Girls Basketball Off Season Training: Upper Classmen Can Make It Fun And Meaningful

When I was a junior in high school, my team won the girls basketball state championship. I was the only junior in the starting five-the rest were seniors who were graduating.

I knew that if we wanted to have a decent team the following year, we needed our younger players to improve quickly and do some off season training. I also had the desire to encourage the younger girls in the program and help them improve.

Because of this, I ended up mentoring a freshman who would be a key guard the next year. I invited her to work out with me in the spring after season. We worked out together most days after school- running, lifting, and shooting baskets.

Here are some of the things we did:

We got to chat in the car and socialize because we worked out at a gym 15 minutes from our school

We usually ran a loop of about 3 miles to maintain a general fitness level in the off season.

Sometimes we ran sprints too

We'd usually run 2-3 times per week and lift 2-3 times per week.

We spotted each other in the weight room.

We always worked on form shooting after lifting

We'd rebound for each other and work on shots specific to our positions

It was a lot of fun. We got to know each other better, and we had someone to do the tough basketball training like the running and lifting. We always had someone to rebound our shots. I shared sports advice for girls and we also discussed all kinds of things like God, school, boys, and friends. It made our team that much stronger the next year to have at least two people who had committed their time to basketball skills training.

Leadership Growth

Another affect my mentoring had was it helped me grow as a leader and be a stronger senior role model. We had some strong senior leadership the year before, and it was my turn to step into that role. Connecting with a younger player helped me to keep perspective on being an underclassman. It allowed me to have more awareness for what they might be going through. Overall it was very rewarding.

If you're looking for basketball ideas and ways to improve as a player and a leader, I want to challenge you to mentor someone younger and less experienced than you in basketball. You will make a huge difference in their life - they'll look up to you and appreciate your investment in them. And you'll gain a lot from it as well.