Adarq.org

I actually think this is a pretty simple issue.

Most really good ball players have been playing since they were what 5? They've probably had a ball in their hand ever since. The number of repititions they've done of the fundamental movements required to play ball would be astronomical. I know that from the age of 6-10 I trained no less than once per week and played once per week. From 11-20 I trained no less than twice a week and played no less than twice a week, often 3-4 games. And that's just team training and playing. Not to mention every lunch time at school through both primary and high school. I'm not going to add them up but that's a fuck load of hours spent honing and ingraining the skills. It's also years of being comfortable with contact and the closeness of other players which is what I see puts off a lot of guys who haven't played ball their whole life.

Now you obviously can't go back and start all over again but there's a couple of things I'd do if I was you:

- Skill training- ask someone else (ChrisM) on this area. My skills are good given the amount of practice I now do but that's largely off playing my whole like.
- Use your hips/bum- these guys that seem immovable have great hip strength and have learned to use their hips/bum to either block out or move their opponent to their advantage. If you've ever watched AFL think Chris Judd. Not the biggest guy out there but has great hip/core strength to be able to stand up in tackles and not get moved/shoved off the ball. As a big guy on the basketball court this skill is essential. 

My old man is great example of someone who can come late to the party and still be a great ball player. He started playing when he was 17 and not long after got a call up to play at a serious level. Turns out he was more interested in chasing skirt than making a career out of it. He would routinely drop 40-50 points, dunked maybe once in his life and wasn't the most athletic guy out there. What he did have was 2-3 go to moves. A turn around jumper from free throw range and a nice jump hook that I can remember. He was also a bit of a mongrel on the court (a fair mongrel but still a mongrel) and maybe that's part of what you're missing.

I hope that made some sense.

Agree to disagre with you guys.
Indeed game strength =/= gym strength, but they are still correlated. Becoming strong at the gym might not transform you from Touriaf to Kobe, but still , you will be a better Touriuaf than in the past. If you want to improve your skills, yes, you have to practice them, there is no other way. But taking your squat from 1xBW to 2xBW will give you a much better SVJ, dropstep and 1st step. Similarily a bigger bench press/push press will make you much better at blocking out. Being 5-10kg heavier will make you draw contact better. Those will make you a better player with the same skills that you had. Also, a lot depends on the position you play. I play PF. When i gym, i can blockout better, i jump higher off dropstep and SVJ which is 99% of the rebound/block/attack jumps of my game (in the paint), so fuck you fancy crossovers and pullup Js. The 5'7'' guy or Nate Robinson will still beat me. But the guy who barely beat me in the past will lose now.
Just a different perspective 

Actually I think you kind of agree to agree albeit with a slightly different perspective. I play SF-C and get hte majority of rebounds, do most of the blocking out and get most of the blocks onmy team. I'm definitely a better ball player when I'm also lifting and getting stronger in the gym. But I'm also playing ball at the same time. I'm not saying getting strong in the gym won't make you a stronger ball player but you still need to actually play ball to realise that strength and transition it into game strength. It's the law of specificity. If you want to be a better ball player, play ball. If you want to be a stronger squatter, squat. There's obviously ground everywhere inbetween those two points but you will not become a better ball player by not playing/practicing ball. Period.

30/09/13

Bodyweight- 93.1
Injuries- None
Fatigue- quads and hips a little from yesterdays run
Motivation- High

Warm up (haven't been doing such a lengthy warm up as before. need to find a nice balance here)

Front Squat-
bar x 5
40 x 5
60 x 5
70 x 5
75 x 5

Incline Press-
bar x 5
40 x 5
50 x 5
60 x 3
70 x 5
52.5 x 10, 7, 8, 5

Chins-
3, 3, 3

RDL-
70 x 8, 8, 8

Windshield Wipers (tuck position)
10, 10, 10

FS felt pretty strong. I also had some great encouragement from my son telling me I was doing the wrong exercise followed up by you're not lifting enough weight. Motivational stuff right there 
Came off the third set of chins (had 10 planned) with my left wrist killing me. No idea what happened but it doesn't like being moved to the left right now.
I don't know how to count reps on the wipers if both sides are 1 rep or each side is a rep. Either way I counted each side as 1 rep and realised that my core is pretty damn weak.

It's dangerous getting stuck in the pattern of training for a sport or activity by not actually doing said activity. Yes you're improving your strength but when will you every actually be happy with your progress strength wise? Then if you add experiences like you've just had, your will to become better without actually playing becomes even stronger so you end up spending more time away from the game. I've fallen into this trap myself and the truth of the matter is the guys who play ball more often will always be better ball players than the guys who spend more time in the gym.

26/09/2013

Bodyweight- 92.2
Injuries- None
Fatigue- None
Motivation- pretty high

Warmup and stretches

Deadlift-
60 x 5
80 x 5
100 x 5
120 x 5

Incline Press-
bar x 6
40 x 6
50 x 6
60 x 6, 6, 6, 6

BSS
bar x 8 x 3

Was an interesting training sesh. My wife was out so I was looking after the kids. The youngest (13 months) had just gone to bed and I had my son (nearly 4) with me in the garage/gym. I had the baby monitor on so I could keep an eye on our daughter and as we normally do when she goes to sleep we have some music on for her. So whilst I'm warming up and doing deadlifts I am listening to twinkle twinkle little star on repeat. Bizarre given my usual musical appetite.

Either way the deads felt good. For some reason the last time I did them I tried widening my stance. Totally fucked my shit up and no wonder I hurt my back. Adopted my normal width stance last night and it felt great. 120 for 5 felt heavy but then again I haven't done deads consistently for ages so was pretty happy. 150 for 3 is definitely a legit goal by Christmas.

Am going to use a barbell for BSS. I have olympic dumbells which sounds great in theory but the collars I have are shit and keep sliding off. Figure if I start light with the bar I will get used to it and will be able to balance it ok. I didn't have any balance issues last night so fingers crossed won't have any when I start adding weight.

Have gotten in the gym 3 times this week which is great so just have to keep the momentum going. Will be using the full template I outlined earlier next week so pretty stoked so far.

Just looked at this one again and the gym he's from (not sure the link was there yesterday) is notorious for producing strong lifters.

http://www.ptcfrankston.com/

I have shelved the snatch from my program for the moment. Really need to focus on the basics of training 2-3 times a week and making up some lost ground before I get too tricky. Thinking I will add some jumps in once I get some strength back instead of trying to teach myself a relatively complex lift when I probably don't need it.

21/09/13

AM:
Did the 1000 steps in the morning. Basically a 1.8ish km stair trail in the Dandenongs of outer Melbourne. Is easy in some places and quite steep in others. Walked it twice which was a nice way to warm up the knees and hips and got a good puff going on. There's a 1.8k incline trail which I will look to start running over the next couple of weeks. I walked the trail on the way down and it felt great on the quads and hams. It's quite steep so I had to keep the knees a bit bend throughout. Almost felt like the same action as doing backwards sled pulls.

PM:
Body felt great so jumped in the gym for a quick sesh.

Front Squat:
bar x 5
40 x 5
60 x 5
70 x 5

Incline Bench:
bar x 10
40 x 5
60 x 3
67.5 x 5
50 x 10, 10, 10, 10

FS felt pretty strong. Filmed the last two sets and form seems to be ok. I'll post a vid when the weight gets a little heavier. Had my 3 year old son telling me I was doing it just right throughout the 70kg set so I must be going ok.
Bench was good. 67.5 was hard but got all reps without risk of failure. Will aim for 70 next week which might just be a PR on the incline bench.

*Edit- Toe, back and knee all felt pretty good. Cut away a fair bit of nail on toe to give some relief. Glad I've got a few weeks off ball to save it from getting smashed again. Quite sore in hips, adductors and quads today with a little pain in right knee but all in all feeling quite good*