While I played high school basketball team came out of nowhere in California to catch College basketball by storm. Loyola Loyola Marymount University College was a great team to watch. I grew up in Utah and would stay up so late at night just to watch them play on television. It was a show. The thing that made them most unique was their desire to score many points and lots of shots. They wanted to average a shot every 6 seconds. They had great players such as the late Hank gathers, Bo Kimble and a baseball player called Terrell Lowery. They were full-court press, carried out as soon as possible and score many points. They had a shooting guard Jeff Frier called and he was my idol. He was my Idol, because he was able to shoot wherever and whenever he wanted. It was crazy to look at. They were accompanied by Paul Westhead, used for the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson played. Westhead was interviewed on ESPN and gave his secret to how his team in this way could play. It was no surprise that the answer was conditioning. How he conditioned them was what they apart from all other Division 1 college basketball teams.
Westhead described which conditioning something that was not linked to any penalty. Instead, he is bound to the playing time. No one can play on his team if they are not in shape. If you ever saw them you know what I mean. His off-season training was grueling, but the players knew that if they wanted to play that had they need sacrafice. In season was just as bad, but the key to really conditioning players is to make sure that it is not a punishment, but something that is directly linked to the playing time.Nothing convinces a coach over a player who is in form. it shows commitment, responsibility and that the player on his or her basketball career.
Then he focused on the conditioning is not strictly lines or ladders, but directly linked basketball. which means that many of the drills for conditioning were done while backpedaling or defensive exercises do or running fast breaks.Players were asked to jump rope for its direct correlation to basketball. I thought often all the conditioning that I did that was not basketball related and it made me understand the true point behind conditioning. The best coaches I've ever played for timed drills were coaches and segments of practices and everything was that full speed or as they called it "basketball speed".
Last thing he mentioned was really sure that each conditioning drill had an advantage to or from any form of competition. Everything in basketball is competitive and conditioning exercises should too. Players enjoy competition. I loved other players for loose balls or for anything racing. I've enjoyed to know that there is a target for my walk or conditioning. Once, I remember a coach asks me to run against the fastest player in our team and if I hit him than we would be able to go home early from the practice. He also told the guy that if he won, he didn't have to run.Not the greatest strategy when I look back, but I gave everything I had. it had a goal and a point and because of that I beat him. I wanted my team to see the benefits and that is what it should be about. Are you a coach and reading this, then use competition in your conditioning.
Paul Westhead went on to coach for the Denver Nuggets and has tried to use the same style in the pros.What happened were some of the highest rated games in NBA history.However, the style Was just not as effective in the pros.
One of my favorite memories was looking at that Loyola Loyola Marymount University team beat the University of Michigan in the NCAA tournament. then they interviewed Jeff Frier and asked him why anyone wouldn't want to play ball Loyola.He laughed and said "they have to come see us in the off-season."He was right. the best players are created in the off-season. they beat Michigan in low season and victory that night was the result of that.
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