I feel like I started sidetracking THIS THREAD a bit with my talks of basketball, so I'll let cbaxx have that thread to himself for his log and will start a new thread here just for basketball.

Feel free to discuss anything about the sport here.....fun pickup stories, workout routines, questions, comments, whatever you can think of thats basketball related. In my personal opinion, its far and away the most fun way to get your cardio in. Plus I love the fact that its one of the few team sports that you can have a great time with limited participants(or even all by yourself). I'll copy and paste some of the stuff from the other thread in a few posts here as well.

a routine I did over the summer when I played in college:

How do I raise my PER?

Assani or ne1 else, Im starting SS soon and was thinking about doing a few sets of calf raises sometimes no weight, sometimes weight, 5 days a week as well jumping rope 2 days a week. I also play basketball a few days a week. Is that to much strain on my legs


I heard calf raises are really good for quickness/ups

From Kelly Bagget's VJB:

questions from cbaxx's thread:


No problem, I could talk bball all day long....






A lot of different things work for different people. Just look at Shawn Marion's jump shot for example. And plenty of other NBA guys like Josh Childress, Joakim Noah, and Andris Biedrins have incredibly strange form as well. But it works for them, and thats all that matters. So the bottom line is that if you can get your shot off and make it consistently, then you're all good.

With that said, I can't speak for any of those other methods. However, I can tell you what I did that made me into a very very good shooter:

Step 1: You're only going to use your dominant hand for this. Stand directly in front of the basket, and shoot one handed set shots(if you really need to you can use the off hand to place the ball in the palm of your shooting hand, but otherwise it shouldn't be used at all here). Focus on getting good arc on your shot. Don't worry so much about if your shots are too long or too short. However, you should rarely miss left or right. As you get more comfortable, take a step back and do it from there. Do this until you can shoot one handed shots from at least the foul line and preferably out to the 3 point line. THIS VIDEO should show you specifics of how the ball should feel in your hand as you go to shoot(for now ignore any part about the off hand though). Take your time getting the basics down here before moving on!

Step 2: Again, we're going to start off right in front of the basket and then slowly move back as we get more comfortable. Practice using your off hand to raise the ball up though this time. However, once you raise the ball up above your shoulders, hold your position for a second, remove your off hand, and then shoot a one handed shot just like in Step 1. Many people can get through this step quickly(but don't take that to mean that you can rush through it if you don't feel comfortable!!!).

Step 3: Same routine with starting out right in front of the basket and slowly moving back as you feel more comfortable. This time you're going to leave the off hand on the ball as you shoot(so its a normal shot). Just make sure that your off hand is in no way affecting the path of the ball as you release it. You will be able to know if you're doing it right based upon the rotation of the ball. If its not rotating much then your off hand is getting in the way somehow. And if you are constantly missing to the right or left, then you're probably doing something wrong here(later on once you start shooting more off balanced shots in games you'll miss left or right often...but for now when you're taking your time and working on form and when you're perfectly balanced on each shot, then you really shouldn't miss much to either side).


When you're first learning, I think its very important to stress and hold your follow-through. Basically try to look like Michael Jordan does here after shooting: LINK.



Yeah, definitely only one ball to start out(in fact, I've never done two ball drills). The ones Mike Conley was doing there are pretty advanced. You can do much simpler ones. And if you have to look down at first, then thats ok, but be aware of it and try to be able to complete the drills while looking up as soon as you are able.

HERE are some examples. Try searching youtube, as there are a ton more videos out there. And except for looking down when you dribble, there are very few "wrong" things you can do with dribbling drills. I'd say just youtube/google a bunch of them and pick 10 or so that you feel comfortable with to start out. Try adding in a new more advanced drill every few weeks if possible.



If you're not the fastest person, then you're going to need to be able to change pace quickly in order to get by defenders. This drill helps a lot with that, as it forces you to quickly transition from one type of dribbling(high up, normal dribbling) to a much more attack-oriented dribble(real down low where you can quickly race by a defender). In fact, it and V-dribbles are the only two drills that I'd absolutely insist upon you doing.



Search youtube for "NBA 3 point contest" and see the 5 points on the floor where they shoot from.


Drive either right or left(usually with only one or maybe two dribbles), suddenly stop, shoot the ball.

This video is really good imo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfX22LEILA0

oh and definitely do NOT worry about pullup jumpers until you're completely comfortable with your shooting form. They'll often put you in an unbalanced position, and doing that before you have your form down is just going to complicate things.

its greatly overrates many inefficient bulk scorers, so just shoot every time you touch the ball

No. I would strongly recommend that you ONLY do SS at first(that probably even includes basketball). After a few weeks, start adding in basketball drills or pickup games if you feel comfortable. Judging by your posts, I think you're underestimating just how taxing SS can be on your body. Even if you're a great natural athlete, pushing yourself with tough 3 x 5 sets is really going to take a toll on you.

I partially tore my right calf when starting out SS because I made the same mistake that it looks like you're going to make: overtraining. Instead of worrying so much about calf raises or anything else, i'd look into a good foam rolling program(or maybe something like yoga) for your off days at first.

edited to add: +1 to anklebreaker's post also

bbv: played ball for a high school that just had TWO guys taken in the draft (i predated them considerably)...

Game I play in broke early tonight, leaving me all alone. I stayed and tried Assani's shooting drill. Got to 8/10 3 times on the first part before the lights went off. Am going to try it again tomorrow a couple times.

did a light shoot around outside today(vacationing at parent's house, so no gym access). I forgot how much I hate playing outside. The court was a complete joke(literally on a hill, which has to be the dumbest thing ever), the double rims were extremely unforgiving, and the wind would mess me up on one shot and then I'd miss because I was thinking about the wind on the next one! Kinda frusterating, but at least I got a few shots up.

i saw some1 dislocate their knee the other day for the 4th time in his career, not a pretty site. ambulances had to come.

i also like slapping the back board when i go for a lay up.

Ugh, I hate watching injuries happen so much. Many of the famous pro injuries(Shaun Livingston for example) I've still never seen to this day because I refuse to look at the TV when they come on.

Oh and yeah, slapping the backboard hard on an aggressive drive feels awesome.

Thanks for this thread. I wanted to get into bball. I played in H.S. but not for the team(I did try out). I'm short and a terrible shooter so I didn't make the team but I was highly praised for my defense.

I had been going to the gym but didn't have any set routine. Basically I would shoot from random spots on the floor, mostly close and mid-range shots, many off the dribble pulling up or stepping back and usually end with 3s. Now that I have those drills I'll probably do them 3x a week on off days of SS instead of normal cardio. I don't think my game is good enough yet(or my cardio, I'm out of shape) to start playing games yet but I'm gonna get there eventually. Will probably use this thread to post questions, progress, etc.

My childhood friend is Josh Childress' brother and he plays a lot to, actually played overseas a bit. He plays with a bunch of my family and friends all the time so I told him eventually I'm gonna start playing with them. He's an incredible player though, it's really crazy to me how good someone could be and not make the League. Shows you just how good the pros are.

Hopefully I can get my game to a point where I'm a pretty good weekend warrior and start being at least someone feared on the court or just have people say "Yea he's pretty good."

Just a question, you did all 5 of those drills in a workout and it took about 1 hour, right? Not one drill for an hour each day. I think just Drill 1 might take me an hour for now since my shot is terrible.

Yea, all the drills combined would usually take between 60-90 minutes. As for any of the drills I posted, feel free to adjust them to fit your own skill level. With the range finder, you need to find a proper balance: Tough enough that its a challenge for you, but easy enough that you don't get discouraged by your results. Maybe set the goals to 7/10 on the first and then 4/7 on the rest instead and give that a try. I'd say that you'd want it so that you occassionally(maybe 10% of the time) complete every single spot on the first try and so that you rarely have to spend 20+ minutes trying to complete it on your bad shooting days(the drill is mostly to "find your range" hence the name...its not meant to give you a great cardio workout, as you get that from the other drills....so if you find yourself taking a long time to complete it, then adjust the required number of makes down a bit).

Couple years ago my buddy and I would play 1 on 1 pick up games of 21 at the park. Sometimes we would join in some games that were going, but there weren't always games. My buddy had a crush on this chick so he invited her. She was a friend from work so it was cool. My friend and I are both about 6' 1" and she's about 5'3". She came a couple times and won almost every game, and NOT because we were going easy on her. Mad dribbling skills. And my buddy and I have no shooting skills.

Also, I heard that when an NBA player lands after jumping the floor sinks about 6 inches. Is that true?

i play 5on5 full court games, and gym it frequently. what should i work on to improve my vertical, besides obvious lifts and squats and such. sprints?

Never ever heard of this. I've played on a NBA court before(Phoenix Suns) and I weighed 205 lbs at the time, and I didn't experience any such thing.



Squats and deadlifts should be enough. If you get your squat to 2x your bodyweight, you should be dunking unless you have a really short standing reach imo. Other than that, just try to lower your body fat.

excellent thread... what would the best "affordable" all-purpose ball be. I would like to play outdoors so should I get two balls? I played a bit in junior high but played competitive hockey for awhile. I'm a bit dude who wants to have some fun cardio.

nike tacktician all the way, i've used mine forever on concrete and it's still plenty grippy without feeling like rubber

I've actually never found an outdoor ball that has held up for more than a few months, although thats probably because I use it so often. Therefore, I've always preferred to just get a cheaper($15-20) ball and replace it every ~3 months rather than spend $30+ for some of the nicer ones. This actually reminds me....

During my summers off from college, I had the absolute best job ever: I lived in a private community that had a ridiculously nice outdoor court($2000 backboards, full length, looked brand new, etc.). And so everyone from the area would go there to play, which upset some people from the community since it was so crowded(plus it was mostly HS kids, and they were all really loud and some fights would break out from time to time). So they paid me $8/hour and gave me 52 hour workweeks to stand out there and ask to see people's community ID cards before letting them onto the court. I worked literally every single day during the summer unless it was raining, in which case I'd go inside(lived right across the street) and then come out when it stopped.

I played so much basketball that after a few weeks the skin on all of my fingers started to wear right off! So I had to tape all of my fingers up to just be able to bounce a basketball without bleeding all over it.



As for indoor balls, I'm a big fan of the Wilson Evolution. And yes, if you're going to be playing both indoors and outdoors, then I'd get a separate ball just to be used indoors.



edited to add: Never tried the nike tacktician though, so maybe give that a try.

Jumping rope is an excellent plyometric workout that is good for fat loss (most effective if done in intervals) and should help with your vertical leap.

kyle, whats your opinion on Jumpsoles or other similar type of "vertical leap improvement shoes"? I used those in college(just jumped rope with them on or did things like box jumps) and noticed some results, but I was also losing bodyfat so the results could've come more from that.

From a quick Google search, they seem like they would work. Specificity of exercise is pretty important when trying to increase your vertical leap. That being said, I'd just play basketball, squat, and jump rope if I wanted to increase my vertical leap.