The basketball season generally runs from November-April. This is a full-on time for professional players as they have to be on form and ready to play so much. However, they are off for around seven months of the year when they can afford to take things a bit easier and enjoy life away from the basketball court. Here are some of the things that basketball players do in the off-season.
Go On Holiday
After the season has finished most basketball players like nothing more than a well-earned holiday. They have been working extremely hard and although they might get to travel a lot for work, they generally don’t see anything other than airports, hotels, and basketball courts during this time. Travelling for fun helps them to reconnect with their friends and family and gives them the time to recharge their batteries before the beginning of the next season.
Rest
Pushing your body so hard during the season puts a lot of strain on it. Resting is an important part of an athlete’s fitness programme because it gives their fatigued muscles time to repair themselves and it gives their bodies a break from the pressure. Making sure they are well-rested means that they are less likely to get injured and as an injury could take a player off the court for a whole season, they tend to rest a lot between games.
Catch Up
Basketball players miss seeing their friends and family during game season. They are too busy to do much else but play, eat, and sleep so they like to spend time catching up with people they haven’t seen for a while during the off-season. Although they like to hang out with other basketball players, they often relish the opportunity to spend time with people who are not connected to the game as this means that they can talk about other things. It also helps them to disconnect from the job they do.
DIY
Things around the house tend to get left during the season and a basketball player has some catching up to do at home during the off-season too. Many of the players are very practical and often enjoy doing some of these jobs themselves. It gives them a sense of satisfaction that they usually only find on the pitch. If a basketball player doesn’t enjoy DIY at least they earn enough to be able to pay someone else to do the jobs for them.
Play Casino Games
Many basketball players enjoy playing games found through reputable sites like onlinecasinos.co.uk. They can do this while they are resting without having to step out of the house. Online Casinos is a popular site as it gives them the opportunity to read reviews before they play the games and decide which ones look best.
Online casino games help basketball players to keep their brains sharp and their adrenaline pumping. They enjoy the exhilaration of trying to beat the game or their fellow players in much the same way as they do on the basketball court.
Read
Basketball players like to use the off-season to catch up on their reading. Their preferences are varied but there is a tendency to opt for sports magazines or biographies of other basketball players which is common among them all.
Watch Other Sports
Basketball players are fans of other sports too and playing a winter sport gives them time to catch up with watching summer sports such as baseball and tennis. They will often go to live games as well as watch the matches on TV. This keeps them excited about sports and they can start looking forward to their own next season.
Watch Playbacks
A basketball player does not just step away from the game outside of the playing season and there are many things they need to keep on top of even if they are not playing professionally. One thing that they spend a lot of time doing is watching playbacks of the last season to improve their technical ability. They look at what they did well and what they did badly so that they can see where to improve. They also study the form of other players and teams to give them a better idea of what they will be up against next season.
Eat Healthily
Eating the right food is imperative to a basketball player’s fitness so they can’t just sit on the sofa and eat pizza for the whole of the off-season. Although they might not have to be as strict with themselves as they are during the season, they can’t afford to stray too far from the most nutritious foods that will give their bodies the strength and power they need to get through another season.
Keep Fit
Your fitness levels tend to drop if you do not work out for a while and basketball players are well aware of this. They often use the off-season to cross-train and find that cardiovascular exercises such as running, cycling, and swimming help to keep their fitness levels up. By doing this they don’t have such an uphill battle to get back to match fitness when they need to.
Play Basketball
A basketball player has to keep playing during the off-season to keep in shape, learn new techniques and make sure they are ready and able to compete the following season. Although their schedule is not as full-on during the off-season, they still have to train nearly every day so that they are ready to face their opponents on the basketball court once the season starts again. It seems there is no rest for some. However, as they love the game so much, they don’t mind, and they might as well get the most they can out of the game because retirement comes early for professional basketball players.
Basketball players take the most they can from life both during their playing season and in off-season months too. The life of a professional basketball player mightt be exciting and exhilarating, but they need some downtime occasionally.
