How to Increase Stamina for Basketball

Basketball requires speed, strength, quickness and overall athleticism. Conditioning drills for basketball can help you get in shape to play the game competitively. However, your coaches may push you very hard to get in the best shape possible because they want you to have stamina in the late stages of the game. This is where games are often won and lost; making the effort to build your stamina can have a dramatic impact on your game and your team's win-loss record.

Step 1
Run the "basketball mile" drill to build stamina and endurance. Start off jogging for 20 seconds, then increase your jog to a full-out run for 20 seconds. After the run, jump forward for 20 seconds and then finish the cycle by walking for 20 seconds. Do this until you have gone for one mile. Repeat three times per week.

Step 2

Perform the "pyramid drill" to build your basketball endurance. Start off at the baseline and sprint to the opposite baseline. Do one push-up. Get up and sprint back to the starting baseline. Do two push-ups. Continue in this manner until you are doing five push-ups. Take a two-minute break and repeat the sprints, but this time do sit-ups instead of push-ups.

Step 3

Start off at the free-throw line and make five consecutive free throws. After you have made your free throws, go under the boards and start tipping the ball off the backboard. Tip it 10 times in succession and go back to the free-throw line and make five more free throws. This will help you improve your concentration and your overall stamina.

Step 4
Divide the team into two lines. The first group is going to the basket on the near side of the court and the other line is going to the basket on the far side of the court. On the coach's signal, the first player in each line takes off for a layup. The idea is for the two lines to combine for 40 layups in a two-minute period. Take a one-minute break and repeat the drill. This will build speed and endurance.

Warnings
Before starting your conditioning and stamina sessions, perform a short, aerobic warm-up to get your blood flowing, prepare your muscles for the drills and prevent injury.

Tips

Basketball is all about speed and sprints, not long distance running. Sprinting drills are more effective when you practice landing on the balls of your feet instead of heel-toe.

Shared from livestrong.com

Water or Sports Drinks: What to Drink When?

With temperatures skyrocketing as we dive deeper into the summer months, hydration is more important than ever. Intense training sessions combined with sweltering heat can be a recipe for dehydration, and knowing the right way to hydrate can help you stay on top of your game.

One basic hydration question that's often asked is: What should you drink when you work out—plain water or a sports drink,or perhaps a combo of both? To understand the answer, you need to understand some of the science behind dehydration and fatigue.

Hydrate with Water
Your hydration strategy should begin and end with water. Period. Our bodies are roughly 60 percent water, and it plays a critical role in nearly every one of our body’s natural processes.

The importance of water for athletes cannot be overstated. Water transports oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, aids in muscle contraction, fights fatigue and regulates body temperature—in addition to delivering countless other benefits.

For many types of exercise, drinking water alone should adequately hydrate you—as long as you get the proper amount.

"For most people performing short-duration, moderately intense exercise, water will get the job done,” says Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for Sports Medicine.

Typically, if you’re exercising for less than an hour with low to moderate intensity, hydrating with water should be enough to keep you performing at a high level. Of course, factors like extreme heat can muddle things up. But in general, if you aren’t busting your butt and your session lasts less than an hour, sticking to water before and during your session is a smart move.

So, how much water do you need? You should drink 12 fluid ounces within 30 minutes of the start of your workout. Then, drink water every 20 minutes for the first hour you work out at light to moderate intensity. You’ll know you aren’t drinking enough water if your urine is a shade of dark brownish-yellow instead of clear or slightly yellow.

Be Smart with your Sports Drink
Under no conditions should you ever completely forgo water and drink only sports drinks. Your main source of fluid should always be water. But under certain conditions, it makes sense to supplement water consumption with a sports drink. Sports drinks do have a place in hydration. The problem is, many people drink them far too often. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, sports drinks’ high sugar content places them in a category of beverages that should be consumed "sparingly and infrequently.” Other beverages in this category include soda and fruit juice.

Yet many people don't drink sports drinks sparingly and infrequently. Some folks reach for one anytime they break a sweat, and others drink them even if they aren’t exercising—simply because they enjoy the taste. In a time when 71.4% of all adult Americans are consuming too much added sugar, that is not a good habit.

Consuming too much sugar can lead to a large number of undesirable health outcomes, including obesity, diabetes, liver failure, heart disease, tooth decay and cancer. In fact, many experts believe the added sugar in our diets is the number 1 cause of the rising rate of obesity and the higher incidence of many major diseases.

However, there is a scientific reason why sports drinks contain high amounts of sugar. When you exercise intensely, you drain your glycogen reserves. Glycogen is carbohydrate stored in the muscles and liver, and its our most efficient source of energy. During sustained intense exercise, glycogen stores get drained. This can lead to low blood glucose levels, which hurt performance by causing things like fatigue and nausea. The sugar in sports drinks provides your body with efficient and fast-acting carbohydrate, which prevents your glycogen stores from falling too low and keeps your blood glucose levels at the ideal level.

The electrolytes included in sports drinks—such as sodium and potassium—help the body retain fluid and enhance fluid and nutrient absorption. Obviously, the electrolytes provided by sports drinks serve a distinct performance-enhancing purpose—but only if you work out intensely enough for your body to need them. Bonci outlines a few different scenarios where consuming a sports drink makes sense:

• Exercise that lasts longer than one hour
• Grueling exercise like a particularly difficult workout or an intense sport like tennis
• Tournaments or meets where you have back-to-back games or events
• If you're a salty sweater, the electrolytes found in sports drinks will likely benefit you more often. Salty sweaters frequently find that their sweat stings their eyes, burns in an open cut, tastes salty or causes white streaks on their face, skin or clothes.

Remember, these are basic guidelines that can change depending on circumstances like extreme weather or level of equipment. For example, a football player wearing full pads sweats more than he would in no pads.

Ultimately, the more you sweat, the more likely you are to benefit from a sports drink.

“The fluids you need ultimately depends upon your sweat rate,” Bonci says.

So if you're performing moderately intense exercise for under an hour but in especially hot conditions, a sports drink can increase your performance—even though you could probably just drink water if the weather were mild.

One thing to keep in mind when you include sports drinks in your hydration routine is their serving size. Bonci recommends that for every additional hour after the initial hour of exercise, you need to consume at least 30 grams of carbs, which translates to about 16 ounces of a sports drink every additional hour. Many sports drinks come in 32-ounce bottles, so always be sure to check out the serving size before you start chugging!

Shared from stack.com

Health: Recommended Daily Water Intake

The recommended amount of water you should drink daily is a topic at the center of many heated debates. Many people claim there is an one-size-fits-all prescription to how much water you should drink every day. The most common water prescription says that you should drink 8 glasses per day. However, this statement is entirely false.

The optimal daily water intake is highly individualized and is different for each person. Why? Because various internal and external factors play a role in determining the amount of water you should drink.

7 Factors That Determine Your Daily Water Intake

• Climate
• Altitude
• If you are a woman and are nursing
• If you are sick, have the flu, or healing from any other illness
• How active you are during the day
• Your body-fat percentage
• Your weight

A Better Daily Water Intake Prescription

“Half your body weight in ounces of water” is a good baseline prescription for the amount of water you should drink daily. For example, for a person who weighs 200 pounds, he or she would divide by two. This equals 100. Therefore, for a 200-pound person, the starting point or baseline prescription for water is 100 ounces per day. 

However, please keep in mind this is just a starting point, as you must add in other factors. For example, if you are a bicyclist or avid runner, then you should drink more water. So, start with the baseline prescription. Then listen to your body and increase your daily intake based on what you are feeling. This is the most solid prescription that you can get without going to see a hydration specialist.

Important Health Reasons for Proper Hydration

It is important to maintain an exceptional hydration status for many reasons, including, but certainly not limited to:

• Toxin Removal
• Increased Energy Levels
• Mood Improvement

Other liquids such as tea, coffee, juices and the like do not factor into your hydration status. Only water by itself factors into your hydration status.

Achieving Good Hydration

Do not beat yourself up if you fail to drink 100 ounces of water every day. Just try your hardest. And do your best while remaining aware that what one person may need to stay healthy may be entirely different than what you need. Start at the baseline prescription of drinking half your body weight in ounces. And then listen to your body from there. It will always tell you what you need. 

Article shared from morellifit.com

Health: Nutrition for Height Growth

Height is not mandatory requirement in the game of basketball, but with good body high will give you advantages against your opponent. And its certainly not involve hanging in pull bar for hours. In addition to a balanced diet for health, there are specific nutritional requirements for height growth. Height is largely determined by genetics, but to achieve maximum height growth, you have to have healthy bone structure. An essential mix of protein, vitamins and minerals can help you achieve maximum growth.

Protein

A study led by Catherine Berkey at Harvard University showed that dairy protein is especially beneficial for height growth. The research followed the growth of more than 5,000 girls and showed that their eventual adult height was linked to the amount of dairy products they ate during adolescence, with those who ate more milk and dairy protein becoming taller adults.

Vitamin C

One of the key vitamins for height growth is vitamin C, which is an important component for bone growth, according to the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. It is critical for growth and repair of not only bone but also connective tissue, such as tendons and ligaments that support the skeleton. To get plenty of vitamin C, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, such as citrus fruits, and avoid smoking, which depletes vitamin C levels.

Beta Carotene

Found in foods such as green plants, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, spinach, apricots and green peppers, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, beta carotene is an essential vitamin for bone growth because it is converted to vitamin A, which helps maintain normal growth and bone development. Vegetables such as carrots, squash and spinach are especially rich in vitamin A, and most milk is supplemented with it.

Vitamin D

According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, vitamin D is needed for bone growth and bone remodeling. Vitamin D deficiencies cause bones to become thin, brittle or misshapen. The best way to get vitamin D for height growth is from short, regular sun exposure -- being careful not to burn. However, supplements such as cod liver oil can boost your vitamin D if you live in a cloudy climate and during the winter.

Calcium

A South Dakota State University study on the relationship between bone growth and exercise in children showed that children with higher calcium intake had more bone growth than those who had lower calcium levels. Your body needs calcium throughout your life to build and maintain bone levels, so make calcium-rich foods such as dairy, sardines and leafy greens like spinach, a part of your diet for height growth.

Shared from livestrong.com

Basketball Tips: Keep Energize and Strong Throughout the Game, Suggested Meal for Game-Day

Game day: Where all hard work and pain from training desperately need to show results. The main item that will influence the outcome of your training, is your preparation of battery (meal) on the game day. So what to eat?

The pre-competition meal or food that is eaten on the day of the competition, is very important. This is the food that the athlete will use to provide fuel to the body during the game. Because it is a well proven fact that food eaten just before a game will not help perform any better, it is necessary for the athlete to eat meals at the right time. Here is what we want to accomplish with the pre-competition meal:

• Allow for the stomach to be relatively empty at the start of competition.
•  Help avoid being hungry during the competition.
• Keep plenty of energy available for competition.
• Avoid stomach upset.
• Provide plenty of fluids for the body.

I have always believed in a diet high in carbohydrates (avoid fats, grease) about 1-2 hours before game-time or practice (you need time to digest it). Players should eat enough to feel their hunger is satisfied, but not overeat or stuff themselves. If it is a larger meal (lunch or dinner), eat at least 2 to 3 hours before the game; if it is a snack (you already had lunch or dinner earlier), eat the snack 1 hour before the game.

Suggested foods:

Some kind of pasta is a good lunch or dinner choice.

Others:

Cereals and grains
Vegetables
Crackers
Peanut butter crackers
Peanut butter sandwich
Pancakes
French toast
Bagels
Orange juice
Apples
Bananas
Grapes
Lean Meats

Avoid dairy products high in fat. Low fat yogurt would be fine. Adequate fluid intake is important before and during the game to avoid dehydration but again, too much is not good medicine. In addition to water, sport drinks or fruit juices are good choices.

If your practices or games are late in the afternoon, make sure you eat breakfast and lunch that day. Some fruit like bananas or oranges one hour before the practice or game would be a good booster.

Shared from coachesclipboard.net

Health: Maintaining Good Health Diet, Nutrition Tips for Athletes

As important as your training to improve your game, maintaining your health with a good diet also crucial. When you exercise hard for 90 minutes or more, especially if you're doing something at high intensity that takes a lot of endurance, you need a diet that can help you perform at your peak and recover quickly afterward.

Load Up on Carbohydrates
Carbs are an athlete's main fuel. Your body changes them to glucose, a form of sugar, and stores it in your muscles as glycogen. When you exercise, your body changes glycogen into energy. If you exercise for under 90 minutes, you have enough glycogen in your muscles, even for high-intensity activities. But if your workout is longer than that, eat a diet that gets about 70% of its calories from carbohydrates, including breads, cereals, pasta, fruit, and vegetables, to achieve maximum carbohydrate storage. On the day of a big event, eat your last meal 3 to 4 hours before exercising, to give your stomach time to empty. Avoid eating sugary or starchy foods within 30 minutes of starting an activity; they can speed up dehydration.

Get Enough Protein, But Not Too Much
Protein doesn’t provide a lot of fuel for energy. But you need it to maintain your muscles. The average person needs 1.2 to 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight a day. That's about 88 grams of protein for a 150-pound person. A strength athlete may need up to 1.7 grams per kilogram of body weight. That's about 150 grams of protein for a 200-pound athlete. Getting too much protein can put a strain on your kidneys. Instead of protein supplements, eat high-quality protein, such as lean meats, fish, poultry, nuts, beans, eggs, or milk.

Go Easy on Fat
For long events, your body turns to fat for energy when carbohydrate sources run low. Most athletes get all the fat they need by following the basic dietary guideline to eat mostly unsaturated fat from foods such as nuts, avocados, olives, vegetable oils, and fatty fish like salmon and tuna. Avoid fatty foods on the day of an event, since they can upset your stomach.

Drink Fluids Early and Often
Intense exercise, especially in hot weather, can quickly leave you dehydrated. Dehydration, in turn, can hurt your performance and, in extreme cases, threaten your life. Because intense exercise makes you lose fluid quickly, it's a good idea to drink fluids before as well as during an event. Athletes should drink 8 to 12 ounces of fluid every 10 or 15 minutes during an event. When possible, drink chilled fluids, which are more easily absorbed than room-temperature water. Chilled fluids also help cool your body down. 

Replace Lost Electrolytes
Sweating removes both fluids and electrolytes. Electrolytes help transmit nerve signals in your body. To replenish them, reach for sports drinks. If you’re also losing a lot of fluid as you sweat, dilute sports drinks with equal amounts of water to get the best balance of fluid and electrolytes.

 Shared from webmd.com