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Last game of the season. We lost the elimination final by 8 points. That makes 4 losses in a row I think. Doens't help that I've been injured. Could only run and jump at about 65-70%. As a result I had a few fouls from situations where I'd normally block someone or move to the correct position a bit quicker. Had 9 points but again didn't contest too much inside the paint. Am looking forward to the 3 weeks off to give the body a rest and get some quality lifting in. Knee is pretty painful today but hopefully pulls up well by the weekend. It's bizarre but I haven't dunked a ball in about 5-6 weeks. With the back and knee recently it just hasn't felt good.

Knee update- Knee is feeling somewhat better. Still some pain when bending the knee with weight on it but much less so than yesterday. Fingers crossed I'll be good to go by Monday. Will be in the gym tonight so will steer clear of squats but will try out some RDLs to get the hams and glutes going.

Any reason for the single leg jumps of both left and right? For mine you look much more coordinated off your left foot so I'm wondering why you'd even bother doing both legs. As a natural one foot jumper I can't imagine ever jumping off my right leg. I used to have to do it for training when we did left handed lay-ups but would never do it outside that situation.

Interesting read Coges! Ive read about the first/second sleep before seems like our kids do it very naturally lol!

Sadly I fall into the 'insomniac, stop thinking' category. I have gotten 6 hours each of the last two nights so thats a positive. 

Haha. Don't they.

I've never really struggled with that so can't really offer any advice. Maybe meditation if you haven't tried it.

The Program
So here’s what I’m thinking going forward. As I mentioned previously I will have two non-negotiable days for my training. This is where I’ll do the bulk of the lifting that really matters. On the third (middle) day though I can practice things and get some additional work in. I also want to use this day to keep the back squat in the routine with a few singles/doubles/triples. I figure this shouldn’t take too much out of me if I keep the volume pretty low. This additional day I want to keep flexible should I become inspired to try out some new lift/skill/whatever. I have some short term goals too which will pretty much get me back to places that I have been before:

Short Term Goals (by Christmas):
Front Squat- 100 x 5
Incline Press- BW x 6
Chins – 10 continuous reps
Back Squat- 1x130
Deadlift- 3x150
Military Press- 1x70

Day 1- Tuesday
Front Squat- work up to top set of 3-5
Incline Press 3x6-8
Chins 25 reps total
RDL 3x8-12
Windshield Wipers 3x10
BB Complex or Hill Sprints
(complex = row, hang clean, FS, military press, BS, good morning)

Day 2- Thursday
Back Squat- work up to 1-3 sets of 1-3 reps (depending on how feeling on the day). To be heavy but not gut busting slam my head against a wall to get excited heavy
Handstand work
Front Lever work
BB Complex 5x3 (work up to a heavy set of 3 reps)
BB Curls 3x12
Push Ups 3xmax
3km run

Day 3- Saturday/Sunday
Deadlift- work up to a top set of 3-5
BSS 3x8-12
Military Press 3x5
Chins 25 reps total
Windshield Wipers 3x10
BB Complex or Hill Sprints
(complex = row, hang clean, FS, military press, BS, good morning)

As far as the reps go, on the main lifts when I hit the top number I will increase the weight (5kg jumps for everything but military press which will be 2.5kg). When I don’t hit the top number I will stay at that weight till I do. When I reach an appreciable level of strength I will most likely switch to a 531 style of programming for the reps and loading. I don’t think it’s worth it right now but believe I should make some solid progress over the next 3-4 months in the lead up to Christmas to get back to almost where I was before I can implement 531 style then.

I understand that I will not progress as quickly strength wise given the additional cardio/conditioning stuff I am doing but then again I don’t lift huge weights so really I’m sure I can make pretty good progress here. I’m pretty excited about adding in some running and sprints. I don’t think I’ve ever come close to overtraining in my life so I’m not really too worried about putting this in. I actually don’t think I could overtrain on this program. I will just need to pay extra attention to nutrition and recovery.

Recovery: I will aim to do some sort of stretching/SMR/foam rolling every day including pre and post training stuff.

Nutrition: I have been following an IF style of eating. The main problem here is that I get distracted during the day with work and don’t end up eating anything. Then when I get home I just don’t get the time to eat properly meaning some days I get 3,000-4,000 cals and others I get 1,500. I need to make a concerted effort to get around 3,000-3,500 every day. I’m sure this will do wonders for my strength and recovery.   

Plyos: will look at that again once I’m fully healthy and training consistently. I don’t see any need to incorporate just now. Will play it by ear and maybe add some after 6-8 weeks if all is progressing well.

Obviously on top of this I will be playing ball once a week and will probably have a shoot around once a week for 30-45 mins. LBSS had the insight to suggest I do more handstand and lever work throughout the week instead of consolidating it into one day. Originally I was sold and was going to intersperse it in between other lifts. Given my lack of ball skills lately I will actually dedicate this time to getting some ball handling drills in. Something I can quite easily spend a couple of minutes on between sets of the first 1-2 lifts each day. This should provide me with some good practice. I figure any practice is better than all the practice I haven’t been doing at the moment.

I think most of this makes sense. If you’ve got any feedback or think I’m an idiot please feel free to let me know. I’m sure there’s heaps of holes in my programming so would welcome some constructive criticism.

  So had a ball game last night. It's one I'd really rather forget. We're playing a team who we normally beat by 10-15 although they're not without skill. We only had 5 on the night and were missing our top scorer again. I picked up 3 super quick fouls (2 of them complete rubbish from a fat lesbian umpire) so had to play conservatively. I picked up a dumb one early in the 2nd half which was totally there. Then with 15 minutes to go the scores are around level and I have the ball on the three point line around 45 degrees. The guy in front of me is huge. And by huge I mean he's a fat fuck. He's prob 6ft tall and 120-130kg. I fake left and drive right and he manages to slide into the side of me as I go past. He knocks me into another of their players and the ref calls a charge on the first contact. A FUCKING CHARGE!!! Was so unbelievable that the other team even offered for her to reverse it and keep me on the court. She refuses, I sit the rest of the match and with 4 on the court we lose by 25. Just to add injury to insult their big guy landed square on my toe and forced the nail down into my big toe which is now all cut up and bruised. What a fantastic evening.

Quote from: Coges on September 01, 2013, 10:16:41 pm

Quote from: entropy on September 01, 2013, 04:58:40 am

3. I'm way overfocusing on strength. I dont care about dunking, i'm not in it for the dunks or huge jumps. I wanted to be a good basketball player, which in my mind includes having excellent athleticism, true. But at this stage my skill deficit is much greater than my strength and power one. I need a lot more movement work specific to playing than I do with spending time in the gym. But. I don't like to give up on what I started, and i'm so close now to getting that minimal gold standard of 2xbw squats (FS and HBBS -- the latter for reps), that i will see it thru. I just need to slowly add back sports specific work so i'm ready for game time (~6-7 months from now).

4. As always i've neglected conditioning, it always seems to fall on the wayside. I know why it happens, sore legs don't help when you're focusing on pushing up squats. But whether I like it or not, it's just as important if not more important to have a big strong motor than raw power. I can play great defense. Or I can play great offense, but not both, because my conditioning didn't permit it last time.

IMO these are two great questions? When do you start incorporating these at the expense of what else you are trying to achieve? You could strength train endlessly without ever being ready to start conditioning or working skills let alone even playing basketball.

I see what you're getting at. I'll start today and do a little more each time. If I don't start working on it now it won't happen, so you're right, do something no matter how small or insignificant every chance I get. If I fail to, i'll make a note in the log for that day. Thanks.

I've always stuggled with this equation for fear of hindering my strength progress but as you have rightly said basketball is about more than dunks and jumps. Will be interesting to see how you work it in and how it affects your other training.