ABSTRACT
Basketball is a dynamic and explosive sport which is clearly the type of sport a strength and conditioning coach can have a significant impact with players in terms of optimising performance and reducing risk of injury. This chapter aims to describe the physical demands of the sport and the injury prevalence, using up to date literature, to help the strength and conditioning (S & C) practitioner prioritise their training prescription. This chapter is deliberately not prescriptive, as players will possess their own physical strengths and weaknesses, but aims to allow the reader to interpret relevant literature to aid their own training philosophy. It describes the tools coaches can use to assess and screen players in order to prioritise the areas in which players require improvement as part of their individual training programmes and monitor the effectiveness of those interventions.
