16 year old balancing off season lifting with club/AAU basketball

mreichard

My son is a 16 year old basketball player who just finished his season yesterday. As he was leaving his last game, the coach said to him "I need you in the weight room A LOT during the off season." He is 6'4" and about 160#. Despite not having strong legs, he has a good vertical, and playing at/above the rim is becoming a big part of his game. He and his coaches would love to increase his vertical so that he can dunk better and more easily get alley oops and putbacks. Coaches also want him to generally have a stronger upper body so that he can better deal with contact.

He has lifted a bit here and there, but never very seriously. So I plan to suggest that he start on a full body, progressive resistance program like Stronglifts (I like SL for him because it has a good app and is very simple to use).

My question is this -- he will be playing AAU basketball until almost August, and I'm wondering how to balance off-season style lifting with the AAU season. The AAU team will probably have two 90 minute practices a week and a tournament every other weekend that will be 3-6 games over 2-3 days. He will be jumping a lot in practice and games (he's supposed to dunk pretty much all layups in practice now, which takes some effort for a 6'4" kid). I worry that doing squats in addition to all the jumping for practice will lead to knee pain or injury, and also I know that if his legs are wiped out a leg workout, he will have a hard time jumping well in a subsequent practice or game, which will bum him out.

Am I right to be concerned about injury and fatigue? Does anyone know how other high school athletes handle this? Any ideas for modifications to StrongLifts to reduce the risk of injury while still getting the strength benefits?

musicfan68

My nephews are in basketball and they are pretty much required to work out in the weight room at school before school. I would think the coaches would be the best to ask these questions, since he would probably need to do a workout tailored to his needs in basketball.

mreichard

Actually, the coaches are not great with strength training, they are not involved with his AAU club so they're unaware of conflicts, and the school weight room is frequently not available (being used for track now). That's why I'm asking a fairly specific question here. Thanks.

usmcmp

Without fully understanding his schedule and his capabilities I don't think any of us can help. This is one of those things where you should consider investing in a personal trainer who specializes in youth and sports exercise. Some lifting can help keep his knees healthy, but he'd really be best off working with someone who can program around his schedule.

mreichard

Thanks to the folks who have replied - I really appreciate folks taking the time.

I totally get the notion of asking coaches or finding a trainer. I should have explained in my initial post that he has asked coaches and I've looked for an appropriate strength trainer (i.e. one that works with HS athletes) for a while with no real success. The best advice I've gotten has been from his basketball skills trainer (a former pro and professional team coach and current pro trainer), who told my son "go to the gym with your dad and get him to start you on a full body program that includes squats." So, that's what I plan to do, and that's why I'm asking this question.

In terms of schedule, as I said he'll have two 90 minute practices a week and 3-6 games every other weekend. He will do some basketball skills training almost every day (45 minutes to an hour of shooting and ball handling) and a serious skills workout one weekend day when he doesn't have a tournament. In terms of capabilities, he's a beginner/untrained lifter with low body fat and low muscle mass. With basically no prior training he can bench maybe 115, squat like 140 and OHP 80. He's never tried to deadlift AFAIK.

If anyone has experience with their kid trying to fit lifting in with club/year round sports and/or recommendations about programming, I'd really appreciate it.

myheartsabattleground

Get him doing DVDs like P90X, Insanity, PiYo, etc.

mreichard

Thanks for responding. I did p-90x a couple of times when I was losing weight and enjoyed it. However, that or insanity are not good choices for a high school athlete looking to add muscle mass. To really build mass, you need a full body, progressive resistance lifting program. That's why I am asking for specific ideas related to doing a program like stronglifts or starting strength while also playing club basketball.

Chieflrg

Generally speaking off season 3x a week with Starting Strength would yield better strength results.

In season, 2x a week lifting once again generally speaking and then practice basketball to improve his skills. There really isn't a defined way to lay it out since the exact schedule of the season has to be known along with a close eye on fatigue, intensity of each practice, etc...
It's really takes a coach who can has more access info that you can't give us overy a forum post.

Lean59man

Have him do power cleans and push presses a couple times a week. 5 sets of 3 reps pyramiding the weight. Power clean the weight and push press it overhead.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PowerClean.html

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

No need to do squats or bench pressing or miscellaneous bodybuilding exercises. They are too slow of movements to benefit jumping ability.

He's only 16 so don't expect him to gain 50 lbs. overnight. He is burning a ton of calories with his activities.

Don't over-stress the kid too much.

usmcmp

Lean59man wrote: »

Have him do power cleans and push presses a couple times a week. 5 sets of 3 reps pyramiding the weight. Power clean the weight and push press it overhead.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PowerClean.html

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

No need to do squats or bench pressing or miscellaneous bodybuilding exercises. They are too slow of movements to benefit jumping ability.

He's only 16 so don't expect him to gain 50 lbs. overnight. He is burning a ton of calories with his activities.

Don't over-stress the kid too much.

That's a pretty technical lift. I'm not sure I would suggest a 16 year old start doing them without learning from a certified trainer.

Lean59man

usmcmp wrote: »

Lean59man wrote: »

Have him do power cleans and push presses a couple times a week. 5 sets of 3 reps pyramiding the weight. Power clean the weight and push press it overhead.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PowerClean.html

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

No need to do squats or bench pressing or miscellaneous bodybuilding exercises. They are too slow of movements to benefit jumping ability.

He's only 16 so don't expect him to gain 50 lbs. overnight. He is burning a ton of calories with his activities.

Don't over-stress the kid too much.

That's a pretty technical lift. I'm not sure I would suggest a 16 year old start doing them without learning from a certified trainer.

Power cleans and push press are very simple. No need to involve a trainer. Good grief.

rybo

So basically he has no off season. It's going to be very tricky to give you anything other than very broad, basic advice.
I'd keep his lifting volume on the lower side, and stick with the basics. I'd also incorporate single leg movements (lunges, step ups, etc) He would probably even benefit from basic things like push ups, pull ups, and farmers carries. If taught properly, kettlebell swings (Russian) would be a good movement too.

stanmann571

Lean59man wrote: »

Have him do power cleans and push presses a couple times a week. 5 sets of 3 reps pyramiding the weight. Power clean the weight and push press it overhead.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PowerClean.html

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

No need to do squats or bench pressing or miscellaneous bodybuilding exercises. They are too slow of movements to benefit jumping ability.

He's only 16 so don't expect him to gain 50 lbs. overnight. He is burning a ton of calories with his activities.

Don't over-stress the kid too much.

He'll get more benefit and less risk from doing KBell Swings.

stanmann571

rybo wrote: »

So basically he has no off season. It's going to be very tricky to give you anything other than very broad, basic advice.
I'd keep his lifting volume on the lower side, and stick with the basics. I'd also incorporate single leg movements (lunges, step ups, etc) He would probably even benefit from basic things like push ups, pull ups, and farmers carries. If taught properly, kettlebell swings (Russian) would be a good movement too.

Beat me to it.

mreichard

Thanks everyone. I'll look into kettlebell swings (where to find someone that can teach that). Also, I hear the recommendation to keep volume on the low side. I think he's going to have to do that because of all the basketball training and jumping.

stanmann571

mreichard wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I'll look into kettlebell swings (where to find someone that can teach that). Also, I hear the recommendation to keep volume on the low side. I think he's going to have to do that because of all the basketball training and jumping.

Pavel's Simple and sinister or Sara Lurie's Kettlebell video. $20 and $7 on amazon respectively.

Packerjohn

If you're in or near a community of any size there are specific gyms or gyms that offer programs for HS athletes. My community of about 150k people has at least 4 I can think of.

mitch16

We run into the same issue with our son--he is a 3 sport athlete at the high school and plays club lacrosse summer through fall. He works out at a strength and conditioning facility that specializes in high school and college athletes under the supervision of certified coaches/trainers. They differentiate by sport--the lacrosse players are on a slightly different track than the hockey players who are on a slightly different track from basketball players. During the fall and winter, depending on his other sports schedules, he will go there 2-3 days per week for about 90 minutes each time. During the summer he goes 5 mornings a week. Given that you are in a major metropolitan area you should be able to find something similar (we are on the northshore of Boston).

A quick Google search of the DC area gives me this: http://eliteathletetraining.com/contact-us/ which looks pretty similar to my son's facility.

JAYxMSxPES

Here's my two-cents.

In school we studies quite a bit about the emergence of major injuries occurring in adolescent athletes; things like ACL tears, ankle injuries, etc. Once something like an ACL tear occurs, that person has approximately a 23% chance of doing it again and the knee is such a critical joint. Related issues are year-around sports without a proper strength program. My personal feeling is that kids need a true off-season from their main sport. It doesn't mean they can't practice, but give them an off-season; even pro's take an off-season. Statistics aside, I've had a few friends ruin their college and even 1 professional career because of year-around baseball & basketball. The son of a good friend of mine tore his ACL two years ago and he was being offered D1 scholarships in his junior year; he played year-around basketball too. If your son is a good enough athlete to get noticed by scouts, he will get noticed in high school. If he's not, then all the basketball in the world won't improve his skill enough to get noticed. I'm not saying that to be mean, I just urge a little caution with these year-around programs. Even if he played a different sport in the off-season that would be better. Either way it is very hard to balance a sport and full-time strength program because there is little recover in-between bouts of the sport (practice or game) and the training itself. Proper recovery is critical.

You probably just need to talk with your son about how serious he wants to pursue a post-high school basketball career. Take an off-season with a proper strength training program and possibly work with basketball trainer on drills just to keep-up and improve various techniques associated with basketball, and then have your basketball season with 1 to 2 (at most) strength training sessions to mitigate loss of gains from the post-season program.

Getting strong for team sports is different than just somebody trying to get strong. You need to build maximal strength (translates to vertical jump, throwing, etc), power, core strength (reduced chance of injury & proprioception), and agility and quickness. Having a program like this would be difficult to maintain while participating in a light-season of basketball. I would strongly suggest finding a strength & conditioning coach with an NSCA - CSCS or NASM - PES certification. These are individuals that know how to train athletes specifically and can council you further. This will really help enhance is overall athleticism and hopefully provide some injury protection.

Lean59man

JAYxMSxPES wrote: »

Here's my two-cents.

In school we studies quite a bit about the emergence of major injuries occurring in adolescent athletes; things like ACL tears, ankle injuries, etc. Once something like an ACL tear occurs, that person has approximately a 23% chance of doing it again and the knee is such a critical joint. Related issues are year-around sports without a proper strength program. My personal feeling is that kids need a true off-season from their main sport. It doesn't mean they can't practice, but give them an off-season; even pro's take an off-season. Statistics aside, I've had a few friends ruin their college and even 1 professional career because of year-around baseball & basketball. The son of a good friend of mine tore his ACL two years ago and he was being offered D1 scholarships in his junior year; he played year-around basketball too. If your son is a good enough athlete to get noticed by scouts, he will get noticed in high school. If he's not, then all the basketball in the world won't improve his skill enough to get noticed. I'm not saying that to be mean, I just urge a little caution with these year-around programs. Even if he played a different sport in the off-season that would be better. Either way it is very hard to balance a sport and full-time strength program because there is little recover in-between bouts of the sport (practice or game) and the training itself. Proper recovery is critical.

You probably just need to talk with your son about how serious he wants to pursue a post-high school basketball career. Take an off-season with a proper strength training program and possibly work with basketball trainer on drills just to keep-up and improve various techniques associated with basketball, and then have your basketball season with 1 to 2 (at most) strength training sessions to mitigate loss of gains from the post-season program.

Getting strong for team sports is different than just somebody trying to get strong. You need to build maximal strength (translates to vertical jump, throwing, etc), power, core strength (reduced chance of injury & proprioception), and agility and quickness. Having a program like this would be difficult to maintain while participating in a light-season of basketball. I would strongly suggest finding a strength & conditioning coach with an NSCA - CSCS or NASM - PES certification. These are individuals that know how to train athletes specifically and can council you further. This will really help enhance is overall athleticism and hopefully provide some injury protection.

Good post.

In addition to the physical wear and tear from year round sports, there is also the mental wear and tear which can result in burnout.

The kid get burned out and doesn't want to play anymore. Believe me it happens all the time.

As Jay said above, if the kid has what it takes, people will notice. Cream rises to the top.