Basketball
training program
Jump higher, decelerate safely, and repeat explosive efforts up and down the floor.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.
Why this program exists
Everyone trains to jump higher. Almost nobody trains to land, which is why the knees go — and a jump program that ignores deceleration is a jump program that eventually stops you playing.
Vertical jump is the sport’s defining number, so the testing battery measures both the standing and the running vertical — and the gap between them is a coaching signal in its own right. The prehab loads the patellar tendon first, then the ankle and calf chain that has to survive doing it three hundred times a game.
A default basketball week
This is the sport’s own template — the starting point before it is fitted to your days, your equipment and your season. Team nights and game day are protected; everything else moves to the days you are free.
What basketball is won with
These are the qualities the program is built to develop, in priority order. They come from the sport, not from a generic template.
- Vertical jump
- Deceleration + landing control
- Single-leg power
- Repeat-sprint ability
| Session | Type | Duration | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Power + Plyo | Gym | 55–65 min | Vertical + landing mechanics |
| Court Conditioning | Conditioning | 30–40 min | Repeat sprints + deceleration |
| Upper + Trunk | Gym | 40–50 min | Contact strength + posture |
| Skills + Shooting | Skills | — | Sport practice |
The season changes the program
Summer domestic seasons. Winter is the block where a vertical jump actually moves.
- Pre-season
- August – September — set volume ×1.2. Build the engine and the strength base.
- In-season
- October – March — set volume ×0.7, prescribed weights hold. Maintain, don’t drain.
- Off-season
- April – July — baseline volume. Rebuild general strength and fix the niggles.
- Block structure
- Four-week blocks: three weeks accumulating, one week deload. The block’s character changes across the year rather than repeating.
- Game day
- Protected. The day before gets a 20-minute explosive primer with no running, no heavy legs and no prehab block bolted on.
The basketball testing battery
Five numbers, re-run every eight weeks. Chosen to match what basketball programs actually measure — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces.
| Test | Measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery 1 | Repeat-effort capacity with recovery, which is how a game is actually played. | level |
| Bench press 1RM | Upper-body pressing strength: the fend, the tackle, holding a bigger body off. | kg |
| Max pull-ups | Relative pulling strength — the best upper-body number there is for a field athlete. | reps |
| Running vertical jump | What a marking or rebounding contest actually asks for. | cm |
| Standing vertical jump | Lower-body power in its purest form, and the cheapest fatigue check you own. | cm |
Staying available
The prehab block is matched to the region of the session it sits in and to the tissue this sport actually punishes — not a generic mobility flow bolted to the front.
Prehab only works if it happens, and the reason it usually does not is that it has nothing to do with the session it is attached to. Rotating a pool by session number puts shoulder work before a squat day and Copenhagen planks before a bench press. Technically covered; nobody does it.
In Train Smart each movement is classified by the region it protects and matched to the session, and the pool rotates across the week so you cover all of it rather than doing the same three moves three times.
More on prehab that people actually do →
Basketball training questions
What does the Train Smart basketball program include?
When is basketball pre-season?
Can I follow this program if I only train twice a week?
What tests does the basketball program use?
Do I need a full gym?
Get your basketball program
Pick basketball, answer eight questions, and your week is built — around your team nights, your game and the days you can actually train.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.