“The ultimate goal of the coach-athlete dyad is to bring an athlete to peak performance and bring them to that state predictably in terms of place and time.” —Charlie Francis

If you're like me, as soon as you finish one thing, you're on to the next. I always say that if you aren’t busy, you aren’t really living. The basketball season is just coming to an end for many high schools, and it won’t be long before many of the players are off to their AAU teams.

Most players at the high school level need to gain lean mass (muscle). This can't be done no matter how good the training program is as long as there are holes in his nutrition. Unfortunately, there are many holes in a high school athlete’s nutrition. The first thing I would do is get the athlete on fish oil capsules. This should be the number one supplement for any athlete for the following reasons:

  • Fish oil increases serotonin levels in the brain. Simply put, they make you feel better and the better you feel, the better the training and outlook on everyday life.
  • DHA and EPA, the main omega fatty acids in fish oil, increase nerve transmission velocity, a big plus for training for speed and in the weight room.
  • Fish oil controls insulin response. As an athlete, you should be less than eight percent body fat, especially as a high school basketball player. This isn't according to me but Charles Poliquin, the most successful strength coach in the world and a man who has worked with over 600 professional and Olympic athletes.

The first few weeks after the season should be aimed at correcting any imbalances that may have occurred during the season as well as gaining lean body mass. This means a few things:

  • There may be imbalances in the knee and hip region due to the nature of the sport. Basketball utilizes a limited range of motion over and over again at the knee joint, leading to more development of the vastus lateralis (lateral aspect of the quad) in relation to the VMO (medial side of the quad). This imbalance can lead to patella tracking problems and things such as patella tendonitis and tendinosis. This can be corrected with squatting below parallel and a movement known as terminal knee extensions (TKE) to name a few of the strategies.
  • To gain body mass, we will focus on higher volume in the first month or so, controlling the tempo and taking more of a bodybuilding approach before moving into a conjugated system in which power, strength, and hypertrophy are all trained simultaneously. Ego must be set aside when training with time under tension, as lighter weights will be used.

This is a simple and great place to start once the season ends. It isn't too crazy but right where I recommend a player start when coming out of the season.