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In the competitive world of collegiate basketball, players work year-round on
preparing themselves physically and mentally for the rigors of the season.
Crucial to this process is the athletic performance program, which includes
strength and conditioning, sports nutrition and sports psychology.
Under the direction of Assistant Athletics Director of Strength and
Condition for Basketball Programs David Jackson, the Virginia Tech athletic
performance program is among the best in the nation.
One of the main support centers of Tech basketball is the strength and
conditioning program. The results of hard work by the staff and the student-
athletes have paid huge dividends for the Hokies. This season, the Hokies
will benefit from a complete renovation of the space in Hahn Hurst. The
redo allows the strength and conditioning staff to better prepare the players
for the season and life.
The Tech basketball strength program centers around the principal that
every individual is different, and most basketball players, as a group, are
very long levered making most compound movements very difficult to train.
Individual programs are geared towards getting players better mobility,
stability and stronger. This approach helps in the goal of preventing injuries.
Also, with the knowledge that athletes do get injured, this approach allows
for a more rapid return to competition after an injury occurs.
Exercises are focused on compound movements and the Olympic lifts,
such as the squat, bench press, push press, snatches and cleans. Through
the process of getting athletes more mobile, more stable and stronger, they
naturally become quicker and more explosive.
The men’s basketball team trains in the 4,000-square foot strength and
conditioning center in the Hahn Hurst Basketball Practice Center. The
redesign of the weight room includes six new half racks from Williams
Strength, Woodway treadmills, new bumper plates for Olympic lifts and
new cable machines. With the new set-up, the room affords a more efficient
use of space that allows the training on more players at one time.
Tech also has the use of a 10-by-40-yard sand pit located
outdoors, adjacent to the weight room in the Merryman Center.
This pit is used for resistive running drills to improve speed,
power and explosiveness in the athletes. The Hokies also
have the practice fields for use in speed and agility drills and
conditioning drills.
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