We all love studying the best ways to help our teams compete at the highest level on the court, sometimes glazing over the process of preparing them physically to get on court before we put in Uconn’s “Wide Veer Shuffle Flare Slip”{đź”’}.
We are thrilled to announce the release of a special edition to our “Film Room” series this week featuring the Adelaide 36ers’ Head of High Performance, Nik Popovic. Last November Coach Popovic joined us on the podcast to discuss a variety of topics, including preparing athletes for peak performance, understanding weekly “load cycles”, injury prevention, and more. During our conversation, Coach Popovic hinted at his pre-practice warm-up routine with his players, designed to prime and prepare their bodies for the day’s practice demands. Following the interest sparked by our conversation, Coach Popovic generously volunteered his time to help us put together this “Film Room” breakdown on how to prepare your athletes for movement.
About the Project
Recognizing that not every program or club has a full-time S&C Coach or access to the latest equipment, we collaborated with Coach Popovic to create a video outlining several warm-up exercises that coaches can use within a 8-10 minute pre-practice warm-up regardless of their situation. These exercises aim to integrate physical preparedness with basketball-specific movement patterns. Coach Popovic guides viewers through each exercise, emphasizing what is being required in terms of movement and functionality to directly prepare the athlete for the demands of practice.
What the Video Entails?
Today’s video breakdown provides a detailed discussion of several topics related to athlete performance and movement specificity, including:
- Hip Rotation, the Powerhouse of the Body.
- The importance of foot placement in creating hip rotation and efficiency in change of directions.
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- Adding multi-direction movements within generic drills.
- Efficiency & velocity of movement, ability to transfer efficiently from one movement pattern to the next.
- Ability to rotate the hip and utilize the hip to get the body accelerating, decelerating, and changing direction.
- Developmental work to build basketball movement patterns (defensive slides).
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- Duration and number of repetitions.
Today’s “Film Room” video with Coach Popovic delves further into the specifics of player movement required during practice and offers optimal strategies for transitioning players from the warm-up phase into the first drill of the day.
To learn much more on ideas to help prepare athletes to compete at a high intensity level, please enjoy this week’s latest video on SGTV…
