Podcast #46: Jumps, Knees, Basketball with Nick Cuzzone

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jacked-athlete-podcast/id1462537296


Performance

Natural, elastic, springy guy: “If we put 3 inches on your vertical, is that gonna make you that much of a better basketball player?”

“If we put on 15 pounds of good weight, that’s probably gonna help you more make that transition to the college game.”

“The ones who are serious about playing at the next level usually just play basketball.”

“Regardless of who we train and their level of athleticism, we’re always gonna sprint them.”

“I’ve seen kids who are not fast but run well and have good timing. Those kids, it’s just, can we get more out of it to get you a little bit faster.”

“I’ll get kids who, just doing bilateral jumps on the jump mat, that will bring out some knee pain.”

“You’re on the jump mat and you land. The collision is over. If you’re coming down from a dunk, you’ll see kids land, they’ll keep bouncing, they’ll tumble.”

On not testing vertical every week: “The really athletic kids know that they’re really athletic.”

On training during high sport volume: “Only come in when you are feeling good and you know that you can run or jump.”

Basketball players and the weightroom: “For the most part, it’s just finding what they’re good at and let’s get really strong at that.”

“The majority of kids I see who can play at the next level, I think get way more games and way more skill work than they actually need.”

“I’ve had kids who run faster or just as fast with a ball in their hands versus without.”


Knee Pain

“Most kids we get are probably patellofemoral pain. The really athletic kids, it’s probably Patellar Tendinopathy. A lot of Osgood-Schlatter.”

ISOs helping patellofemoral pain: “usually it’s when we keep the leg a little bit straighter, not in deep knee flexion.”

Patellofemoral pain after taking a week or two completely off: “Those kids will come here and they’re like my knees are worse now than they were during the season.”

“If you don’t have a capacity of jumping at max effort… it might bring out knee pain.”

Calf training: “That’s a big staple of what we’re doing.”

Squatting: “Keeping the shin angle and torso angle parallel.”

“If you’re playing that many games, practice, skill work and you’re really weak at the same time… at some point, you might run into something [pain].”

Knee pain advice:

  1. Get a foundation of strength in you
  2. Make sure you have a capacity of jumping
  3. Try to take care of the knee directly (e.g. leg extension, Spanish squat)
  4. Listen to your body more

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