Physical condition and coaching approach on "5" spot in modern Basketball

1. Body Stucture

Every human being is special. Athletes with the same height have by nature different wing spam, different body fat, different shoes size. Therefore, on physical training of the athletes, we have to set realistic goals in order to avoid injuries and psychological breakdown of an athlete. Not all big men can have the body type and physical condition of David Robinson. Let us remember and realize that non logical demands from our athletes many times are leading them to the huge, HUGE mistake of DOPING. So we need realistic goals

2. Body Fat

It is easily understandable that as fast as basketball turns to, old school 5 men will become obsolete, do you agree? Well i don't, i am sorry and later on i will present my thesis. The basketball science today suggest that the big man should have between 8%-10% body fat, well i believe that after all natural ways of reducing it are exhausted, NO DRUGS, i believe that up to 12% is acceptable. If we suggest the we have a 5 man 2.10 height with 8% body fat that means he has to be 120 kilos (please forgive my metric system). For every cm we have to add two kg but for every 1% body fat we need to add the exact amount of muscles, and all this sum goes to body weight. Therefore

height weight body fat

1. 2.10m 120kg 8%
2. 2.12m 124kg 8%
3. 2.12m 128kg 10%
4. 2.14m 120kg 6%

Simple examples that are proving why basketball coaches insist on mentioning body fat, with emphatic example Rick Pitino on his sort passage from Europe.

3. Strength

The "5" player must be due to his position and by nature the physical stronger man in the court. Weight lifting not only have amazing affects on the body but also have great pumping up psychology parameters. I cant imagine a big men having less than 4 weight lifting sessions per week. Bench press is a drill that allows us to understand in a large scale the maximum strength and the strength resilience of an athlete. So a "5" man 2.10m height, 120kg weight and 8% bf should be able to lift 20% above his weight, 144kg of maximum strength is the down limit. The upper limit and a chance to work on strength resilience is the same weight (with more the athlete might lose in agility) but 4 set of 2 reps. Accordingly we can perform the same formula on every drill in the weight room.

4. General and Specialized Stamina

By the term "General Stamina" we refer the the stamina that all athletes on every sport must have and "Specialized Stamina" the one that every sport requires. Now this is an area that a basketball coach is hard to measure and determine. Specialized scientists have to do the job for me. I, as a head coach, require me basic "5" be able to perform well for 25' (out of 40' in Europe). I strongly believe that a good pre season conditioning, every day uptempo workouts, good body weight and body fat are making this goal realistic.

5. Agility ( the strength and ability to move in the court)

Please forgive me for the difficult terms but Agility came to our daily lives and it is going to stay! There are more than 150 drills for Agility and a modern big man in basketball should be able to compete on those the rest of the basketball players. A big man of our times must have the footwork, the defensive slides, the direction changing abilities, and the muscle fitting between upper and lower body part that guards had a decade ago! Yes, you got that correct, the starting "5" man in a Euroleague team in 2021 must have the defensive slides of Euroleague guards of 2010, example Diamantidis.....so Agility drills coaches, almost every day.

6. Offense

a) Individual

The individual offensive elements of a modern "5" athlete should be:

1. Low post game, especially nowdays that many defenses rely on switching. We have to punish every defense for that defensive choice. As for drills we can perform Mican drills and simple low post move radically evolving to more complex ones.
2. Perimeter shooting mostly for the top and the corners and maybe less from the 45 degrees. Drills same as the rest of the team.
3. The ability to put down the ball to the floor for at least 3 dribbles, towards the rim but sideways too, for the team to perform the "motion offense".
4. Quick transition/Quick hands reaction to be able to finish quickly in the paint

b) Team

On team offensive skills we mean both with or without the ball

1. By holding the ball the modern "5" must be able to dribble in order to set the play for his team (hand off pick) and pass the ball as a 5 from the low post on a cut or to the opposite 45 degrees or as a guard from the top on o blind cut or just to switch the ball sides. With every day drills on warm up, motion offense 2-0,3-0,4-0 (number of offensive players-no defenders) this goal can and will be achieved.
2. As team offensive skills i refer on the screen to the ball and away from it, and splitting the post, the move(s) a center performs, his reaction on a teammates drive.

a. The screen on the ball must be placed as much as possible to the back of the defender for maximum result but requires lots of practice to avoid offensive fouls. Of course we need to work out all the options after the screen, the pick and roll, the pick and pop, the pick and cut etc.

b. The screen away is a different type of basketball art, the back of the big man should point the direction that our offensive teammate want to move while we need to target his defender. Big steps moving to the target and the smaller ones in order to avoid offensive foul. As the ball screen we have all the previous options, roll-pop-cut.

c. On "split the post" the big man must move on counter direction from the ball movement. That is giving us 3 chances to score -from the guard that drives because the defensive center is looking for his opponent -from the center by an assist from a guard or forwards with perimeter shoot if the defense collapses in the paint.

The amazing thing is that all the above can be practiced even in warm up

7. Defense

1. Individual

Individual defense is as much important as team defense for the big man. The center is the backbone of every defensive team effort. The teams that have good defenders on the "5" position always have successes and rank his in their leagues. The defensive "5" has to make extended us of his arms for pushing and for ball deflections. Due to the position of the offensive "5", near the rim, the defender ought to take "everything" from him,to be trained enough to fight for the position in or close to the paint with the proper and combined use of footwork and arms, therefore to take away for the offensive "5" the 90% of his options. There are cases of course of exceptional athletes that we simply cant guard by ourselves and we have to drive him to his weak hand and keep him there waiting for team help for weak or strong side according to game plan. There are times that after a good screen we switch, i dont recommend it, but it happens. So if the center matches up with a guard on the perimeter, he has to give him his weak hand so his teammates can help on a drive, be quick and agile enough so the guard can overpass him with more than three dribbles and ofcourse always keep his arm high, the opposite arm from the shooter, never move backwards so he will never let a guard or a forward make an open shoot.

2. Team Defense

The greatest part and contribution of a "5" man on his team is team defense. The center MUST know how to perform all aspects of ball screen and react accordingly according always to the team tactics. If a big man can play as well the "trap", the "hedge out", and the "side", trust me, all coaches would like to recruit him. One quick tip, today coaches on team tactics use colors to define which pick and roll defense they are going to use. In my team Black is Hedge Out, Blue is Push, Red is Trap etc.

The most basic aspect on team defense for a center is help and cover, be able to close every hole in the paint, every mistake of his teammate. There are certain drills that help the "5" man underestand and perform this role, to have the correct position on every ball movement, and push the offense on a dead end when it comes on lay ups leaving range shoots as the only option. Fast and agile hands and legs, game perception but also courage are the main characteristics of a good big man defender.

8. Rebounds

A great coach used to say that the team that controls the paint, control its fate.

a) Defensive Rebound is the integration of a great defensive effort, and despite it is a team job the big man has the main responsibility, and it is the fair thing to say. Drill for block outs and rebounds should performed daily from coaches, but the main characteristic o a great rebounder is the will to get to the ball first. This is something hard to teach, most big man have it or not. Well, guess which category goes pro and is getting paid serious amound of money!

b) Offensive rebounding is the absolute recognition of a true superstar center. The benefits for the "economy of a game" are enormous. Specific drill exist but offensive rebound is 100% matter of will, will to fight and will to win. In order to make a center o good offensive rebound we need to become a psychologist, a mentor and then a basketball coach. Giannis's photo is not up there by accident.

9. Conclusion

As we see in many aspects of a modern center in today's basketball old school centers are almost obsolete. Going back on my no2 on my thesis i don't agree 100% on that theory. If a big man, is strong, plays well the low post on both ends and he can cover the paint and the rebounds he always going to have a job on pro basketball, maybe not the best but still. But our job, our duty as basketball coaches is to try to transform our athletes into better athletes and based on the data we have i strongly believe that the "5" man in modern basketball is something we can accomplish.

Athanasios Topouzis, Katerini Greece 2020.10.08