Marshon Brooks Training Tape

Could you imagine if Russell or Chamberlain had done this?  I wonder how they did work out? Maravich had skills training drills, at least one of which you can see on Red on Roundball, but the overall workout he's putting in is intense. A lot of players in the old days had offseason day jobs. All these guys nowadays is this.







bob



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Bob,

I can tell you precisely what Russ did in the last practice of his life—just before the Balloon Game. He stood at center court and fired long two-handers for the entire practice. I guess something suggested to him that, after 13 seasons, he might know how to perform in a game. But, in earlier practices, he didn't kill himself (to put it mildly). The intra-squad scrimmages in those days were short affairs—usually punctuated with a lot of humor. They focused more on running a few laps around the floor and playing games like "21" and "H-O-R-S-E."

It was a totally different proposition just tuning up in practices than it will be this year, with all kinds of decisions up in the air.

Sam

Sam,

But that gives the mistaken impression that they didn't train hard in the Russell years, when, as you know better than I do, Red put a lot of emphasis on conditioning before the season so that the Celtics would have that advantage over other teams.

Despite that, Bob's point is accurate. Training methods, nutrition, and the time available to train is totally different for current players. While Wilt did weight training, he was the exception since the dominant thinking of the day was that weight training would make you musclebound and hurt your basketball skills. When weight training was eventually introduced, it was an off-season activity. Now, players lift weights during the season.