Strength Deficit for Hoopers

[cjyoung221]

Hey Tim! Just finished reading the book and have a question regarding the programming for basketball players.

With basketball being a “large deficit” sport, should one “peak” everyone the same way? Thinking of a more concentrically oriented basketball player, would it be beneficial to increase their deficit seeing as how basketball is a game of creating space and lots of movement in open space? Or should you peak everyone according to what their structure calls for?

In my mind it makes the most sense to prepare them for what their structure will thrive off of, regardless of the specific biomotor demands of the sport.

[Timothy Caron]

So this is a great question, it goes back to all Models are Wrong – but some are useful. The answer to this question is that Strength Deficit does not always fit perfectly.

There are parts that do though
1) Jump Profiling – is the ratio of CMJ:NCMJ what you want for basketball. My mind would be yes, Increasing the Deficit would be logical. But an argument would be to improve force output in general and cross sectional area/lean body mass.
2) I would say that a better case could be made for body types and exercise selection – narrow body types would be more eccentric/exhale focussed. This would lend its self to more parallel muscle fibers and pulling exercises like snatch/pullup/hinges. Where the pennate muscle fibers and pushing exercises harder to develop which would be key to developing lean muscle mass
– on that note it really comes down to creating as much tension within pennate muscle fibers while accommodating longer levers/muscle bellies. This is where machines are really handy with ectomorph/narrow ISA athletes. we can create more tension in a targeted muscle group while preventing leveraged athletes finding mechanical advantaged positions.

So yes, biomotor wise I would look at it from a needs basis and focus on the exercise selection based on the extreme body types in basketball.

Does that help?

[Author]

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