My name is Mitch Guthrie, and I work at Vector Health as an Accredited Exercise Scientist and Strength and Conditioning Coach. Over the past two years I have coached some great athletes and Chandrea Jones definitely rates up there with the best I have coached. Chandrea has won multiple MVP’s now and last year took the Rockhampton Cyclones Basketball team to their first grand final, which they did not win. In 2015, Chandrea returned and took the Cyclones back to back and this time won the grand final, delivering Rockhampton Basketball its first ever womens’ premiership.
So, what does it take to be an MVP basketball player?
Chandrea describes what her outlook on becoming a MVP.
Here is my top 5 things for young basketball players to do.
1. Do all the little things right
There’s many aspects to a basketball game, quarters, halves, point guards, centers etc and just like basketball, being a MVP has many aspects. Making sure your nutrition is good is super important, making sure you’re putting in the hard work at training is vital, and making sure you recover properly is important. All of these little things are so important because it is these little things that make up the big picture. When CJ was being coached under myself, balance is what we perfected. Having a good balance between training hard, recovering when needed and making sure her diet was well balanced with the right foods was so important it basically meant playing that weekend or not making the court. There’s so many little things when it comes to being a professional basketball player that sometimes you need help to mange all of them and being organized and balanced with everything little thing is what we mastered.
2. Make time for yourself and to do things right.
Too many times I hear athletes setting goals then complaining that they cannot find a way to achieve that goal. If it is important to you, you will make time. Everyone has 24 hours in a day, and yes, peoples jobs may get in the way with hectic hours, family will chew up a lot of time but if you don’t find the time to achieve your goals you’ll never get what you want. A quote I go by religiously is by the great coach John Wooden, “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”. Set a plan, make the time, and work everyday to achieving your goal. CJ and I planned out goals, she knew what she wanted and with some help from myself, she knew how to achieve them. She’d make the time to ensure she did. Whether it be making time to work on 3-pointers or making time to stretch after a hectic 2 game weekend, you have to find the time to look after yourself and achieve your goals otherwise they just won’t happen. So whenever CJ wasn’t feeling right, whenever something just wasn’t working we sat down, planned it all out and achieved what we needed to.
3. Focus on bettering your performance rather than beating someone elses.
If you continually work to improve an aspect of your performance each day, you will be better than you were in the past, simple. Eventually you will work yourself to a point where you pass others. If you work to beat someone else, once you have beaten them, what do you work to beat? Always train to improve yourself in all aspects until you pass everyone else, and continue to do what you’ve done, simple. We may have done the same workout 2 weeks in a row but I reminded CJ of what she did last week and she would work to beat that. It may only be by 2.5kg but that’s still a PB. We might have a focus for the session to improve her vertical jump from the previous week. If she beat it by 1cm, that was perfect, that’s still a PB and that’s what we set out to do. These small improvements each session add up to be a big improvement over a season. To stay on top of your game and to continually improve your performance, these small improvements is what is needed to ensure that.
4. Remaining injury free for long periods of time.
Listening to your body is an important tool to remember when you’re an athlete. Training load over the week can be quite high and if you don’t listen to your body, eventually it will break. CJ and I would talk back and fourth about what she did for training and how intense they were and I would monitor the training we would do in the gym and find a good balance for her weekly training load. Sometimes the training load would be high but she knew when her body had taken a beating and we would plan a lighter session in the gym. Its important to listen first and react quickly, rather then leaving it till it was too late.
5. Recovery is part of training
Most athletes want to train all out hard every session to make sure they’re better than everyone else. But it takes a real athlete to know when to back off and have a recovery session or an easier session. To ease off hard work, focus on technique and make sure your body recovers just means you are training smarter not harder. Good communication between CJ and I was vital so I knew what sessions I could give her and what intensity to do them at. Most weeks we would have ice baths after big weekends, mainly on her calves, but there were times it would have to be full legs just to ensure she was recovering enough for more training and games the following week.
Being a professional athlete isn’t easy, the pressure is tougher, the expectations are higher, and that means to stay being a professional athlete is harder. To get to being a professional athlete is done by planning, being organized and knowing what you have to achieve to become great. So if you’re someone that would like to have a tailored plan on how to achieve your goals and have everything organised this is you. That’s why we are offering only 24 spots to girls between the age of 15-21 the opportunity to train at Vector Health and be given the guidance, the support, plans it takes become a better athlete.
VECTOR HEALTH OFFER:
I have created a special program for developing womens’ basketballers in the Central Queensland region! This program has a limited intake of only 24 athletes and I am taking two groups only as part of this program.
The program will run in 8-week blocks:
This program will include:
- Individual assessment including optional skin fold measurements taken to measure body fat percentage.
- Group Testing Sessions at the start and end of the program
- 1 x 1.5hour group specific coaching session per week working on areas identified within your assessment.
- Access to train at Vector Health on top of your supervised session per week.
- Access to a private Facebook group to help with accountability to your goals.
OPTIONAL EXTRAS
- Access to our afternoon group training program.
Collectively this program is valued at $616 but we are offering 24 spots only for $39.95 per week across the 8-week block.
Is this program for me?
This program is for you if you have had an injury that is stopping you achieving your potential in basketball then this program will help you work on the things you need to. If you have been in the gym but not gotten a lot stronger, then this program will teach you about what strength is important for basketball. You need to be committed and be able to work hard. If this sounds like you, then register below now!