Balancing Weights and Sport

Im a basketball player and am in the offseason. I am one of those weak guys that really needs to get stronger so I can increase my speed and other basketball related things. Still, I need/want to work on basketball specific things, like my shot, ball handling, etc. I am wondering how can I balance the 2, I’ve had trouble with this in the past, I’m currently doing 5x5, just on my 2nd week. In the past when I did 5x5 I think I did way to much basketball work which had me very sore and maybe overtrained a little.

Bottom line is, I need strength more then anything, but still want to be able to get some basketball work in without overtraining.

I am wondering how you can balance the two, and if you train an athlete, how do you have him balance his sport and weights?

just answered this on another board…

Its really up to you, how much you want to sacrifice your improvement on your basketball skill vs. your physical improvements. You can still weight train and play basketball in the same day, but what specifically are you trying to do. Build overall strength or explosiveness. Do you want to be able to jump higher or be able to bully in the paint?

strength is what i need most, only olympic squatting around 160-170 at a 150 bodyweight…

There’s tons of ways you can do this, but I really think that the Charlie Franci High-Low system as adopted by James Smith for team sports is a great way of doing things. Send me a PM if you want to know more about it.