How to train smarter? Veteran high-performance coach Steve reveals his approach to maximizing training efficiency and improving both physical and mental skills during practice. In this guide, Steve shares his best tips for making the most of rest periods, along with a few of his trusted cognitive drills using the Sportreact system, showing how athletes can boost speed, reaction time, and decision-making — all within a focused 60-minute session.
Rethinking Recovery in Basketball
As a speed coach, working with track athletes checks the box of research supported rest times to sprints. Athletes are more than willing to rest 5 min and then perform a Max Velocity Sprint or Jump. In the world of court and field team sport athletes, it’s a different story. The concept of walking and sitting down is to never be spoken of. An interesting study by Michaelson et al. compared two recovery positions—hands on knees, bent over, vs. hands on head, standing erect (Michaelson 2019). They found the “hands on knees” position is a superior recovery position after high intensity efforts. This finding was immediately debated by coaches across the internet, many defending the idea that hands on head is mentally tougher.
Basketball players, from youth leagues up to the pros, are conditioned to sprint from drill to drill, practice for long stretches without much water, and grind through a mix of long steady state runs or line drills —all while performing a highly skilled task. Indeed, research shows that to really develop speed, jumping, cutting, and overall athleticism, you’ve got to push athletes to hit high levels of performance output in training.
The Challenge: Optimizing Recovery After Maximal Effort
Adopting the findings of track coaches like Charlie Francis and Vince Anderson, there is a threshold of output that must be reached in order to facilitate improvement. Establishing Max Velocities, Jump Bests and Timed Sprints is fundamental to driving improvement. For a given sprint or jump the athlete needs to record a score 95% of their best in order to drive improvement or the technique of the movement is trained below 80% pace (Francis 1990). In training, performing reps “too slow to be fast” and “too fast to be technique" is common and a misuse of time.
Court and Field Sports often live in this zone. Cam Josse shares that even a position such as cornerback in American Football runs a lot, but spends 75% of the plays at 78% Max Speed or slower and only 9% of plays above 88% Max Speed (SportSmith). In addition to this in-game stat, these athletes practice at the same thresholds. Leaving us to ask the question, “When do we actually train speed and jumping?”
A general rule for recovery is 60 seconds of rest for every 10 meters (or yards) ran at full velocity. In field and court sports, I sometimes allow 45-second rest intervals if an athlete feels fully recovered. The same applies to max effort jumping and change of direction/ agility. A minute can feel like an eternity! What to do during that rest time? How can we optimize recovery after maximal effort? The track purist in me would say - "sit down, recover and hit it again", the sport coach in me thinks - "add in sport specific skill work" while the performance coach insists "work technique".
How to make the most of 60 second rest?
Neurocognitive and visual-motor drills with reactive cues, featured in Sportreact timing and agility system, are a fantastic option to fill in between reps. Basketball and other team sport athletes that rapidly switch between offense and defense, must at all times "keep their head on a swivel" to read the spacing, judge player speeds, predict movements, and apply strategy in milliseconds. While physical fatigue is well-known, mental fatigue from prolonged cognitive loading is often overlooked but has a big impact on an athlete’s performance (Sun, 2021). Training typically focuses on improving speed, jumping, and agility, but the brain's ability to process and react is just as important. Neurocognition training helps athletes stay focused, apply strategy and make smart decisions, even through fatigue. So here's a few of my favorite to-do cognitive drills during training breaks, using the Sportreact system.
Training Break To-Do's:
3 Variations of Choice Reaction Drills
1. Neurocognition - Central Vision Emphasis
Application: Paired with Skill and Patterning of Shuffle, Crossover, and other patterns primarily in the frontal plane.
Benefits: The spacing of the pods will dictate the emphasis. Closer together becomes more cognitive and reactive. Further apart adds a challenge of additional locomotion (shuffling or running) and cardiovascular challenge.
Example: Band Resisted Shuffle x 5 yards each direction and then 1 set of 20 reaction touches.
Set up: Following the presets in Sportreact, 4 pods. 20 reactions. We decide which hand will touch the red X and which touch green O. For added challenge an engagement - 1 second penalty if pod touched with incorrect hand (This piece adds even more engagement from the other athletes in the group).
Pro tip: If tracking progress over time is the goal then spacing out specifically would be extremely important. As used, the emphasis within the session is intent and challenge. Therefore, the spacing can be variable as long as it is consistent within the training day.
Neurocognition - Peripheral Vision Emphasis
Application: Paired with Hip Turn patterning
Benefits: The spacing of the pods will dictate the emphasis. Closer together becomes more cognitive and reactive. Further apart adds a challenge of additional locomotion (shuffling or running) and cardiovascular challenge.
Example: Hip Flip and retreat shuffle x 5 repetitions each side and then 1 set of 20 reaction touches
Set up: Following the presets in Sportreact, 4 pods. 20 reactions. We decide which hand will touch the red X and which touch green O. For added challenge an engagement - 1 second penalty if pod touched with incorrect hand (This piece adds even more engagement from the other athletes in the group).
Pro tip: If tracking progress over time is the goal then spacing out specifically would be extremely important. As used, the emphasis is within the session intent and challenge. Therefore, the spacing can be variable as long as it is consistent within the training day. The change in set up moves from a linear setup to a box setup challenging the athletes to find positions allowing the largest field of vision to maximize reaction time.
3. Neurocognition - Full Vision with addition of Sport Skill
Application: Paired between Jumps, Sprints, Tag Variations and Agility
This is not a physically fatiguing pairing, but rather an opportunity to challenge focus and skill in a fatigued state.
Benefits: The spacing of the pods will dictate the emphasis. Closer together becomes more cognitive and reactive. Further apart adds a challenge of additional locomotion (shuffling or running) and cardiovascular challenge.
Example: Partner Shuffle Mirror Drill x 6 sec on defense and 6 sec on offense as a rest perform 20 reaction touches. One pattern rests while one does touches then switch. As soon as both have performed a set of touches (~60 seconds) perform another set of the mirror drill.
Set up: Following the presets in Sportreact, 4 pods. 20 reactions. We decide which hand will touch the red X and which touch green O. For added challenge an engagement - 1 second penalty if pod touched with incorrect hand (This piece adds even more engagement from the other athletes in the group).
Pro tip: If tracking progress over time is the goal then spacing out specifically would be extremely important. As used, the emphasis is within the session intent and challenge. Therefore, the spacing can be variable as long as it is consistent within the training day. The change in set up moves from a linear setup to a box setup challenging the athletes to find positions allowing the largest field of vision to maximize reaction time.
Pro-Basketball tip:
Incorporating a dribbling bridges the carryover to the sport while increasing the engagement and enjoyment of training. FUN!! To elevate the challenge, provide different rules for dribbling such as continuous crossovers, crossover through the legs, around the backs only etc.
The Power of Subtle Changes
For years, the challenge as a coach and Director of a Staff was having patience to work the fundamentals fearing that the athletes were bored and needed change. In reality, our athletes forgot what drill they were doing set to set much less remembering full training sessions week to week. The ability to add subtle changes to these in between cognitive challenges creates a unique experience for the coach and athlete each session while staying true to the fundamentals of developing speed and athleticism.
Empowering Full Potential
Two-way players who can fully apply their athletic abilities into their sport are the real difference makers. Exceptional linear acceleration and top-end speed? Amazing weapons. But without the ability to decelerate and change direction that speed becomes a liability. Quick feet and a phenomenal first step are huge advantages in every field or court sport, but if reaction time and decision-making are slow, that athlete will always be a step behind. The surprising thing is, most coaches aren't tapping into the brain's full potential to improve speed, jumping, and reaction time. When they do, though, it's a game changer like no other.
STEVE BREITENSTEIN
Meet Steve: A seasoned coach with 20 years of experience across various athletic settings, he spent the last 12 years in the private sector, specializing in speed development and co-hosting “The Business of Speed” podcast.
In addition to coaching, Steve talks about staff development, business growth, and personal brand building. He serves on the Illinois State Board of the NHSSCA and the Health, along with two college Wellness Advisory Boards.
References:
Francis, Charlie, and Jeff Coplon. Speed Trap : Inside the Biggest Scandal in Olympic History. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
Michaelson, Joana V., et al. “Effects of Two Different Recovery Postures during High-Intensity Interval Training.” Translational Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, vol. 4, no. 4, 15 Feb. 2019, pp. 23–27, journals.lww.com/acsm-tj/fulltext/2019/02150/effects_of_two_different_recovery_postures_during.1.aspx, https://doi.org/10.1249/TJX.0000000000000079.
Sosa, Carlos, et al. “Specific Absolute Velocity Thresholds during Male Basketball Games Using Local Positional System; Differences between Age Categories.” Applied Sciences, vol. 11, no. 10, 1 Jan. 2021, p. 4390, www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/10/4390, https://doi.org/10.3390/app11104390.
"Speed for Team Sports: Moving Past Track & Field.” Sportsmith, www.sportsmith.co/articles/speed-for-team-sports-moving-past-track-field/.
Sun, He, et al. “Does Mental Fatigue Affect Skilled Performance in Athletes? A Systematic Review.” PLOS ONE, vol. 16, no. 10, 14 Oct. 2021, p. e0258307, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258307.
