NY Knicks 2016-2017: Third Rock from the Sun

Article from fansided.com

The 2009 NBA Draft was supposed to be the beginning of a new era of sorts for the New York Knicks. Gone was head coach/GM/Team President Isiah Thomas — Donnie Walsh and in turn, Mike D’Antoni had arrived, and after purging the roster of Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, Tim Thomas, and Stephon Marbury, it was time for the Knicks to begin the long road back to relevance.

With D’Antoni at the helm, many thought the Knicks would use the draft to find his next Steve Nash. The 2009 draft was oddly awash with first-round talent at the point guard position, and with the Knicks picking 8th that year, the Knicks seemed destined to end up with a Steph Curry, Ricky Rubio or Tyreke Evans, or at a minimum a Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Eric Maynor or Jeff Teague, if they found a way to acquire a later pick.

The benefit of hindsight makes Curry the obvious choice here (alas, the Warriors picked him just one spot ahead of the Knicks), with his sweet stroke and the improved distribution skills he showed off in his final year at Davidson on paper, Curry would have been the perfect fit for a Mike D’Antoni offense (plus, under D’Antoni, his defensive shortcomings would never be an issue). But in spirit, no point guard appeared more Knick-ian than Brandon Jennings.

With a game equal parts playground and prep-school, Jennings seemed destined to return the archetype to the vaunted status it once held, giving the city it’s first dominant point guard since Mark Jackson was traded away in 1992. But alas, with Jennings still on the board, the Knicks instead took Jordan Hill (who they would later trade for Tracy McGrady in the next season), and Jennings fell to the 10th pick, where he was selected by the Bucks.

After passing on Jennings, the Knicks were never really able to find their long-term solution at point guard, trotting out both veterans like Chauncey Billups, Mike Bibby and Jason Kidd, and young guys like Toney Douglas, Jeremy Lin and Shane Larkin. But now, five losing seasons, three head coaches, and two general managers later, the Knicks have righted their wrong. The Knicks have finally found their point guard.

Let’s be honest for a second here, save for a 55-point game here, and a triple-double there, Jennings wasn’t always the platonic ideal of a point guard that I’ve made him out to be here. He made the playoffs once in Milwaukee before being quickly shipped out to Detroit, and the first year and a half of his stint with the Pistons was largely forgettable. But then, halfway through the 2014-15 season, the Pistons waived Josh Smith, and over the next 16 games Jennings began to realize his potential as a top-flight floor general.

Smith’s departure allowed the entire Pistons roster to play with a newfound confidence, but no one improved more than Jennings, who finally began to resemble the unstoppable force he was during his senior season at Oak Hill Academy. Jennings lead the Pistons to a 12-4 record over that period, including impressive wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, and Atlanta Hawks, twice. Averaging 20 points and 7 assists during that period, Jennings was well on his way to winning that year’s Most Improved Player award, but then the rug was pulled out from under him. In a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the franchise that drafted him, he ruptured his achilles tendon, ending his season.

Now we are on Instagram!

Now we are on Instagram!

Please follow @bolakeranjang on Instagram for latest updates!

Lets get in touch and grow the community together

link at below;

https://www.instagram.com/bolakeranjang/https://www.instagram.com/bolakeranjang/

Jumping Jacks

 Shared from online-basketball-drills.com

Drill Type:  Conditioning Drill

Purpose: This two-step conditioning drill, while simple, is a great way to toughen your kids up a little bit, and will also show you who your best rebounders are.

Set Up: Have your players form two lines facing the baseline, each a couple of feet away from the basket.

Rebounding Drill
Execution:
1. Lines will go two at a time
2. Players will throw the ball up high off the backboard, take a step and gather themselves, and jump 
    as high as they can to secure the ball safely with two hands.
3. They should then pass the ball to the next player and go to the back of the line.
4. If you’ve got an older group, this is a good time for them to work on tip ins and put back layups as
     well.
5. Once your players are comfortable with the drill, back the line up a little bit.
6. The player at the front of the line will do the same thing, throw it off the backboard and go get it,
    but now, the 2nd player in the line is going to go over his back and attempt to steal the rebound
    from him.

Basketball Drills for Beginners

Article from www.online-basketball-drills.com

If you’re working with younger players, it’s important to focus on basic fundamentals in the majority of your practice time.

This post will cover 12 of our favorite basketball drills for beginners, specifically designed for kids under 10 years old.

Beginner Footwork Drills

Basketball is essentially, a game of footwork. Footwork is what allows ballhandlers to slash to the bucket and finish shots around rim. Footwork is what helps defensive players stay in front of their man, deny the ball, or get into position to help their teammates. Footwork is how rebounders get into position, box out and retrieve loose balls.

In fact, if you look at some of the greatest NBA players of all time, like Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant, every one of them used nimble, precise footwork to gain an advantage on offense and defense. A lot of kids under 10 don’t naturally have the coordination or balance to do things like pivot, slide, or drop step, so don’t take it for granted. Spend at least 15-20 minutes on footwork drills every practice, especially early in the season.
   1. Triple Threat Position & Defensive Stance
   2. Quick Stop Drill
   3. Stance & Start Footwork Drill
   4. V Cut Drill

Beginner Ballhandling Drills

Ballhandling is a blanket term which includes dribbling, passing, and catching skills. All players, whether they’re guards, forwards or centers must be able to handle the ball well. This enables them to be successful in all phases of the game, whether they’re pushing the ball upcourt on a fast break, catching the ball in the post, or pulling down a rebound under the boards. Spend roughly 15 minutes on these ballhandling drills at each and every practice.

   1. Basic Principles of Ballhandling and Dribbling
   2. Passing and Catching Basics for Youth Basketball
   3. Dribble Drive Basics for Kids
   4. 4-Step Ball Handling Circuit

Beginner Shooting Drills

The third key fundamental is Shooting. The good news is – this is one skill that your players definitely will not object to practicing! However, it’s critical that you don’t spend your practice time mindlessly firing up Hail Mary shots at the basket. Instead, make sure you start by building correct form and fundamentals, then using game situation drills to help your kids get accustomed to knocking down shots with a defender in their face. Set aside 15-20 minutes of your practice plan to work on these shooting drills.

   1. Shooting Basics for Youth Basketball – B.E.E.F.
   2. Form Shooting Drill (video)
   3. Shooting Layups – The Basics
   4. Three Spot Shooting Drill

How to Jump Higher and increasing your vertical leap

If you are an athlete who competes in a team or individual sport, you most likely rely primarily on leg strength to excel in your given sport. Basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, baseball.... chances are you have played one or more of these sports and found yourself in a situation where a higher jump could have given you the chance to score or avoid getting scored on. Whether you want to devote yourself to working towards the career of a professional athlete or you just want to fare a little better in a pick-up game, increasing your leg strength and your vertical leap can be a relatively easy process.

Step 1: In the Weight Room
The height of your jump is a direct result of your overall leg strength. However, it should be noted that attending to your core strength is important to every aspect of your athleticism. Conditioning can be more important to your agility than strength training, so make sure you pay plenty of attention to your abdominal muscles as they are the under-appreciated engine of all athletes. Nevertheless, there are some exercises you can do while in the gym that will maximize the increase you see in your vertical leap.

Calf Raises:
Many gyms have a seated calf raise machine that is built for one purpose only: to give you rockin calves. The idea is simple here - place your feet on the platform and put your knees under the bar. Release the safety and raise your legs using the balls of your feet. The most important thing to realize here is that unlike many exercises you may do in your workout, you don't need to try to build muscle. Jumping is all about explosion, so it is much more advantageous to go for less weight and maximize the repetitions. This is one of my favorite exercises.

Squats:
In addition to doing exercises like leg curls, presses and other quad/hamstring lifts, squats are a great exercise for building leg and core strength. If you don't know how to do a squat, it is best to get some help from someone at the gym. It can be easy to hurt yourself if you misunderstand the form, so don't take a chance. Start out by trying to lift about 50% of your body weight (bar included). Try to do between 6-8 reps. If the weight is too low, add on a few more lbs.

Step 2: Home Work
The best way to increase your vertical leap is not in the weight room, but rather during the journey that you experience every day. If you keep an eye out for opportunities to boost your jumping skills, you can start seeing a difference immediately.

Stretch:
This is probably a good idea to do even if you could care less about being able to dunk. Stretching daily will help strengthen your muscles, allow your body to gain flexibility, and just plain make you feel better. I have always heard that stretching before a workout (weight or aerobic) is a smart thing to do, but I have also had a few people tell me that stretching prior to exercise diminishes the maximum power that your muscles can generate. I am certainly no doctor, so whatever you decide to do, try doing it in moderation (unless you are drinking beer).

Stay on Your Toes:
It sounds like something ballerina might do, but trust me, it works wonders. Try walking around your house on your tip-toes. This will force your calf muscles to work overtime and is a great endurance exercise for increasing your vertical. When this starts to get tiring, switch it around and attempt to walk on your heels with your toes pointed as high as you can. This walk makes you look stupid, but forces your dorsi-flexor muscles to become rock hard.

Might as Well Jump:
Jumping rope is (surprise) a great exercise. Not only will this get the heart pumping, but the short jumps that you are forced to repeat over and over again help to promote explosiveness.

Stair Raises:
You can mimic the great exercises that you perform in the gym in the comfort of your own home if you have the right technique. If you have stairs in your house (or substitute any kind of platform), position yourself so that your heels hang off the back of the raised area. Lower yourself as far as you can go, then raise yourself up onto your toes. This can be much more straining for your calves than the machine, so try not to over do it when doing this exercise.

Last but Not Least:
Just as important as any dichotomy in life, work is meaningless without rest to accompany it. Make sure to give your body and legs a rest at least two days a week. As when doing any sort of weight or cardiovascular training, the results occur when your muscles have the chance to repair the small tears in tissue when you work out. So just do it.

Step 3: Practice Makes Perfect
There are several ways to go about jumping. These are all great methods of training your legs to jump properly and with the maximum amount of force. Try them all and you are destined hurdle any obstacle:

1. Explosive Jumping:
For this exercise, you will need some sort of elevated platform (a rock, a bench, a cinder block, etc). Put your right foot on the platform and your left foot on the ground. Now, explode upwards, jumping as high as you can off of your right foot. On the way down, try to switch your footing, landing with your left foot on the platform and your right on the ground. This can be tricky, so be careful not to fall as you land. Repeat as necessary.

2. Box Jumping:
You'll need a box or a sturdy platform for this next exercise. Begin atop your platform, and jump off to one side. Try to land and then instantly jump back up again, bending your legs as little as you can while still generating enough force to reach the height of the platform. Land on top, and jump off the other side. Keep repeating this about ten times before taking a short break.

3. Lunge Jumping:
Get in a normal lunge position, and try jumping as high as you can, using your forward foot to drive the leap. The lower you are to the ground, the more muscle strength is required to get yourself airborne. Do this a few times for each foot before throwing in the towel.

4. Two-Footer:
Place your feet about shoulder width apart, and squat down. Push off with both feet and use them equally to jump as high as you can. This is a good way of working both quads at the same time rather than doing them separately.

5. Arm Experimenting:
Try taking a few jumps as you would normally. Now try jumping as high as you can while keeping your arms pointed straight down. See the difference? Swinging your arms during a jump can add a significant amount of inertia to your leap, so experiment with different methods of propelling yourself with your arms.

6. Why Weight?
Weights can also be used when jump training. Try doing some of the exercises mentioned above while holding weights or a lead vest. For a cool experiment, grab a pair of dumbells and crouch down. Before you leap up, drop the weights and you will jump super high. Your body adjusts for the added weight as you crouch and this over-compensation allows you to get some serious air.

Just a couple of notes:
Don't use ankle weights (or just about any ankle strength/jump training device). These cause your body to operate in an unusual manner and can tear ligaments, effectively sending you to the DL or even ending your career.
Keep records of your vertical jump with the help of some friends. Having a detailed record of your progress will help you to understand what exercises are best for you when trying to improve your vertical and can also bring your attention to other unknown factors in your jumping.

Shared from instructables.com

Do Supplements Really Give Athletes an Edge?

You work hard to reach your athletic goals. You stick to your training program and to your nutrition plan. Now you want an edge over the competition. Is there a supplement that could give it to you?

Maybe, but results vary from person to person. When scientists study these products, mixed reviews are pretty common. Also, most research focuses on highly trained or pro athletes, so your results might be different. But if you're healthy and have no problems with your heart, kidneys, or liver, the most popular sports supplements are safe and inexpensive.

It's best to talk with your doctor before you take any product, even if it's natural, in case you have any conditions or take medications that it could affect.

Caffeine for Endurance
Caffeine gives you a pick-me-up in the morning, and it can pick up your game, too. If you take it about 30 minutes before your race or game, it could improve your endurance. For long challenges, like a marathon, caffeine during the event can help, too.

“Studies have shown repeatedly that you can get improvements in performance, mainly in endurance-type exercise, with caffeine,” says Janet Rankin, PhD, professor in human nutrition, foods, and exercise at Virginia Tech.

Tennis players, cyclists, soccer players, runners, rowers, and others got an edge from caffeine in scientific studies. In some trials, the stimulant boosted athletes’ speed. In others, it helped them last longer before they spent all their energy. Some studies show that it can curb soreness after exercise, too. This means you could get back to your training sooner.

You can get caffeine from energy drinks and shots, tablets, chewing gum, sport gels, and sprays. Each product will give you different doses, so read the label before you take it.

“You don’t need all that much caffeine to get the effect,” Rankin says. “And it is possible to overdo it.” No matter what form you take, make sure you don’t get more than 400 milligrams a day. And don’t forget to count your other daily sources of caffeine -- there’s about 100 milligrams in your morning coffee.

Too much caffeine can cause headaches, irritability, stomach upset, dehydration, and trouble sleeping.

Creatine for Reps
Are you a sprinter or weight lifter? Creatine monohydrate could help with these and other repeated short bouts of intense exercise. It doesn’t seem to benefit players of other types of sports. And, like studies of many supplements, not all studies show that it benefits athletes.

Your body makes creatine naturally, and your muscles use it to do high-intensity exercise. When you do a lot of reps, you use up your natural store of it. That’s one reason your tenth rep is so much harder than your first. A supplement boosts the amount your body has to work with. You also can get creatine from beef and pork. If you already eat plenty of these, you won’t notice as much of a difference from a supplement as a vegetarian might notice.

“For very short-term bouts of exercise, creatine supplementation seems to aid in recovery,” says Thomas Sherman, PhD, professor in pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC.

Experts consider creatine safe for healthy people. Some people take a higher dose for the first week -- about four servings of 5 grams each per day -- to “load” their muscles with the supplement. Then they drop to a “maintenance” dose of about 2 grams per day. Others skip the loading phase and start with the lower dose.

Some studies have shown that creatine could increase fat and not muscle. There’s also evidence that high doses could cause kidney, liver, or heart damage, but it's unclear how much might be too much.

Beta-Alanine for Burning Muscles
When you do short bouts of exercise at maximum effort for 30 to 90 seconds (think indoor cycling classes), your muscles make a lot of lactic acid. That’s what makes you “feel the burn.” Athletes take beta-alanine in a capsule or a drink powder to curb that burn so they can push through their workout.

Does it work? Cyclists and runners who took beta-alanine for 4 weeks improved their game in scientific studies. But not all studies agree.

“Some studies show a benefit. Others don’t,” Rankin says. “So it’s not completely clear yet. We need more studies on it, but it’s not one that I’m worried about people trying.”

Branched Chain Amino Acids for Bulking Up
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. The branched chain types are the three amino acids that muscles can use for energy. Athletes take them after workouts as tablets, gels, or drink powders to spur muscle growth.

Exercise makes your muscles grow by first injuring or breaking them down. When the tissue rebuilds, it gets bigger. Some studies show that branched chain amino acid supplements reduce muscle breakdown. If you have to lose muscle before you can gain it, the idea is that the products could cut the amount you need to lose before you start to get it back.

While these supplements might work, don’t expect dramatic results. “Exercise stimulates muscle [growth] anyway. So taking amino acids probably isn’t physiologically very significant, but it’s also not harmful,” Sherman says.

Whey Protein for Muscle Growth
Like branched chain amino acids, many athletes take whey protein, usually in a protein shake, after workouts to try to curb muscle damage and boost growth.

“There’s a window of about at least 30 minutes after you stop exercising during which you can take in protein and promote [growth] of lean muscle mass,” Sherman says. A number of scientific studies show that whey protein after exercise helps reduce muscle damage or promotes its growth.

Whey protein seems to work best after resistance exercise, like weight training, Rankin says. But you don’t have to get the nutrient from a supplement. A high-protein meal after a workout would do the job, too. Whey protein on top of that might give you an extra boost.

By Sonya Collins, shared from webmd.com

Speed Endurance Drills

Speed endurance training should form the later part of pre-season training and in-season training. It is important to develop a solid fitness base beforehand, which includes strength and endurance conditioning.

No more than two speed endurance sessions are required. This may be reduced to once a week during the competitive season. Because speed endurance training can be so demanding, keep session duration to 20-30 minutes maximum. Rest intervals should consist of active recovery exercises such as walking or jogging slowly on the spot.

High Intensity Shuttle Run

1. Pace out 30 meters on grass or a running track. Place a cone at the start and at 5 meter intervals (7 cones in total).
2. Sprint from the starting cone to 5 meter cone and back. Turn and sprint to 10 meter cone and back to start. Sprint to 15meter cone and back to start and so on until you sprint the full 30 meters and back.
3. Rest for 90 seconds and repeat. Complete a total of 6 sets keeping rest periods to 90 seconds.

Pyramids

1. Pace out 50 meters placing a cone at the start and then at 10 meter intervals (6 cones in total).
2. Starting at the first cone sprint all out for 10 meters and walk the remaining 40 meters.
3. Turn and sprint 20 meters and walk for 30 meters.
4. Turn and sprint 30 meters and walk for 20 meters.
5. Turn and sprint 40 meters and walk for 10 meters.
6. Turn and sprint 50 meters and then turn and sprint 50 meters again back to the start.

This is classed as one set. Rest for 90 seconds and repeat for a total of 4 sets. Rest for a full 3 minutes and repeat.

Cruise And Sprint
Mark out a distance of 100 meters. From the start gradually accelerate to reach full speed at about 60 meters. Sprint all out for the final 40 meters.
Slow down gradually, turn and repeat.
Continue for 2 minutes and then rest for 2 minutes. This is one set. Repeat for a total of 6 sets.

Hollow sprint
Set 5 cones out in 30 meters intervals. Sprint 30 meters, jog 30 meters, sprint 30 meters and jog 30 meters to the final cone.
Turn around and repeat always alternating jogging and sprinting. Work for 2 minutes and then rest for 2 minutes.
This is one set. Try to complete a total of 6 sets.

Cross Drill
Using 4 cones mark a box 30 meters by 30 meters. Place another cone in the center of the box.
Starting at the center cone sprint to each corner and back in a clockwise direction. Once you have completed a circuit rest for 60 seconds.
Perform a total of 6 circuits to complete one set. A session could contain up to 4 sets with a 3 minute rest interval between sets.

Shared from sport-fitness-advisor.com