Are you a smaller player who gets bullied by bigger ones often? If so, you need more strength. Here’s how to get stronger for basketball in the off-season.
In the 2000s, the Detroit Pistons’ Ben Wallace was the scariest player to go up against.
He was a skilled defender and was extremely strong.
If you attacked the basket and he was around, your shot was most likely going to get rejected. If you posted him up, you most likely weren’t budging him.
In addition to that, he had a good reaction time. So, he’d swipe the ball away from you or contend your shot the second he sees an opportunity to do so.
Need proof? Here.
From 2000-2006, Wallace averaged 12.9 rebounds, 2.8 blocks and 1.6 steals per game. He also only averaged 2.2 fouls per game (that’s a small amount if you take into consideration how aggressive he played).
He was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year four times and was selected to be on an All-Defensive Team six times.
Wallace also helped the Pistons win an NBA title in 2004 against a stacked Los Angeles Lakers team (which had a prime Shaquille O’Neal).
What makes these numbers and achievements even more impressive is that Wallace was undersized for his position.
He was a 6”9’ center playing in an era when centers were hovering around 7 feet. He was battling the likes of Shaq, Yao Ming, and Dwight Howard on a regular basis.
Those were some big guys!
Why Was Wallace a Good Defender?
So, how did Wallace contend with these giants?
It was because of his strength.
Wallace, or Big Ben as some like to call him, was extremely strong. He had big muscles all over the place.
But they weren’t there for aesthetic reasons –he needed them to be the best defender he can be.
See, when you are a smaller defender (and someone who has to constantly battle bigger players), you need to be strong.
The added strength (along with good footwork) will help you stand your ground in the post, lock players in front of you (when they attack the basket for instance), and fight for rebounds.
If you remained weak (and you’re smaller), you’ll get bullied by your opponent every single possession.
This is why having strength is important for basketball.
P.S. Being stronger can help you offensively as well. You can read how building strength helped Josh Giddey improve his game here.
So, How Did Ben Wallace Get So Strong?
Here’s how he built his strength:
How Can You Get Stronger for Basketball?
The quickest way to gain strength is to do resistance workouts.
This could be lifting weights, using resistance bands, or doing bodyweight (calisthenic) workouts.
The good thing is that there are a bunch of workouts out there on the internet. The bad thing about this is that it’s going to be challenging for you to pick one that best fits you.
So, here are some tips I have to help you pick the best one:
- Pick workouts with many full-body, compound exercises
- Pick one that uses more free-weights than machines
- Choose a workout that is balanced. What this means is that there are roughly the same number of pull and push exercises (Ex. if it tells you to do bench press one day, make sure it also tells you to do rows/lat pull-downs another day)
- Make sure the workout includes core, upper-body, and lower-body exercises
And that’s what you need to look for in a workout. The next challenge is figuring out what type of exercises you like to do and which workouts include them.
Additionally, if you don’t want to or don’t have time to look for a workout, you can click here to learn how to do a full-body strength circuit.
It’s one of my favourites to do and is the first weight circuit I ever did.
Final Thoughts
Getting stronger and having the advantage, strength-wise can do wonders for you on the defensive end.
Even if you are smaller, the strength will overwhelm (and sometimes surprise) your opponent.
So, start working out and get stronger. Then, go crush all of your opponents’ souls on D.
