What skill training could a point guard do on a low/non-cns intensive day do? Jogging and shooting and stationary ball handling stuff? and for how long?
Lots and lots of free throws are probably your safest bet. They are a way to improve your stroke without your legs getting stressed. All the dribbling, weak hand passing/throws, and easy jogging etc. is all good too.
I try to get 10 free throws in a row 5 different times before I ever leave the gym no matter if its on an HI day or LI day; on LI days 10 different times. And for jump shots I always go by makes instead of total shots taken. I feel this gets better quality (same reason I do the free throws in a row).
Just experiment and see what’s the optimal combination for you. For example, for your short sprint times/lifts/vert to improve, maybe you can only do an hour of skill work on LI days to give enough recovery. But maybe you need 3 hours of skill work on LI days to get where you need to be skill wise. So it’s a balancing act.
So, just do what you need to do. Training is an art.
Would something like this qualify as low intensity: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U8wI1FX3RWQ
regardless, this guy’s my favorite player and it’s not even close. he is so sick.
To me, that is definitely low intensity and you can get away with more. Easy jumpers can’t compare (in terms of intensity) to D’ing some guy up hard for 5 seconds and forcing a steal and then getting out on the break and finishing after a 20 yard sprint. So don’t freak out if you do a little more sometimes.
Your best bet is to just do stuff like that and then see if you can still progress in your HI sessions. If you can, then maybe you can up the intensity in your LI sessions (if you need to do so in order to perform a task) until the point where performance in HI sessions diminishes (due to lack of CNS recovery and/or tissue recovery). Then just back off a little from this critical point of intensity in your LI workouts and you will progress. Results are the name of the game.
What’s your take on dribbling two balls, but more so using thm to drill new patterns you aren’t accustomed to. I would assume just dribbling two balls in ways you already know how is very LI but if you’re creating a new pattern in your brain, it might be different. I’m unsure about that. Second, would dribbling stationary but going through several different variations (crossover, between the legs, behind the back) and pounding the ball as hard as you can be LI? Appreciate it. Thanks.
Dribbling hard probably won’t fry your CNS. Dribbling two balls won’t either. These easy things like dribbling, free throws, and layups with both hands you can do as much as you want. Guys in the NBA didn’t care about frying their CNS and some of the greats were in the gym or on the playground with a basketball up to 6+ hours a day. So their system worked but with your knowledge of CFTS you can probably make a more optimal system. Just find that medium between the two.
Do what you have to do to get better. Hi/Lo will work for what it’s supposed to do but at the same time, do what you have to do.
Can we actually classify game skills (techniques) under the paradigm of Hi/Lo?
passing off a wall, both hands, one hand, different positions. Any dribbling, shooting. I’d do the skills first and then do a tempo workout afterwards.
Blinky,
when you say any dribbling or shooting, you don’t mean going through shooting or ball handling drills at full or close to full speed right?
My feeling is that if it’s a low intensity day which was preceded by a high intensity day, the amount of running and it’s intensity involved in the skill training is directly related to the volume of work the day before and it’s affect on how you feel from it, in terms of cns and/or muscle fatigue. Also, regarding tempo on an LI day, something I’ve tried that has been working for me is to go trough full court layups at 65-75% for around 30s with an equal recovery a la a “basketball tempo”.
Why couldn’t we? Do you not think so Duxx?
For those layups that’s exactly what I do. Just go up and down real easy doing whatever dribbling tricks you want to do. I count 4 full court lengths as “100m tempo” so 4-8 lengths would be done for a rep. About 10-20 reps done total.
Lately I haven’t been doing so much tempo on the court though I just stick with skill work. However, tempo takes very little time especially after already being warm, so maybe I should start again…
Well, I think it is other way around… 
Let me explain. We are arguing are some means and load LI or HI or how to schedule week structure. This is the final requirement in designing training program.
First we must define goals, athlete’s requrements, athlete’s characteristics, etc, etc. From here we go to classify the things.
Altought, the idea of HI/LO is very good in sprints, it is hard to implement it into team sports. I don’t know if you have take a look at my presentation ‘Physical Preparation for soccer’, but I implemented simmilar system (HI/LO). It’s not perfect either.
Altought I agree with what I said here for examples… I don’t know if you get my concern here? Don’t be stuck with HI-LO — there is lot of ways to skin a cat!
Ok, I think I know what you mean now and if I do, I whole-heartedly agree!
HI-LO is good to improve athlete’s Physical Preparedness in terms of Sport Form. But if certain adjustments to the other components of Sport Form (like Tactical/Technical Preparedness) have to be made in order to compensate and yield to lesser results on the whole, then HI-LO might not be so optimal.
And it is quite obvious that 99% of team sports athletes never consider HI-LO programming into their training and they have proven results!
And like you said this type of programming is difficult with team sports as there are many other needs than Physical Preparedness for a player and more importantly for the team.
I am no way discounting the benefits of HI-LO but models of this type of programming for team-sports are still a work in progress I think.
The needs will dictate the programming but programming can dictate a team’s style. Why change your training to match the game if you can change the game through your training? Training is an art. 
You said it better than I would 
Especially the bolded part!
I agree with both of you. Like it was said, teams have been playing and succeeding forever without the slightest regard to cns recovery or some type of hi/lo programming. I think a team could certainly play and play hard for 4-5 days straight without much problem. But that would be during the competitive season, not when the athletes are improving their strength or speed. They are only maintaining it. It becomes a lot harder and a much bigger deal when lifting to improve one’s strength is added to playing 4-5 days in a row. I think Kelly Baggett has written about this. For an athlete, during the off-season, if it is so that they need an to increase their strength, (and lets face it, what ball players don’t) then proper attention must be given to matching up the skill training with the strength training and finding the optimal balance. This is where a hi/lo program has it’s place for a basketball player. But during a competitive season, little attention need be placed on anything hi/lo. the traditional one day off with a light practice sometime during the week seems fine, IMO.
I wouldn’t go full speed or jump too vigorously. I’d try to reherse the technical skills of the sport without stressing the body too much.
That sounds like an interesting tempo workout. I would consider that since you’re already getting plenty of shooting and layup work else where in your training(I assume), that the inclusion of the layups during your tempo runs might be somewhat meaningless. I think that by doing tempo on it’s own would be just as valuable because it is more of a “general” workout anyways. Technical work, such as layups, should preferably be done while you’re fresh… so maybe put them before the tempo workout.