How Basketball Coaches Can Use The Season to Prepare for Tournament Time
Author: Philipp Lienemann
March Madness: You lose, you go home – You win, the dream lives on. The most important question for coaches and athletes alike: how to get ready for the hottest time of the year? It takes an integrated approach.
When all eyes are set on the prestigious NCAA tournament the smallest margins can make all the difference: “40 for 40” — a 40-minute effort for another chance of 40 minutes in the tournament. Reaching the tournament, Sweet 16, Elite 8 or Final 4 does not come by accident.
College athletes who are aiming at getting to the professional level, face a year-around effort to achieve their goal. Long-term athletic development requires a dedicated plan that aims at consistently improving an athlete’s performance over time.
By overloading and stressing the body, allowing it to recover, and then stressing it again, athletes adapt to the increased short-term stressors and build long-term fitness through various physiological adaptations. In the short- to mid-term, this involves adjusting the training plan to the different periods of the season.
You can access my guide to preparing for March Madness here.
DOWNLOAD GUIDE
“By managing the acute and chronic load appropriately over time, coaches can improve player performance, reduce the risk of injury, and time it takes for player to return to play. Keeping your best players healthy and increasing player availability will allow the team to perform at its best, when it matters the most.”
Four Seasons – A Blueprint to Succeed During March Madness
Like the year, a basketball season can be divided into four seasons. The four seasons refer to the four very distinct periods of the year that involve different and unique levels of training, preparation, competition, and recovery requirements. In terms of load management, a season is a journey – like a house, great athletes and teams are built over time and rely on a solid foundation.
“KINEXON has helped us navigate the ever-changing landscape of athlete-readiness in collegiate basketball. It has aided us identify areas of strength and weakness within our program when it comes to player preparedness and long-term athlete development both on the court and in the weight room.”
Trust the Process - Guiding Athletes Through the Season
Construction involves multiple phases that all pose various challenges – similarly, coaches follow a periodization approach to plan and optimize the long-term development of their athletes. Hence, dividing a basketball season into the following periods to identify focus areas and challenges can provide a blueprint for success.
- Off-Season: Cleaning the Backyard – Skill Acquisition & Athletic Development Basics
- Pre-Season: Laying the Foundation – Considerations for a Generic & Sport-Specific Conditioning Framework
- Regular Season: Building a Strong Core – Efficient Programming & Player Engagement
- Post Season: Topping Out – Supporting Athletes to Peak at the Right Time
Impact of Player Tracking and Performance Analysis
The goal — by structuring a season accordingly, coaches want to ensure that athletes are training and recovering adequately for optimal adaptation. Player tracking technology supports practitioners in their daily work by providing objective data to quantify the athletes’ acute and chronic workload.
Bridging the gap between a coach’s experience and subjective perspective and the objective, quantitative data provided by KINEXON’s technology is crucial to plan, execute and control relevant training and recovery strategies.
While various aspects need to be considered when selecting, implementing, and using different types of technologies, an integrated approach to athlete monitoring has become the standard to make informed decisions in managing athletes adequately over a strenuous basketball season.
Which aspects need to be emphasized throughout the different periods of the season and how can player tracking be utilized to manage an athlete’s load accordingly? You can get more insight in our guide to basketball software for coaches.
How Coaches Use Basketball Software
In my guide you’ll find practical insights from Caleb Krueger. He is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Women’s Basketball at University of North Carolina. He used KINEXON’s technology to improve player development and load management.
“Player load tracking has become a vital part of our program in that it helps keep all members of our team physically ready to handle the rigors of both practice and games — and does so by giving us objective load information that can help us make informed decisions.”
Basketball Software for Coaches
By using a set of metrics to describe a session’s training volume, intensity and density, coaches can build a holistic training model to quantify the acute and chronic stress of individual sessions, weeks, and months of training.
With countless metrics to choose from, it can be a daunting task for coaches that are using technology for the first time. Considering factors like acceptable levels of reliability and validity, relation to sport-specific demands as well as if they can be easily interpreted by relevant stakeholders are key differentiators in using data effectively for informed decision-making.
Complementing coaches’ subjective insights and experience with objective, quantitative data will help coaches make informed decisions and implement a criterion-based training program.
“Electronic Performance Tracking Systems like KINEXON’s Perform IMU and LPS systems are a great tool to support an integrated data-driven approach to training periodization and load management and should be the standard for any Division‑I team.”
In addition to my integrated approach to guiding your team through a long and grueling basketball season, and manage how to manage your athletes’ loads accordingly, you can contact us at any time if you have any questions.
Want to learn more about KINEXON’s products and services? Let’s get in touch!
More stories
Innovative Strategy Boosts Player’s 3-Point Accuracy to 60% in Conference Games
Do you have players struggling with contested 3‑point shots? Get to know a college coach with a proven method to boost shooting efficiency for high-intensity shots in as little as four weeks.
Research Exposes What Puts College Football Players at Risk for Hamstring Strains
Hamstring strains are common among male college American football players. Researchers have been investigating potential risk factors to better understand and prevent these injuries, and they believe they have identified three that all coaches should track.
Former Handball Pro Shares His Personal Must-Know Metric for Coaches
Call it inside information, but a former pro handball player, who is now a strength and conditioning coach, says one metric seems to stand out when it comes to load management in handball.
How Volleyball Metrics Helped Power Arizona State University to a Record-Setting Season
The Arizona State University Women’s Volleyball team used data to determine their optimal practice length, and it culminated in one of their best seasons in school history.
The Secret Behind The University of Arizona’s Sports Performance Training Methods
Two key figures in the data-driven revolution at the University of Arizona are Jim Krumpos and Dayannara Munoz. They say there are three critical factors that make all the difference in their data collection efforts and training style.
What Data-Driven Hockey Software and Puck Data Can Do for Coaches and Players
The power of data in ice hockey is eye-opening. Analytics are enhancing player performance, strategic decision-making, and training development. But those aren’t the only ways data-driven hockey software is reshaping the game.
What Does an IMU Sensor Track in Elite Handball?
Handball players move fast and put lots of stress on their bodies. But more coaches are discovering that using the most-used load management system in sports helps to keep them on the court and playing their best for longer periods.
What Kind of Data Does a GPS Tracker for Football Players Provide?
Technology has become an integral part of enhancing player performance and reducing injuries. One such example is the GPS tracker for football players. But what kind of data does it provide? And what does this information tell coaches and players?
The Connection Between Basketball Data, Point Spreads, and Sports Performance
When it comes to women’s college basketball, every edge counts, both mentally and physically. This ensures the best possible outcome on game day. Even if it means using the daily line as motivation.
Are On-Ice Skating Tests Essential for Coaches Who Evaluate Hockey Players?
On-ice skating tests are often used to evaluate essential performance attributes in competitive-level hockey players, including agility and speed. A recent study provides insights for coaches, that may help them pick the best tests and exercises to assess hockey players.
How Coaches Balance Football Analytics and Coach’s Intuition When Making Player Decisions
The interplay between hard data and human intuition in football is a delicate dance. Eric Donoval, the Director of Sports Performance for the University of Wyoming football team, provided insightful commentary on this intricate balance on a recent episode of “The Xtra Edge” podcast.
Why Integrating Match and Training Data is Critical for Football Coaches
More and more coaches are taking advantage of the powerful combination of match data and GPS-based training data. This fusion of information is providing unprecedented insights into player performance, team dynamics, and game strategy.
How Coaches Are Unlocking Football Players’ Potential with GPS Tracking Insights
Technology’s influence on football is undeniable, particularly with the expanded use of GPS tracking. It plays a major role in painting a more comprehensive picture of individual players and overall team performance, leading to improved outcomes. And now it’s easier than ever for coaches to use.
What's the One Thing 2024 NBA Draft Combine Leaders Have in Common?
The NBA Draft Combine underscores the pivotal role of data-driven performance metrics in preparing athletes for high-stakes competitions. But there’s a commonality among the players who performed best during the strength and agility drills this year.
Dimitris Itoudis is Mastering EuroLeague Basketball with Data-Driven Coaching
Dimitris Itoudis is one of the winningest coaches in EuroLeague basketball history and renowned for his strategic prowess. But he also exemplifies the marriage between traditional coaching wisdom and modern data analytics.