Weight Room Conditioning

[Scatdliw]

Every basket ball player spends forty-five to sixty minutes every other day in the weight room under the supervision of the Strength and Conditioning Coach throughout the year, including the time when they are on campus in the summer, so I have been informed.

[Dr. Bliss]

Every basket ball player spends forty-five to sixty minutes every other day in the weight room under the supervision of the Strength and Conditioning Coach throughout the year, including the time when they are on campus in the summer, so I have been informed.

Thank you. It has been a longstanding myth that Davidson basketball has no strength program.

What is not a myth is that we don't often recruit the kinds of players who can easily build strength and bulk. Due to their DNA, it can be hard for some tall and lean 18 and 19-year-olds to add bulk. For instance, I think it will be hard for Bailey to add much bulk, but I think Logan can add some pounds and muscle, but it may take another 2 years. It took until his senior year for Brajkovic to add much muscle.

[stevelee]

Logan has added a lot and still has a long way to go.

We used to see upper body progress when we watched summer shirts/skins pick-up games. De’Mon was an impressive example.

[raptorcat]

Every basket ball player spends forty-five to sixty minutes every other day in the weight room under the supervision of the Strength and Conditioning Coach throughout the year, including the time when they are on campus in the summer, so I have been informed.

Thank you. It has been a longstanding myth that Davidson basketball has no strength program.

What is not a myth is that we don't often recruit the kinds of players who can easily build strength and bulk. Due to their DNA, it can be hard for some tall and lean 18 and 19-year-olds to add bulk. For instance, I think it will be hard for Bailey to add much bulk, but I think Logan can add some pounds and muscle, but it may take another 2 years. It took until his senior year for Brajkovic to add much muscle.

I've known for a long time that the 'Cats had a strength and conditioning program. It also has been long evident to me that genetics/DNA plays an outsized role in a young man's ability to add muscle mass. Many posters on this board have assumed the simplistic mindset that if a kid comes to Davidson and remains a string bean, it must be due to the basketball program's neglect. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The kids who look like superheroes by their senior years in high school are generally snapped up by colleges with higher profiles and more NIL money. We are forced to take a different tack, getting players with high basketball IQs, shooting abilities, or other related basketball skills. But they are not going to be as physically imposing. Of course, there are exceptions, such as Nathan Ekwu or Sam Mennenga. But not often. I don't fault our staff for lazy or out-of-touch recruiting philosophy. It's just one more example of how the odds are stacked against us when it comes to getting that ideal basketball specimen.

[stevelee]

Each year at the banquet at least one player thanks the conditioning folks for their help, even when there were fewer staff and facilities.

[TOK]

There are different types of strength programs depending on what the goal is.

The program wanted Cave to bulk up, and he did, but wanted to focus more on lean strength and aerobic conditioning for some other bigs.

It's not just what you lift, its how you lift it and what you eat. If you do enough running, it is hard to add bulk.

Davidson has always favored bigs who can run up and down the court rather than those who can engage in shoving matches under the basket.

In football we lifted to develop explosive strength, but for wrestling it was all about endurance without bulk.

[85Wildcatsky]

Every basket ball player spends forty-five to sixty minutes every other day in the weight room under the supervision of the Strength and Conditioning Coach throughout the year, including the time when they are on campus in the summer, so I have been informed.

Thank you. It has been a longstanding myth that Davidson basketball has no strength program.

What is not a myth is that we don't often recruit the kinds of players who can easily build strength and bulk. Due to their DNA, it can be hard for some tall and lean 18 and 19-year-olds to add bulk. For instance, I think it will be hard for Bailey to add much bulk, but I think Logan can add some pounds and muscle, but it may take another 2 years. It took until his senior year for Brajkovic to add much muscle.

I've known for a long time that the 'Cats had a strength and conditioning program. It also has been long evident to me that genetics/DNA plays an outsized role in a young man's ability to add muscle mass. Many posters on this board have assumed the simplistic mindset that if a kid comes to Davidson and remains a string bean, it must be due to the basketball program's neglect. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The kids who look like superheroes by their senior years in high school are generally snapped up by colleges with higher profiles and more NIL money. We are forced to take a different tack, getting players with high basketball IQs, shooting abilities, or other related basketball skills. But they are not going to be as physically imposing. Of course, there are exceptions, such as Nathan Ekwu or Sam Mennenga. But not often. I don't fault our staff for lazy or out-of-touch recruiting philosophy. It's just one more example of how the odds are stacked against us when it comes to getting that ideal basketball specimen.

I agree 100% Lifting will help only so much. If you go too far, you can also mess up your shooting touch during the season. I think an easy big man fix is to hire a legit big man coach. We have X Cats on the bench as assistants but no one to teach our bigs some better footwork and inside game.

[ScootCat]

Great insight. Go BIG or go home!!

[catnhat]

One doesn’t have to be 6’8” to coach big men.

I’ll use a FB example w a DC connection. Alex Gibbs was one of the best OL coaches in NFL history. He was a RB and DB at Davidson.

Pete Newell was the man NBA bigs looked to for instruction. His big man camps helped the best of the best. He was not a big man himself.

[DC69Wildcat]

Didn't Luka get some specialized coaching in Europe one summer?

[i77cat]

The best post coach I've seen at Davidson still comes to a few WBB games each year. I don't know if he's still interested in coaching. Probably so.

[ScootCat]

The great Tommy Burleson, who helped win an NCAA title for NC State and Coach Norm Sloan, lives just up the road in Avery County where he grew up. He has run a basketball camp there for at least 40 years or so. For those that remember, he played with the one and only David Thompson, and was one of the most dominant college big men of his era. I wonder if he would come down and do a little work with our big men this summer? Burleson was an excellent free-throw shooter, in addition to being a dominant scorer in the post when it counted most. He was very slight of frame, but a relentless competitor who backed down from no one. Surely he could teach our bigs a thing or two.

[collegecoach8502]

We have an excellent Strength and Conditioning staff. It is headed by Evan Simon who I have known for a long time. His credentials are big time.

Brian Seitz handles strength and conditioning for men's and women's basketball. You will see him on the court pregame with both teams and sitting on the bench supporting our players at each game. Brian is doing a fantastic job with our basketball programs.

Our Doe Weight Room and the Terry Holland Performance Center (training center for men's and women's basketball) will be enhanced by the new weight facility in the new Game Changers Football Facility.

Whether we should be recruiting 7'0", 400 lbs basketball centers or 5'2" 120 lbs guards, I will leave that up for discussion, but to question at any point whether we have appropriate staff or facilities, let alone whether our men and women are working hard enough on strength and conditioning is foolishness. Our staff and our men's and women's basketball team are getting it done in the weight room.

[raptorcat]

We have an excellent Strength and Conditioning staff. It is headed by Evan Simon who I have known for a long time. His credentials are big time.

Brian Seitz handles strength and conditioning for men's and women's basketball. You will see him on the court pregame with both teams and sitting on the bench supporting our players at each game. Brian is doing a fantastic job with our basketball programs.

Our Doe Weight Room and the Terry Holland Performance Center (training center for men's and women's basketball) will be enhanced by the new weight facility in the new Game Changers Football Facility.

Whether we should be recruiting 7'0", 400 lbs basketball centers or 5'2" 120 lbs guards, I will leave that up for discussion, but to question at any point whether we have appropriate staff or facilities, let alone whether our men and women are working hard enough on strength and conditioning is foolishness. Our staff and our men's and women's basketball team are getting it done in the weight room.

I suspected as much. This should be the final word on the question of whether our young men and women are getting adequate strength and conditioning.

[cat44]

If our staff and team were getting it done in the weight room this thread would not have happened.