Bit better today - 30/05/15

Woke up feeling better this morning. I am going to do my warmup and go to the clube and do my second conditioning day that I missed yesterday. When I get back I will take the dog for a walk with the weight vest and then do my cool down.

This afternoon I am planning to do my second jump training of the week at around 4pm and then go to play ball in the next town. I may skip the basketball today as there is a cool convert tonight that I want to go to.

My weigh in this morning was the best ever 94.5kgs.

Got all my morning workouts done. I had to change up the order as the Clube opens at 8am on weekends not 7 but itworked out better as I was really warmed up by the time I started doing my conditioning.

I did the following workout:

15 minutes on the exercise bike (5 mins Level 1 and 10 minutes Level 2). Walked dog for 22.35 miunutes. We walked 1 mile and climbed 336ft.

I then did the following workout:

1 - Mikan drill and reverse Mikan drill
2- Made 5 freethrows (rest)
3 - 20 made freethrows
4 - Layup sequence
5 - Made 5 freethrows (rest
6 - 3 x suicides with 5 made freethrows as rest in between sets
7 - 5 sets of Make 2 full court layups Right hand with 5 made freethrows as rest in between sets
8 - 5 sets of Make 2 full court layups left hand with 5 made freethrows as rest in between sets
9 - 20 made freethrows

A breakdown of my shooting is below:

Made	total	Percentage
5	9	55,6
20	26	76,9
5	5	100,0
5	11	45,5
5	6	83,3
5	13	38,5
5	7	71,4
5	9	55,6
5	6	83,3
5	7	71,4
5	7	71,4
5	6	83,3
5	8	62,5
5	11	45,5
5	7	71,4
5	11	45,5
20	22	90,9
115	171	67,3

I didnt do too badly today 67,3% in total. I also set a PB making 16 shots in a row on my last set of 20 freethrows and this is especially good asI was blowing out of my ass after doing all of the running.

The running is  definately getting easier although I havent managed to do and sets of the 17´s yet.

I am going to do the 17´s after the suicides starting next week.

I am also going to make 4 layups instead of 2 as making 2 is getting easier.

I then went home and did 10 minutes on the exercise bike on level 1 followed by 20 minutes of stretching.

Feeling Sick - 29/05/15

 I woke up this morning feeling sick and as I warmed up on the exercise bike I felt worse. I still did 15 minutes (5 minutes L1 and 10 minutes L2) and rode 6.48kms.

I also took the dog for a short walk as well but felt worse still so decided not to play basketball today. I walked for 23.09 minutes, covered 1 mile and climbed 312ft.

I spent the rest of the day in bed!!!

Rest Day - 28/05/15

Had to take a rest day today as I had a meeting early this morning and I will have to work tonight as well.

First conditioning day done - 27/05/15

Managed to get out of bed this morning although it was a struggle. Did my 15 minutes warm up on the exercise bike and then walked with the weight vest on. I only walked for 23:33 minutes and 1 mile today as I was short on time but I still climbed 301ft.

I then went to the clube and di my conditioning.

My first set of freethrows were much better today. I made 20/26 (77%)I also made 15 in a row which isn´t bad. I then did the Mikan drill making 20 and the reverse Mikan Drill also making 20. When I got to the suicides I realized just how out of shape I was!! I only managed 3 of the 5 I was going to do as the third rep I was almost walking on the last full court sprint!

When I did the full court layups I decided on 2 made layups per set as a target for this week, next week I will up it to 4 made, then every week add 2 made layups until I am at 10 made layups per set. I did 5 sets of right handed layups and then 5 sets of left handed layups.

After the third set of fullcourt right handed layups I decided that I was going to make 5 freethrows as the rest period instead of just walking around for a minute.

My percentages are below:

5/9 (56%)
5/7 (71%)
5/6 (83%)
5/6 (83%)
5/6 (83%)
5/7 (71%)
5/5 (100%)

I then did the layup sequence which consisted of making 1 right handed layup, 1 left handed layup onthe right side of the basket, one left handed layup going under the basket from the right hand side to the left hand side. One right handed layup going under the basket from the right hand side, on left handed finger roll on the right hand side of the rim and finally a.spin move. I then did the same layups from the left hand side of the rim.

I then made another 5 freethows which I took 7 shots to make (71%)

I then shot another 20 freethrows to finish the session making 20/26 (77%)

When I got home I did a cool down on level one of the exercise bike for 10 minutes and rode 4.54km.

I didnt have time to stretch.

Today I made a total of 80 out of 105 shots or 76% of my freethrows which is good. It is even better considering I was running most as well.

Unoffical Rest Day - 26/05/15

Iwas really tired this morning so I went back to sleep when my alarm went off at 6am and slept till 10:00 am. I am feeling much better now.

I think I was better to sleep than to force the training as I am now raring to go for tonights training,

All changed again - 25/05/15

Got up early and did my warm up ride on the exercise bike for 15 minutes and rode 6.95kms (5 minutes on level 1 and 10 minutes on level 2). I also did THIS dynamic warmup.

After the warm up I measured my current vertical jump so that I can see how effective the jump program is. I was the first bad news of the day!!! For the 3 jumps I averaged 45.23cm (17.80 inches) with my highest being 47.5cm. This means that I can´t even get a 9ft rim from standing any more!!!

It is also roughly half of my hightest measured vertical of 84cm (33 inches) that I had 19-20 years ago!!! On the positive side there is a whole lot of improvement that can be made. Also I am currently 25kgs heavier than back in the day so when you look at it like that I am not doing too badly.

The second bad news came when I started doing the jump training when I finished doing the first set of skipping my wife sent me an angry text to tell me to stop jumping as it sounds like I am jumping on the bedroom ceiling even though I am actally a dining room in between the bedroom and the garage/gym.


After the text I decided it was better for my health to stop the jump training and go walk the dog!!!

To be honest I had struggled to do 2 minutes skipping without stopping so I was a bit pleased that I had to stop although I am only putting off the pain until tonight!!!

I did good this morning I walked to the top of the hill and back in 34.17 minutes with the 5kg weight vest on. I walked 1,4miles an climbed 479ft.

I then did a 10 minutes cool down on the exercise bike on level 1 where I rode 4.48kms.

I finished off the morning session with 15 minutes of stretching.

In light of not being able to jump in the mornings anymore I am going to change up my programme again in the following form:

Monday AM - Exercise Bike 30 minutes + Walk dog in weight vest
Monday PM - Exercise bike warmup + Jump Training + Basketball + Cooldown

Tuesday AM - Warmup +  Walk dog no weight vest + Shooting + Cooldown
Tuesday PM - Exercise bike warmup + Jump Training + Basketball + Cooldown

Wednesday AM - Warmup + Walk dog weight vest + Conditioning + Cooldown
Wednesday PM -  Warmup + Jump Training + Basketball + Cooldown

Thursday AM - Warmup  + Walk dog no weight vest + Shooting + Cooldown
Thursday PM - Exercise bike warmup + Jump Training + Basketball + Cooldown + stretching

Friday AM - Warmup  + Walk dog weight vest + Conditioning + Cooldown
Friday PM - Warmup + Jump Training + Cooldown

Saturday AM - Warmup + Walk dog weight vest + Shooting + Cooldown
Saturday PM - Warmup + Jump Training + Basketball + Cooldown

Sunday AM - Warmup + Walk dog no weight vest + Cooldown
Saunday PM - Rest

In all workouts the following is true:

Warmup = 30 minutes on exercise bike + Dynamic warmup

Cooldown = 10 minutes on exercise bike + Static Stretching

Active Rest Day - 24/05/15

I have decided that sundays will be an active rest day where I sleep in until I wake up and just walk the dog for about an hour I have decided to this as Saturday training is starting to get heavier and I consistantly feel tired and train poorly on sunday mornings.

It will also be my weigh in day.

Today when I woke up I did my weigh in and I am 95.3kgs and 32% bodyfat which is down from 96.4 kgs last week. Although I haven´t dropped much weight I am noticing big changes in my body and today I noticed that I have dropped another belt hole which is a great sign.

I also walked with my son and the Dog for 47.14 minutes covering 2.1 miles and climbing 312ft.

I am now organising my training for tomorrow I am planning to do 20 minutes on the exercise bike followed by stetching followed by measuring my vertical jump followed by the jump training program and then walking the dog in the weight vest followed by 10 minutes cool down on the exercise bike and stretching.

The jump training for tomorrow is as follows:

2 minutes skipping
Stretching
2 minutes skipping
slow squats 3x10
lateral jumps 3x20
jump lunges 3x10
tuck jumps 3x8
calf raises 3x20

The Full jump program is HERE


For the next for weeks my schedule will be as follows:

Monday

AM - Warmup + Jump training + Dog Walking + Stretching
PM - Basketball

Tuesday

AM - Warmup + Shooing + Dog Walking + Stretching
PM - Basketball

Wednesday

AM - Warmup + Jump training + Conditioning + Dog Walking + Stretching
PM - Basketball

Thursday

AM - Warmup + Shooing + Dog Walking + Stretching
PM - Basketball or rest (unsure at the moment as court  is being re-floored)

Friday

AM - Warmup + Jump training + Conditioning + Dog Walking + Stretching
PM - Rest

Saturday

AM - Warmup + Shooing + Dog Walking + Stretching
PM - Basketball

Sunday (Active Rest)

AM - Warmup + Dog Walking + Stretching
PM - Rest

Good days training - 23/05/15

Decided to do some 3 point training this morning with more game time simulation. I started with 20 freethows then made 10 freethrows from the (1) middle of the court 3 point spot, then 10 from the (2) middle of this point and the base line then 10 shots from the (3) baseline. I did all of the shots doing a shot fake, jab step one dribble to the left and jump stop and shoot. From the percentages below you can see why my shot is so bad in games compared to training. My training wasnt at all game specific.

I Shot with the following percentages:

20 freethrows = 20/32 = 63%
Poistion 1 = 10/25 = 40%
Position 2 = 10/37 = 27%
Position 3 = 10/39 = 26%
20 Freethrows = 20/24 = 83%

Looking on the bright side my second set of freethrows was 83% which is much better than before.

Today I also took my dog for a walk with my son for an hour. I walked with a 5kg weight vest to increase the workload and stress my legs a bit. We walked for 54.23 minutes and covered 2.2 miles and climbed 308ft. After the walk we did stetching for 30 minues as a cooldown.

At night I went to training and we did 30 minutes of various layup drills followed by 1.5 hours of 3v3 and 3v4 (against younger team). My team didnt loose for the whole time and I shot pretty well considering my arms were really tired.

I noticed that my legs felt much stronger and I was able to change direction much better. I was also much more pain free and I felt that I had more range of motion. I also noticed that was much more stable in the air when taking hits.

Busy Week - 21/05/15

It has been a busy week this week so I haven´t had time to shoot in the mornings at all.

Although I havent trained much I weighed myself this morning and was surprised to see that I am still 95kgs.

I also haven´t had many basketball training sessions this week either. I played on tuesday and we had a game yesterday and that is it. I will play again hopefully friday and saturday nights as well.

I found out that we have a tournament on the 24th until the 29th of July so I have 64 days to get into good basketball shape.

My leg is all healed up now so I plan to start jump training and sprint training/ defensive conditioning tomorrow morning.

I am planning to do the following training for the next 2 months:

Monday AM - Exercise bike, Stretching, Jump Training
Monday PM - Playing Basketball
Tuesday AM - Exercise bike, Shooting and Full court Layup drills
Tuesday PM - Playing basketball
Wednesday AM - Exercise bike, Stretching and jump training followed by court sprints
Wednesday PM - Playing Basketball
Thursday AM - Exercise bike, Stretching, Shooting and Full court Layup drills
Thursday PM - Playing Basketball
Friday AM - Exercise bike, Stretching and Jump Training followed by court sprints
Friday PM - Exercise bike, Skipping and Strething
Saturday AM - Walking, Shooting, Stretching
Saturday PM - Playing Basketball
Sunday AM - Walking, Shooting, Stretching
Sunday PM - Rest

Revised Training - 12/05/15

As I am resting this week I have been thinking of how to schedule my training. I have been looking online and everyone agrees that 3 times a week is a good amount for conditioning drills so I have made up the following schedules:

	Monday	Tuesdy	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
AM	Court Sprints	Shooting	Court Sprints	Shooting	Court Sprints	Shooting	Shooting
PM	Basketball	Basketball	Basketball	Basketball	Off	Basketball	Off

As well as the schedule I have decided to walk to my morning training sessions in order to get there warmed up ready to stretch and run or shoot. Also the walking will increase my weight losses I hope.

I have just walked and picked up my son from school and while I was walking I was thinking how to do the court sprints as we do not have a full sized basketball court.

I have decided that I am going to do the court sprints in the road up the hill where I walk the dog as there is a 100m or so long flat pat of road about half way up the hill at around 800m above sea level so I can also get a bit of altitude training in as well. It also means that I can kill 2 birds with one stone and walk the dos at the same time.

While I walked to school I used strava and found out that the walk to school and back is only 0.7 miles and a 125 ft climb in elevation and it took 16 minutes.

The better news is that my calf muscle felt fine so hopefully by next week I will be ok to start training.

Hurt leg again - 10/05/15

As my leg was feeling good in my morning session I went to the next town and played last night which in hind sight was a mistake as I re-injured my leg again during warm ups!!!

Althogh I hurt my leg again it only hurt when I ran full speed so I concentrated on defense and jump shooting and I managed to do both pretty well considering I only had one leg!!!

I have decided that I am not going to play this week at all to see if my leg heals ready to restart training again next week.

I am planning to shoot only 3 times a week and to do 2 conditioning sessions with court sprints and full court layups to get my sprining going again as I have noticed that my full court play is really weak compared to my half court play.

I need to get back to being a race hourse again where I am full speed 100% of the time instead of jogging the ball up the court half of the time.

This is especially important as I am the offense that I am implementing at the moment is basically forcing turn overs and scoring layups on the counter attack so I need to urgently increase my fitness and drop some weight to keep up with the offense.

Also the majority of the training session we have at the moment are half court due to problems with the courts we play ( one court only has one rim and the other has a hole in the floor due to a problem with the paint used to refurbish it.) This is another reason that my fitness is much better half court!!!

For the week that I am resting my leg I am going to walk with the dog and to the court and only shoot freethrows to not hurt my calf muscle any more.

Leg feeling Good - 09/05/15

My leg was feeling good so I went and shot freethrows to see if I was able to train in the evening.

I weighed myself when I got up as well and I have put some weith on after 5 days doing no exercise. I am back up to 96.5kgs.

I did´nt shoot too badly and my shot was feeling good. I shot 68% and it took 147 shots to make the 100 freethrows.

Set	Made	Missed	Total	Percentage
1	10	4	14	71.43
2	10	4	14	71.43
3	10	4	14	71.43
4	10	2	12	83.33
5	10	7	17	58.82
6	10	6	16	62.50
7	10	2	12	83.33
8	10	9	19	52.63
9	10	6	16	62.50
10	10	3	13	76.92
Total	100	47	147	68.03

getting better - 08/05/15

My calf is getting better really quickly, I am now able to walk pain free which is good. I will continue icing today and tomorrow and I will try and play tomorrow evening.

I haven´t even tried playing basketball yet. I am going to try tomorrow morning to see if I can play in the evening.

Injured Again - 07/05/15

Played basketball on tuesday night and strained my right calf dribbling the ball up the court!!!!!

Been icing it loads and it is hurting much less today. Will rest it until saturday to see if I will be able to play saturday night or not.

I am going to start just shooting freethrows for the rest of the week to make sure I do not hurt the calf any more.

Feeling good - 05/05/15

Went to the next town last nightand we played 3v3 for 1.5 hours. My defense is coming along nicely and my shot is getting better under pressure. Also plesantly surprised that my knee is hurting less although my ankle is sore this morning eve after icing it last night.

I didnt train this morning as I had to work.

I weighted myself this morning and I am now down to 94.9kgs which is the lightest I have been for over 5 years. I have managed to loose more weight in a month playing basketball than I did all last year at the gym!!!!!

I also found out that the guys in the next town train 3 times a week on mondays, wednesdays and saturdays which fits perfectly with my current training nights of tuesdays and thursdays so I will now be playing basketball monday, tuesday, wednesday,thursday and saturday so the weight should start dropping off. I also havent drunk coca cola for a month.

Sick - 04/05/15

Woke up in the middle of the night with a bad stomach which kept me up from 2am so I am not going to walk this morning.

I remebered to weigh myself this morning I am down to 95.4kgs.

Going to try and do some kind of exercise tonight after work.

Changed up shooting - 02/05/15

Managed to get up and walk the dog this morning. Walked 1.3 miles and climbed 460ft in elevation in 34 minutes.

My foot and ankle were hurting after the walk so I changed up my shooting and added more freethows. I shot 5 sets of freethows followed by positions 2-7 followed by 5 more sets of freethrows.

For the day I shot 69% or 160/232 shots. For freethows it took 136 shots to make the 100 freethows (73.5%) I also made 14 freethows in a row during sets 2 and 3. I also found out that my best spot for shooting seems to be the left elbow where I made 10/12 shots for 83% and hit the first 7 shots.

My percentages are below:

Set	Position	Made	Missed	Total	Percentage
1	Freethrow	10	10	20	50.00
2	Freethrow	10	1	11	90.91
3	Freethrow	10	1	11	90.91
4	Freethrow	10	4	14	71.43
5	Freethrow	10	3	13	76.92
6	L 3 feet out	10	5	15	66.67
7	R 3 feet out	10	8	18	55.56
8	L 5 feet out	10	5	15	66.67
9	R 5 feet out	10	8	18	55.56
10	L Elbow	10	2	12	83.33
11	R Elbow	10	8	18	55.56
12	Freethrow	10	5	15	66.67
13	Freethrow	10	4	14	71.43
14	Freethrow	10	3	13	76.92
15	Freethrow	10	4	14	71.43
16	Freethrow	10	1	11	90.91
17		0	0	0
18		0	0	0
19		0	0	0
20		0	0	0
Total		160	72	232	68.97

In the evening I went to the next town to play and shot really badly although my shot was straight.

I am going to make my shooting training more game specific to see if this helps.