3 Mistakes Basketball Players Make and How You Can Avoid Them

As a personal trainer basketball sports performance coach here in Singapore, basketball athletes are a large portion of my clients. But basketball is a sport where there are long standing traditions that hurt athletes from performing their best.

Mistake number one is a lack of strength training. There are some coaches that think physical preparation is limited to playing the game, doing practice drills and going for some long distance runs. But strength training under the care of a knowledgeable personal trainer or sports performance specialist will boost a players speed, basketball power, agility and resistance to injury. There is no validity to the old wives tale about bigger muscles hurting shooting technique. As long as the athletes keep practicing their shooting while getting stronger their bodies will adapt.

Mistake number two is a lack of a proper warm up. Usually I see teams warm up by doing some jogging followed by some static stretching (Hold different positions for 30-60 seconds each). This is not a good way to warm up for training or games. It actually results in turning off your brain when you actually want to get it ready for peak performance. A good stretching program will include movements that are likely to be used in the game, as well as activation exercises to wake up muscles that are going to be used.

The third mistake is using too many wraps and guards especially where there is nothing wrong with you just for "insurance". Guards may be of use when recovering from an injury but they force joints to be stiffer than they should be. This lack of movement will be compensated for in other joints causing problems. For example, ankle guards and tapes can cause problems with the knee because it now has to take over for the movement that the ankle lacks.

Coach Jonathan Wong, is a sought after Singapore personal trainer and performance expert who has helped hundreds of clients in Singapore from regular folk to national level athletes achieve their fitness, fat loss and sports performance goals regardless of starting age, fitness level or experience.

He Is also a fitness author and a member of Singapore Men's Health Advisory Panel. Visit his website for a free 1500 page e-book, blog, newsletter and constant updates. http://www.coachjon.com