Mamba Mondays | I Could Run All Day

One of the most common types of questions that I get from athletes and their parents are, “What should do for training?”

Everyone wants to know what kind of workouts they should do to get better. My first and second questions are usually, “What do you do in the games?” and, “What part of your game do you need to work on?”

In his book, “The Mamba Mentality,” Kobe Bryant talked about his workout routine:

“I would start off short and work on my touch. Always. Always. Always. Get my muscle memory firing. Then, I’d move back, work for a bit, move back again, and repeat the same process. After that, I’d start working on situational looks that I was going to get that night. I’d walk my body through the scouting report, and remind it of things it had done thousands and thousands of times before.

I never had a set routine, an ironclad formula that I practiced night after night. I listened to my body and let it inform my warmup, because there are always variables. If I felt the need to shoot extra jumpers, I’d shoot more. If I felt the need to meditate, I’d meditate. If I felt the need to stretch for a longer duration, I’d stretch. And if I felt the need to rest, I’d sleep. I always listened to my body. That’s the best advice I can give: listen to your body, and warm up with purpose.”

He then said this about being in shape:

“If you want to be a great basketball player, you have to be in great shape. Everyone talks about the fancy workouts and training sessions, but I also worked relentlessly to make sure that my legs and lungs were always at peak performance.

“My cardio workouts centered around recovery—that is, the time it takes to recover in between sprints. The reason I placed an acute focus on that element is because basketball dictates short bursts where you run as fast as you can, then have a moment to recover, then burst again. I wanted to make sure that I would always be ready for the next burst of action. 

Specifically, I did a lot of timed work on the track where I would incrementally decrease the amount of time between each set until, after a full off-season, my recovery time would be almost nil.”

1 - Start in close and work your way out to build your muscle memory.

2 - Listen to your body and work what you feel like you need to work on.

3 - Be in great ‘game shape’ by focusing on your recovery.