Hocevar Performance

I constantly talk about the circle of influence and the importance of surrounding yourself with people that are where you want to be and are more successful than you. I will always seek out people that are on top of their game and learn as much as I can from them. I also believe that many times you need to create your own path to success. People tell me that I contradict myself since this is the exact opposite of following successful people and doing as they did and following their path.

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I try to get these out on a Friday but I have been noticing that it’s always before or after. I guess the title should be random thoughts on a random day:

1. I have been quite busy with training, especially with the return of Matt Fields from the Tampa Bay camp (he played for Vero Beach this year). He is motivated and driven as ever and this off-season we are going to take his performance a step further from last year. Last year he made some incredible gains at Hocevar Performance (talk about strength and speed gains) while also going from 20% body fat to showing up at the Tampa Bay training camp at 10.3%.

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Single leg vertical jumping is a very useful thing. I know many basketball players that have a great vertical of two feet but not anywhere close while jumping of one foot. Hopefully I don’t have to explain how important an explosion and elevation of one foot is, when it come to gametime. I will take Lebron James as an example, as the majority of his dunks are of one foot while driving towards the basket. Since you are running it is faster to take of one foot rather than square up and jump off two feet. 

Every type of jump has its advantages though. Jumping off two feet is more effective for rebounding because you will ussualy box out and go for the rebound straight up. Instead of choosing one or the other become good at both. The reason I am talking about it is because I have had the question come up lately and today another player and friend of mine asked me this:

“Is there a way to improve my one foot jumping to equal it to my two foot jump? I would like to have the ability to elevate from one foot of the drive!”

Now, this player has a very good vertical of two feet but not nearly as close that of one foot. So whats the catch? Well, here are some things that will explain and help you improve you one foot vertical:

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A couple of days ago I watched the documentary Bigger, Faster, Stronger, which is about the use of steroids in America. It is a great documentary and it makes you question a lot of things and you can really see how fake and misleading a lot of people are (not to mention not having a clue about what they are talking about), from politicians, doctors, athletes, etc.

I won’t give you my whole thought process on the subject but what I will do is share my thought on the supplement industry. If you watch the movie you will see how much of the supplement world is nothing but a scam. Many of the fitness magazines that market supplements more than they provide content, have before and after pictures that are complete scams and really can’t be regulated. Here is a snap from the movie where some truth is revealed.

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When I was younger I played basketball almost all the time and I mean I played a lot. I also tried every program to increase my vertical, 40 yard dash, agility and ball handling skills. Basically I was always doing something to improve my game. Does it sound familiar?

I also had coaches telling me I should run all the time to stay conditioned, take it easy with the weights so I don’t get bulky and become slow, and to top it all off we would have a 3 hour practice every day(later on in my professional career even 2 a days with 3 hours of basketball specific training). I wanted to improve my performance so much that even back then I started reading books, manuals, you name it, just to improve my game and my performance. A lof of the information I read was contadicting what some of the coaches were telling me, especially when it came to strength and conditioning! I did a lot of the strength training on my own but I also had to do the team training as there was no way of getting out of that and I also wanted to set an example of hard work for my team. Many times I ended up overtraining and had sub-par performance and nagging injuries, but I was still a lot better of than some of my team mates, as they had season ending and in some cases career ending injuries.

From all the knowledge that I have accumulated through the years of study and implementation of strength and conditioning and my experiences as a basketball player from the high school to the professional ranks, I am going to give 10 tips that are essential for basketball players to improve their game and their physical performance in the off-season. Learn from my mistakes and from the mistakes of others and take your game to the next level:

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I just got back from the beach and a tough Sunday evening training session. I live right next to Coulon Park Beach so I just kind of step outside of the door. It wasn’t sunny and packed with hot chicks, it was more like raining and there was no one there but me. It didn’t bother me that much as I love outdoor training and it is these training sessions where I have time for myself and after I get a”good” training session in, I have a clear mind and it’s when I get some of my best ideas and “clear” thinking. It may not be works for you but it definitely works for me. Here is my training today:

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