My sister is going to be a junior in high school and wants to play division 1 basketball. I went to a few of her games this week and one weakness I've identified is upper body strength. Ironically she's lucky in that she developed late as relative to her cohorts growing up she was short and had to develop guard skills. Now she's 6'1", 140 lbs and potentially still growing (she's all legs with a tiny torso which I imagine could lengthen still). She has a strong lower half allowing for good speed and quickness for her size. While she handles the ball well and has range, she often finds herself often having to bang with bigs. I liken her to a female version of Tayshaun Prince (she happens to be a southpaw as well). Tayshaun can play the 3 for the Pistons, but my sister is the tallest player on her high school team and can't be protected by other bigs. I was impressed to find out she can do chin-ups, so despite the fact that her arms look like sticks out there, she does have some muscle. She currently does some light free weight work and I want to know what else I should have her do. Would creatine help her bulk up? I know she'll never be able to move the 180+ heffers, but I'd like for her to be able to hold her own down low.

protien son

Read the FAQ.

starting strength. If she doesn't want to or can't learn cleans, she can sub with chins/pullups. She'll progress slower and have to make smaller jumps, so get her some microloading plates. She probably doesn't want to get superfat, so maybe just tell her to up her protein intake, replacing some of the other calories.

She's 6'1 140. She probably needs 20-30 lbs to look like a normal girl. Being fat is the least of her worries.

yeah, you're probably right, I really don't have any bearings on height/weight for girls.

you should post this on a basketball training forum. having d1 genetics is something that many a high schooler wishes for. she might have them. if she really wants this its worth putting effort into better research

Yeah, she's pretty grossly underweight. You can use a BMI to get a rough idea.

Though my BMI has me as overweight. So scale up.

Thing is, if she needs to get stronger, the best way to do it at first is just a generic strength program like starting strength.

I think her time is best spent getting stronger (not just upper body either), and working on her skillz. Skillz will probably pay off more but strength is not hard or time consuming to gain, so why not.

agreed, i didnt really read the thread close enough and op's main concern was gaining weight not developing skills/talents,

Thanks all for your replies. Tonight for dinner she ate an entire chicken breast whereas normally she'd only eat a half at best and chow down on pasta and veggies. She put it in sandwich form which I think helped. She's like me in that she won't eat as much meat if it's just a fillet.

I know the athletic trainer at her high school (she's transferring into prep school for her junior and senior years) and I think I'll ask him to design a program for her.

This week was only the second time she's been exposed to D1 coaches so hopefully she'll get some more letters in the coming weeks. Last year she received a letter from Brown; the rest were from D3 programs. It's too bad family members can't talk to coaches/scouts because there were some really cute women who are obviously really into hoops. My kinda girl.

I think her combination of talent and height is pretty rare so I hope she makes the most of this.

There are two kinds of physical preparedness: general and specific.

Things like crossfit deal with GPP (General Physical Preparedness). SPP (Specific "" "") would be your basketball type stuff. From my fairly brief time as an athlete and more impressive career as a guy with a keyboard, you typically do more GPP out of season. I'm don't know whether your sister plays AAU ball (Do girls have this?) or what is going on. But if she's a rising junior she has a decent amount of time before her senior year. TBK is spot on with whats needed for gaining size/general strength for someone who's never lifted before.

FWIW the trainer is probably an idiot. I'd be shocked if they put together something better than a basic quasi-machine circuit and then added in a weird "plyo" workout 2x a week.