Tom Layman checks in with the folks from Shooting Touch and a recent workout.
CANTON — Justin Kittredge has witnessed first-hand the popularity of CrossFit workouts as the new way to get total-body conditioning for any level of athlete.
So Kittredge added a basketball, a court and the fresh-faced local hoopsters of his Shooting Touch program to bring a new twist to offseason workouts.
For the past two months, young men and women from the Greater Boston area — ranging from middle school to college players — have been putting themselves through a non-stop workout that tests their mental and physical toughness at the Reebok campus.
“I’ve done a lot of different workouts throughout my career and I haven’t seen anything like this so far,” said former Reading High star and current Merrimack College guard Jaclyn Lyons. “We do a lot of shooting, but in between to work our mind and body we do a lot of conditioning. We are getting the best of both worlds.”
Kittredge, who has been doing individual and group basketball training for several years with Shooting Touch, built the workout so the group has to come together but also push themselves individually. The session starts with a warmup and custom basketball drills to get the players ready for the real test.
For 30 minutes straight, in groups of five and six, the players will have to meet a point total on shots from the perimeter and beyond the 3-point line. Then they will move to a combination of conditioning workouts that each player must finish before heading back to the shooting drills. There is no stopping for the 30 minutes and Kittredge believes he is helping get the players ready for end of the game scenarios when fatigue sets in.
“A lot of kids don’t really practice pressure free throws and pressure shots when they are really tired or exhausted,” said Kittredge. “What these drills do is they give them the opportunity to really feel the pressure and if you don’t make it there is a lot of consequences. When they do go out and they end up playing in games they are less fatigued and they have much more confidence mentally, which is a huge part of the game.”
Marcus Middleton has played in those pressure situations for Stoughton, most notably last season as they made it to the Garden floor in the Div. 2 state semis, and the incoming senior is finding an extra push as he plays this summer.
“I’m finding myself become a lot stronger. I can go and play basketball for hours,” said Middleton. “It helps me be able to go through games longer and shoot through fatigue. If can do it here then I can do it in a game.”
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