I keep hearing different people say that meltdown training is a “no no” for basketball. I was thinking that it would be beneficial, because it prepares the body for a greater lactic acid threshold. This seems similar with Sprints. Basketball is conditioning of three things, endurance, moderate speed, and short intense explosions. It seems like lactid acid training would prepare the body for all of these. Am I way off base here? Would this post be better on CT’s forum?
bump.
I don’t see how any training is a “no-no” for basketball. Someone go tell David Robinson he was too big and shredded for a basketball player and it affected his game.
Not that he was doing Meltdown per-se, just maybe lifting a lot and taking performance enhancing drugs.
Do you really think slow concentrics would improve your explosiveness?
Eric, I guess I didn’t look at it that way. The last time I did meltdown it seemed as if I was lighter on my feet. This was probably due to the loss of BF. This explains why my exposiveness to the basket is now suffering. Thanks for the input. The brain gets a little cloudy sometimes. Thanks. Now for sure I will be looking for a program that emphasizes explosive movements.
Assess what you need to be a better player on the court. Is it a reduction in body fat or body weight? Is it an increase in endurance? Is it an increase in explosiveness?
No one can answer these questions except for you or your coaches. I would guess that before you work on explosive power, you’ll need to improve endurance. After you address one deficit, then move on to the next.
Meltdown is good for athletes because you don’t have to limit calories to any large degree in order to imporve body composition generally. Ideally, weight loss won’t negatively effect your performance and this is often a good way to accomplish that. Meltdown will improve your performance.
Once you’re a lean, mean jump shot machine, then work on your explosive power. Incedentally, Meltdown II could help you with this. Alessi’s programming is often very good. Meltdown III is not for an athlete, but the first two generations would help an athlete.
Just remember that you want to address injuries/imbalances first, improve work capacity second and then concentrate on strength and speed. That’s a good model to follow to ensure complete athletic development.