How Fast Should You Be Able
to Run a Mile to Play Competitive Basketball?
As best as I can tell, a
mile time of about six minutes is the what is required in a basketball player
who hopes to play at the high school or above level. For very large heavy player
such as centers a mile run in seven minutes might be tolerable, but players of
more normal size such as guards, should be able to run the mile in six minutes
or less if they wish to compete at the high school or better levels. My personal
opinion is that coaches exaggerate the extent to which a player should be able
to run a mile fast--players can be substituted in and out of games--but there
you have it seems the six minute mile is the magic number for not just soccer
but also for football.
How fast a player can run a mile, is
supposed to be an old-fashioned way of judging whether a Basketball player is in
shape. Supposedly new approaches, such as how fast a player can run wind sprints
with rests between, and how fast a player can sprint a zig zag course, are
better when it comes to judging how adequate the physical condition of a Basketball player is. But what the critics do'nt understand, is that the coaches who are
not into using the mile run as a way of judging what shape a player is in and as a
way of conditioning players, all use approaches that are different from each
other--it's like the Tower of Babel--so the problem becomes that it is hard to
get a sense of consensus amongst the coaches who are into the wind sprints and
the zig zag running etc as to what kind of time over what kind of distance is a
good indicator of basketball fitness.
What the anti-mile-run coaches do'nt
understand, is that people and athletes are not into basketball alone; they are
into basketball, and then they are also into running for general conditioning,
and then they are also into soccer (called football outside the US) and so
forth. Thus what is needed is for example, how the level of fitness expected for
a pro soccer player (for the mile, 6 minutes) compares with the level of fitness
expected for a basketball player in terms of minutes per mile.
Notes
of the reported average running distance
in professional
basketball (2.1 miles) (22). Professional
basketball consists of four 12-minute quarters,
...
Instead, base your program on what the game
analysis shows happens consistently in the game. For example, in an analysis of
professional basketball, I
found that the number of maximal jumps—which I define as a hand above the
rim—was small. In one game I analyzed, the NBA’s second leading rebounder only
made three maximal jumps. That runs counter to what we’re led to believe by the
highlight videos.
Analyzing sports objectively may also help us
change some long-standing tests that are truly misleading. For example, the
Cooper test is one that is commonly used but not very useful. It entails running
one and one half miles in a target time. It
is a continuous run test, and athletes are successful if they can run it at
consistent steady pace. The problem is, few sports are played at a consistent,
steady pace. (Think of a soccer player’s movements during a game.) This leads to
the players training for the test, rather training for the
game.
Why do you run?
The reason
why I (pro basketball player Richard Hamilton) run is that it makes everything
easy for me, especially on the basketball court. I believe
if I can condition myself without a basketball, then when I
actually get out there on the court it is actually fun.
What type of runner are
you?
I'm the type of runner that runs to exhaustion. If it's my
normal workout day with basketball drills, what I'll
do is wake up in the morning and I'll run a mile. When I run
that mile I will actually sprint it.
During the offseason how much did you run?
Every
day. Five days a week. I take the weekends off. I'll run at least a mile a day.
If I work out on the basketball court I won't go
that long. But if I don't work on the basketball court, I'll go 3
or so miles.
You don't necessarily have to run marathons but
it is a good idea to run a mile or two. Aim for
a mile in about eight or nine minutes
I never ran seriously when I was growing up,
but it was always there, usually as part of conditioning for basketball
and baseball. I hated it! One year in basketball we had to run a
mile in under 6 minutes every day at practice, along with our sprints and
line touches at the end of practice. Because it seemed like such a chore (and
took away from actually playing basketball) I never made the connection that I
was pretty good at it -- but I was
It's estimated that a starting high
school player will run a total of 3 to 5 miles in a 32-minute game.
If you were to limit your off-season training
to a distance running at a 7 minute mile pace, you might
develop the endurance needed to last an entire basketball game
Basketball is not a game for the
faint of heart. In fact, to play the game at the college level, you need more
strength and endurance than for just about any other sport.
In a typical
game, a player may run two miles or more up and down
the court, burning off more than 1,000 calories. Players must be in top shape,
or they’ll wear down quickly in a fast-paced
game.
The resting pulse of an athlete’s heart is usually less than
70 beats per minute
-- http://www.courier-journal.com/foryourinfo/032403/032403.html
we have to run
1 mile in 6 minutes for our basketball conditioning
...
Complete Conditioning for
Basketball
Complete Conditioning for
Basketball. National Basketball Conditioning
Coaches
Association (NBCCA). ISBN: 0736057846. No Pricing information
currently ...
nirsa.humankinetics.com/showproduct.cfm?isbn=0736057846 - 8k -
Cached - Similar pages
-- http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=10&hl=en&c2coff=1&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-43%2CGGLD%3Aen&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=conditioning+for+basketball&as_oq=&as_eq=brittenham+foster&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=off
i really want to caht with you and
everyone in
the chat room but at Mtn. View High School we have
started
basketball
conditioning. Don't forget I am in
high school now.
Anyways, we have to go to the track
at liek 6:15 and run 2 1/2 MILES!!!!
-- http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/adamsarmy/message/59
The mile should be done
in under 7 minutes by the start of the season for a great team
-- http://www.pponline.co.uk/community/viewtopic.php?p=4143
| MILE RUN REQUIREMENTS-
MINIMUM CUT-OFF TIMES |
| CENTERS |
6:30 or faster |
| FORWARDS |
6:00 or faster |
| GUARDS |
5:40 or
faster |
| 880
YARD RUN - MINIMUM CUT-OFF TIMES |
| CENTERS + BIG
FORWARDS |
3:00 or faster |
| GUARDS + SMALL
FORWARDS |
2:45 or faster |
WE
EXPECT OAK HILLS HIGHLANDER BASKETBALL PLAYERS
TO EXCEED THESE FIGURES
|
-- http://www.oakhills.k12.oh.us/Sports/strength/basketball.html
Why do so many basketball coaches insist
on measuring their players level of conditioning by performing an aerobic test
(1 mile run) rather than
the 300 yard shuttle? This is extremely odd since most coaches like to play an
uptempo game which requires quickness and explosiveness.
-- http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:ne3TnI7UlEEJ:nsca.com/forum/forum_posts.asp%3FTID%3D471%26PN%3D1++%22basketball+conditioning%22+mile++-book+-books+-video+-videos&hl=en