Fitness tips from Kelly Wenger, a certified personal trainer with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Kelly will be sharing her knowledge right here on The Dabbelt Report as she discusses various subjects on fitness, nutrition, strength and conditioning for the young female athletes. Check her blog out often right here!
Let's take a more in-depth look at basketball strength-training. The stronger an athlete is, the better a player will be at facing other strong players. The stronger a player is directly correlates to their ability to hold their own in the paint, boxing out, going for a rebound, following through with a shot to continue the motion/act of shooting when fouled on a breakaway, or even in traffic putting up a jump shot. The stronger a player is, the better form will be - whether shooting, passing, or defending. Being able to out-muscle, or at the very least go toe-to-toe with another player is an important part one should not overlook. How many times have you or someone else you know been hesitant to try and drive to the hoop and take contact while trying to score? Building strength is a great confidence booster for your game too because if you're strong enough to take a hit and still be able to put up a shot, chances are you'll be at the free throw line looking to convert because the refs will signal an act of shooting foul rather than just a bump foul. Why? Because you were strong enough to get the shot up and that's exactly what it looks like and not that a defender just stuffed you solid. Sounds good, right?
Let's take it a bit further. Functional full body strength trumps regular weight training. Lifting that mimics basketball movements is best. In the video I've posted below, highlighted are three exercises athletes should incorporate into their workouts. The first one is called a Thruster. This movement should be performed explosively starting with power from your legs translating through the core and up through the shoulders. This is a great exercise to help build that strength necessary for going into the paint and getting off a shot while being bumped around. The second exercise is a jump squat. Jumping is pretty frequent in basketball and we all want to include jump endurance and strength. The third exercise is a great core exercise that mimics the movement of players protecting the ball after grabbing a rebound and staying stabilized and strong throughout. Please click on the link below which will take you to my YouTube account where I demonstrate and talk a little bit more about each exercise.
Next week, we'll take a closer look at basketball conditioning.
July 6, 2010
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend!
For those of you who may have heard my speech at the Aqua Falls Shootout in Dayton, OH, last Sunday, I mentioned the importance of implementing strength and conditioning into your weekly routine. While any bit of weight training and running will be beneficial for all female athletes, it is important to maximize your potential as a basketball player and the best way to do that is to train as specific to game movements as possible. For example, a soccer player isn’t going to find increases in skill and ability on a soccer field training like a tennis player or a football player would. To be the best basketball player you can be, you must train specifically to what the similarities and demands of playing basketball are. This includes training for quickness, agility, power, and strength. Basketball isn’t a long distance sport, but a sport with a lot of starts and stops, short bursts of maximal effort, lateral movements, and jumps. Running 3 miles a day is not going to yield the same result as running gassers, sprints, ladders, lateral slides, depth jumps, and other plyometric exercises. Proprioception training is another great method because injuries can be common and learning how to control your joint movements in space when you stop on a dime and quickly move in another direction can become critical to staying injury-free.
I’m going to run a two-part series over the next two weeks – one blog focusing entirely on strength training for basketball and specific exercises that will be helpful and a second blog focusing on the conditioning aspect of training as a basketball player. Incorporating the following regimen into your training schedule will help tremendously! I’ll be posting videos on my YouTube account (links will be included in the blogs) so that you can fully understand how to perform the exercises.
Lastly, feel free to contact me with questions or comments at kelly.wenger203@gmail.com or you can follow me on Twitter @kdubfitness. Thanks guys, I’ll talk to you soon!
June 28, 2010
I want to talk a little bit about ACL injury prevention first. Female athletes are up to 6x more likely to suffer a non-contact ACL injury than male athletes. This is due to the fact that females are more quadriceps-dominated while males have stronger hamstrings. The hamstrings play a key part in stabilizing the knee joint and prevent the tibia from sliding anterior (forward) from the femur. For example, when a female athlete jumps and lands, the quadriceps muscles are stronger so they take on the brunt of the force of the landing, causing a straighter leg landing. This can be very hard on the knee joint. If females focused on strengthening the hamstrings to balance out the quadriceps strength, the landing would include much more hip and knee flexion (a cushioned land, and much easier on the ACL and knee joint).
It can be difficult to sometimes for athletes to return to the game at full-strength because the ACL injury can be challenging for the athlete to feel 100% confident their knee will hold up post-rehab. Avoiding injuries all together is never a sure thing, but there are ways to significantly reduce the risk of ACL injury in female athletes and I will address those ways.
Why is ACL so important?
-The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is a short ligament inside the knee connecting the femur with the tibia. The ACL maintains knee stability by preventing these bones from moving too far away from each other, either forward or to the side. It can be strained, partially or completely torn. An intact ACL is very important to knee function in competitive sports like soccer that require a lot of sudden stops, starts and changes of direction. Although athletes who have a torn ACL can sometimes continue to play their sports, their physical ability is markedly reduced because of the instability of that knee. ACL tears greatly affect an athlete’s psyche and the fear of re-injury may keep an athlete from playing competitive sports in the future.
Managing an athlete’s rehab program, as well as their general mental health about the injury is important to bringing the athlete back to the playing field stronger and more confident to play the sport without fear of re-injury.
Females are up to 6x more likely to suffer a non-contact ACL injury than male counterparts.
Several factors include:
1. Hormone differences (Estrogen makes ligaments looser. One small study found a higher rate of ACL tears around mid-cycle (days 10-14) when estrogen levels peak)
2. Anatomic differences (Angle of knee: Because women’s hips are wider, the femur comes down to the knee at a sharper angle, placing additional stress on the ACL)
3. Motor control factors
-The anatomic and neuromuscular risk factors, often gender related, are the focus of most ACLinjury prevention programs.
ACL Prevention Strengthening Exercises
-Razor curl: Because women have weaker hamstrings than men, implementing this exercise focuses on medial hamstring strengthening within a functional exercise that is sport-specific. The natural position of most athletes is with hips and knees flexed, typically called a stance. From the stance position, quick movements in each plane of motion are made. The Razor curl is performed with the hips and knees flexed to promote optimal strengthening of the hamstring group while allowing the athlete to remain in a position of sport function. NOTE: Not many gyms have the apparatus for this exercise to be performed.
-Partner-assisted hamstring curls: A great alternative to the Razor curl because no apparatus is needed. This exercise also isolates the hamstrings. (See Youtube video here on how to perform)
-Perturbation Training: perturbation training program appears to reduce the risk of continued episodes of giving way of the knee during athletic participation and allows subjects to maintain their functional status for longer periods.
-Method of training that Training in which the ability to oppose and counter an equal or greater weight or force and maintain or recover balance.
-Proprioception Training: Proprioception is the ability to locate the extremities in space without looking.
- Proprioception training is highly common in rehabilitation of injured athletes, but it can just as easily be used to prevent injury.
-Changing your center of gravity to match your moves is the key to efficiency in sport. The
technical term is agility. Agility is what allows us to move gracefully, wasting little motion. It allows our joints to move through the full range of motion smoothly and confidently.
Kelly Wenger is from Tipp City, Ohio where she graduated high school in 2002. During her basketball career at Tippecanoe, Kelly received many individual accolades and honors, including Conference Player of the Year, 1st Team All-District, 1st Team All-Area, Honorable Mention All-State, and 1st Team Academic All-Ohio in 2002. She helped lead the Lady Red Devils to two conference championships. Kelly went on to play basketball at Wittenberg University but suffered a career-ending shoulder injury in her first year. Kelly has a B.A. in Communication from The Ohio State University and is a National Strength and Conditioning Association certified personal trainer (NSCA-CPT). Kelly now resides in Columbus, Ohio, and is a trainer at Lifestyle Family Fitness. In addition to training, she is enrolled to obtain a second degree in Athletic Training at Otterbein College and further, her Doctorate of Physical Therapy. To reach Kelly with a question, send an email to kelly.wenger203@gmail.com.
