and you can switch these up as you wish:

• High Quality Speed (Duration: < 10sec; Rest: Full, 2 mins)

• Anaerobic Conditioning (Duration: < 10 sec; Rest: Limited, 45-60sec)

• Speed Conditioning (Duration: < 10 sec; Rest: Short, 10-20sec)

• Oxidative/Aerobic Conditioning (Duration: 20-45min; Rest: Varies)

How to Plan your Conditioning Program as a coach

Ask yourself 3 questions:

1. Who are we coaching?

2. What are the goals for the conditioning?

3. How much time do we have to condition the athletes, both in terms of days/weeks prior to season and in terms of hours/days per week?