BJV focus: conditioning

February 14, 2004
by Jonathan Sachs

Less than five minutes into practice, the boys junior varsity basketball team is already doing sprints back and forth across the court.

After running sprints, the team does shooting drills for the next ten minutes. While the 13-3 Lions shoot their jump shots, the voice of Head Coach Barry Friedman is echoing in the gym, “While you’re tired, while you’re tired.”

For the Lions, practices consist of sprints, offensive and defensive drills, shooting drills, free throw practice and practicing their set offensive plays.
In addition, the Lions do various ball-handling drills while running up and down the court.

“Instead of just making them run without a basketball, which gets boring, I try to put a basketball in their hands, and do as much game type of conditioning as possible,” said Friedman.

According to Friedman, the team tries to “keep the endurance up so when we get into the fourth quarter, we are able to think out on the court instead of thinking about being tired, we’re thinking about playing the game, so there’s no letdown because they are in such good shape."

The practices are conducted in this rigorous way so that the Lions can outlast their opponents–and the Lions have demonstrated just this in their games.

During the Dec. 21 game against the Hebrew Academy Cougars, the Lions outscored the Cougars 26-3 in the final nine minutes of the game.
Sophomore guard Gabe Stutman hit two three-pointers to end the third quarter to spark the team’s run.

The Lions also feel that good conditioning enables them to attack their opponents throughout the game.

“Because of [practice], you can go on for longer, and a lot of times you can see that your opponents are huffing and puffing and you’re still going strong,” said sophomore center Zachary Rosenberg.

After working to become the best-conditioned team in the PVAC, the Lions are still trying to master other elements of the game, such as running plays, transitioning quickly from offense to defense, and looking for all possible scoring options.

“We go over the plays and do as much full-court stuff as we can,” said Friedman, “When we get into a game situation, we can get into it quick. If we practice full speed, then when the game comes, there is no letdown.”