A study by Stone and Steingard, published in a 1993 edition of "Clinics in Sports Medicine," found that year-long conditioning for basketball helped improve performance in athletes. When deciding on a summer basketball conditioning program, you need to consider the macrocycle of training that makes up the basketball year, summer generally being considered part of the off-season. Basketball off-season training should include endurance, speed, strength and power training, in addition to honing sport-specific skills; however, if you are playing in summer basketball leagues, you must make sure your training schedule allows for your game days.
Endurance Training
Basketball involves lots of running. If you play an entire game, you're running back and forth across the court, zigzagging and crisscrossing, squatting and lunging, jumping and back-pedaling for 40 total minutes. That level of activity requires lots of conditioning. Actively improve your aerobic conditioning by interval training. Spend 30 to 40 minutes, three to four days a week, alternating between two minutes of high-intensity running and three minutes of moderate-intensity jogging. Actively rest on the days that you will be playing by jogging at a moderate intensity for 20 to 30 minutes.
Plyometric Training
Two days a week, on days you don't have games, perform plyometric training. Plyometric training is typically considered jump training. Plyos improve strength and power, contributing to a higher vertical.
Warm up by jogging a half-mile. Actively stretch your working muscles by doing butt-kicks, high-knees, slides and skips over a 15-meter section of track.
As the American Council on Exercise recommends, your plyometric workout should concentrate on quality, not quantity. You want to concentrate on landing softly on the balls of your feet with knees slightly bent. Your movements should be an all-out effort, and each jump should be quick and explosive.
Start by performing three sets of six to 10 repetitions of standing hops. With feet slightly separated, hop up in the air as quickly and as high as you can, 10 times in a row. Follow standing hops with "x" hops. From your starting position, hop diagonally forward to your right, then back to center, diagonally backward to your left, then back to center, diagonally forward to your left, then back to center, ending with a hop diagonally backward to your right, and back to center. Perform this exercise as quickly as you can; then allow yourself to rest for a minute before repeating it two more times. After several weeks of training, you can add single-legged hops to your routine.
Weight Training
During summer basketball, you must time your weight training so that it falls on days you don't play and allows for a day of rest before playing. If you have games on Wednesdays, weight train on Monday so you can rest on Tuesday; then weight train again on Thursday. Perform lighter-weight, higher-repetition, total-body exercises that will maintain your strength and muscle mass.
Perform two sets of 12 to 15 repetitions of the following exercises: squats, chest press, lunges, lat pull-downs, dead lifts, seated rows, seated calf-raises, biceps curls, triceps kick-backs and shoulder presses.
Because basketball requires a strong core, concentrate 10 to 15 minutes of your workout on exercises that engage the abs and low back. Choose exercises like sit-ups, planks, back extensions, oblique twists and supermans.
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