Adarq.org

That sucks man! Hopefully the worst is over, you'll be back in no time!

Cool, I'll check it out!

Went and did some drills/conditioning work before playing. Low back is major sore from Tuesdays workout, quads and glutes are feeling better. Figured I wouldn't be very bouncy tonight but had more than I thought. I'll toss up a vid of a dunk in a minute from after the games. 

Liquid chalk? I have not heard of that, I'm going to check the rules again next time I go down there.

No. I have straps but I don't like using them. I can definitely lift more with them but when I don't use them my grip strength gets better which directly helps my ball control on court. Kind of a catch 22 but I'll always pick being better on court over being stronger in the weight room.

I'll take a stab at answering this since I've played ball since I was very young (and played and continue to play against some pretty legit competition).

Parts of what all of you are saying is right:

LBSS is right that it is a skill, its a learned behavior. My small PG buddy couldn't always protect the ball like that in the lane, it is a learned skill through years of playing. He's developed his own way to hang on to the ball in traffic and through contact, just like I have even though our methods are completely different.

Entropy is right as well in that he can barely bench his own weight and his squat is pathetically weak (were working on that though lol) but he seems "strong" on the court.

Raptor says its "system strength" or that he just has no weak areas. That's true WHEN HES ON THE COURT. He HAS to be, he's been doing those same movements all his life. Put him on a football field or hockey rink and you'd expose all sorts of functional strength deficits! Take a farmer that tosses hay bales all day every day...look at him in his element and yes, hes "strong", take him away from that element and what happens though? You'll find weakness. (This is why SST is SO important as well!)

And Mutumbo go to probably the heart of it.... He's NOT a pussy. (can't think of any better way to put it actually). He knows he's going to get it, all the small guys do, we still go in there and bang because we don't give a fuck, we just want to win and thats the bottom line.

It's a mindset. A mental toughness polished through years of competitive play and the nature of a true competitor. You can't get that in the weight room, you can't get hit during drills or shooting sessions or even the most intense practice. It's forged on the field of play. Period.

Alright. Rough plan is 6-8 weeks, goals are 355 for reps on squats and 345 for deadlift, no real goal for calves just continue getting stronger. I'd like to stay around 175lb BW and I'm going to add a few depth or box jumps and some pogos/ankle bounces to my SVJ/RVJ warmup jumps to try and keep a little RFD. That's the plan so we'll see how it goes.

Monday Sept 30 2013

BW at 174-177lbs (told you I are like crap lol)
No soreness or anything and my energy and focus was very good, body definitely wanted to lift after a few days off.

Warmup+jumps

Squat:
225x3 275x2 315x1 365x1 405x1
(Worksets, banded) 325x5 x5, x5 x5 225x3 (speed backoff)

Paused calf raises on leg press:
660lbs x8, x8, x7 dropsetted to 450lbs x15. Stupid pump on the drop set lol!

Hypers:
10lbs x12, x12, x12.

Back/bicep/shoulders for upper body work and heavy ab/core stuff. Shot for 15 mins to cool down. Great workout. Drop set on the calf raises felt insane. Surprisingly I could still dunk (weakly) after this session, normally after this much volume I'm jelly.  Cool!

Absolutely.  Game strength is different than weight room strength just like squat strength doesn't automatically make you fly. Both require you to practice the movement. You can be an ox with dumbbells and still get ripped going to the hole if your strength hasn't translated to game situations.  Conversely I know a 5'7" 145lb point guard that you CANNOT take the ball away from when he goes to the hoop, he wraps it up and just takes the contact.  Its hilarious to watch bigger guys getting frustrated that they can't take the ball away from some 'stick arm' guy but he has functional game strength from playing all the time.

So get out there and play, best way to improve is by playing guys better than you.