As I mentioned in last week’s blog, we (Montrose Christian) are currently preparing to play in the 2nd Annual ESPN RISE National High School Invitational. We drew the 8th seed and will play the tournament’s #1 seed, Montverde Academy (ranked 9th in the nation by ESPN) at Coppin State (Baltimore) on ESPN U at 2:00pm on Thursday, April 1st.
Montverde Academy, coached by the brilliant Kevin Sutton, beat us in late January by 2 points… which in retrospect was the exact moment our season began to unravel (considering we lost our next two games). So we are excited to have the opportunity to play them again! National powers Oak Hill (VA), Findlay Prep (NV), Winter Park (FL), and Christ School (NC) are also playing, making this the nation’s top post-season high school tournament.
Our coaching staff decided to take an entirely different approach to our preparation for this tournament. We wanted to shake things up, start anew, and put this past season’s adversities behind us.
To initiate this “new beginning”, on our first day back we decided to have the team come over to my training facility for a team workout, instead of having a normal practice. We felt this change of scenery and break from the norm would help get their competitive juices flowing and set the tone for the next couple of weeks. We were right!
I put the team through an intense circuit training workout. I filmed the workout and have posted it as three separate videos on our YouTube channel.
Montrose Basketball Team Warm-up
Montrose Basketball Team Circuit
Montrose Basketball Team Competition
You have to see these videos!
Here is a description of the workout:
We began with an active warm-up:
- Movement series
- Walk backwards with long strides, walk backwards staying low, “awkward” walk forward, stationary step behind lunge, and stationary crossover lunge
- Medicine ball series
- Front pivots (rip the ball through high for 5 and low for 5) (10 pivots each foot)
- One foot balance and reach (Reach to the front, left, right, back) (3 reaches each direction / each foot)
- Triple threat first step (long jab / first step) (10 long steps each foot)
- Tire pushes (with partner) (10 pushes with two feet, 10 pushes on one foot / each foot)
- Rope hops (full rope with both feet and half the rope with each foot individually)
We set up a metabolic conditioning circuit for the upper and lower body. There were 10 stations. Each player worked for 1:00 and then rested for 1:00 (when they switched stations).
- High step up with 75 lb. sandbag (med ball substitute)
- Tire flips and pogo jumps (two different size tires: 300-400 lb and a 500-600 lb)
- Medicine ball defensive slide and throw (12 lb ball)
- Vertimax rim touches / dunks (heavy cord, level one)
- Rope climb with elevated feet (2” diameter rope)
- Kettlebell Turkish get-ups (15 lb and 25 lb Kettlebells)
- Band high pulls / low pulls (heavy resistance cord)
- High bar jump pull-ups (one bar set at 10’ and one set at 9’ 6”)
- Band push-ups (medium resistance band)
- Sled pulls (150 lbs)
Once the circuit was complete, we did three competitive drills where the players accumulated points (overall winner was awarded a prize). WARNING: two of these drills our players hadn’t done since elementary school! But they loved it!
Freeze tag: we made a 25’ x 25’ box and played tag with 4 players (1 person was “it”). They had 10 seconds to tag all three players. They got one point for each person they tagged. Each group took 40 seconds (all 4 people were “it”). We went through it twice.
Card catch: I had a standard deck of playing cards and would throw them in the air and the players tried to catch them before they hit the ground. This is very, very difficult as the cards flutter around unpredictably. It is an awesome drill for hand/eye coordination and lateral movement. They got one point for each catch (I threw 10 cards per player). Once all 10 ten cards had been thrown, they had to sprint/slide and touch each card as fast as possible.
Tug of war: I divided the team into two, 5-man groups and let them play good old fashioned tug of war. We did the best two out of three. The winning team each got 2 points. Even though it was mid-March, we were lucky enough to have a beautiful 65 degree day… hence the reason we finished outdoors.
I think injecting a workout like this into your off-season program once a month is ideal.
If you need additional help or guidance with your off-season program, I am currently finalizing a comprehensive, detailed 12 Week Off-Season Basketball Strength & Conditioning Program. This program will outline exactly what needs to be done this off-season – exercise by exercise, day by day, and week by week. It will be available the first week of April at http://Shop.StrongerTeam.com.
Also, as a reminder I am launching a YouTube series called “Can He Dunk?”, where I will document a rigorous training program for a select group of high school players… and see if I can get them to dunk after 10 weeks of training! Make sure you subscribe to www.YouTube.com/StrongerTeamDotCom so you don’t miss any of the action.
On a personal note, my beautiful wife gave birth to our twin boys (Jack and Luke) earlier this week. Granted I am biased, but they are both pretty handsome. Several scouting services already have them ranked in the Top 5 of the Class of 2028! All kidding aside, I am so very thankful for these new additions and am so excited for this new chapter in my life. I look forward to the joy (and challenge) of being a parent!
If you would like to receive FREE monthly “coaching nuggets” please make sure you join our email list at www.StrongerTeam.com. You can sign up directly under the menu bar on the left side of the homepage. These “coaching nuggets” are handouts, notes, and stories I have accumulated from some brilliant basketball minds.
If you need anything else, or if I can be of service in any way, don’t hesitate to email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com. I will respond as quickly as possible.
Play hard. Have fun.
Alan Stein
