Guest Post From Coach Mike Mahon, CSCS, Professional Basketball Performance Consultant
Dear aspiring basketball players and coaches,
I’m confident that you’re reading Thrive3’s second installment of “Your In-Season X-Factor” today because you’re serious about becoming the best basketball coach/player you can be.
Otherwise, you’d probably be somewhere else then Thrive 3, right?
RIGHT…
🙂
Before I share with you today’s In-Season X-Factor, I want to make sure you have read part #1 of our series where we cover ‘Cold Immersion Training’.
If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to read it today at:
http://trainthrive3.com.nmsrv.com/season-x-factor-1-cold-immersion-training/
Now that we’ve got today’s brief intro out of the way, let’s get you the winning edge…
Introducing In-Season X-Factor #2: ‘Active Recovery Days’
So what’s an ‘Active Recovery Day’ anyway?
An ‘Active recovery day’ is a planned training day specifically designed to help basketball players stay sharp, decrease soreness, increase blood flow, and keep players progressing forward without causing any additional stress that can lead to burn out, decreased performance or worst of all…injury.
I thought I was supposed to go hard every day though?
Sadly my friend, this is often misunderstood. It is not necessary to run through walls every day in order to make significant progress. What is necessary is your intensity of focus daily and what you focus on daily. This way you will extend your basketball career, and progressively develop as a team/player without comprising basketball performance on the court.
How long should I train on an ‘Active Recovery Day’?
30 minutes excluding warm-up and cool-down. No more and no less.
What are some good activities that I can do to make the most of my ‘Active Recovery Day’?
Good question, here are some highly effective ways you can gain the edge with an active recovery day:
- Individual Skills Training: Instead of flipping on your favorite game console, and playing your favorite basketball video game, spend 30 minutes focusing on an area of your individual/team skill set that needs refining. By implementing this strategy consistently weekly, big improvements can be seen overtime.
- Low Intensity Cardio: Take some time and perform your favorite cardio exercise for 30 minutes. By performing this low intensity cardio session, you’ll flush out some toxins from your body and help speed up your recovery time.
- Improve Your Flexibility: Perform a full body myofascial release session with your team/self and end it with a full body stretch. Doing this will decrease recovery time, decrease the chance for possible injury, and lengthen your career.
- ‘Bonus Strategy’ – Study Film: When your team/self is excessively tired physically, exercise your brain by watching film of yourself/opponent. The better your team/you get at studying film, the higher your team/individual basketball IQ will become. It won’t really get the blood moving like the first -3-, but it will make productive use of your training time.
Cool stuff, RIGHT?
The best part is that I still have more In-Season X-Factors to share with you so stay tuned for my next segment here at Thrive 3.
Also, don’t just let this information go to waste. Implement it, share it with your teammates, coaches and anyone who loves basketball. This way we all become better at basketball globally.
Lastly, if you have a favorite ‘Active Recovery Day’ strategy that I didn’t share today be sure to let me know. I’m always looking for the edge.
🙂
Dedicated to your basketball success,
Coach Mike Mahon, CSCS, Professional Basketball Performance Consultant