CSU basketball coach says XC practices are easy

I generally tell my kiddos, that cross country is probably the easiest sport to do, but is one of the hardest to do extremely well.

A 7ft basketball player in HS that knows how to play basketball will get a scholarship somewhere, same with a 300 pound lineman. Same is not true for XC.

If the CSU XC team did all of basketball practice for 2 weeks, and the basketball team did all of the XC practice for 2 weeks, I'm pretty sure the xc team would be less burned out. Would love to see a Baskeball team put in back to back 100mile weeks!

If it were 1 practice, then I would see the opposite happening.

CSU Ram wrote:

"We probably run as much as a cross country team. I think if we went through a track and cross country practice, we would be able to come back in here and have open gym. I don’t think the cross country team would be able to go through one of our practices and survive."

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20131031/SPORTS0202/310310073/Conditioning-regimen-has-Colorado-State-basketball-looking-better-than-expected?nclick_check=1

Octeus is a great athlete and I love watching his game. Super quick. But he just doesn't understand what runners do to practice or how fast they go. I doubt he could complete a 10 mile run, certainly not at 6 min pace.

That said the OP is wrong, Eustachy never said that XC practice was easy. Read the article.

barry mccockiner wrote:

That said the OP is wrong, Eustachy never said that XC practice was easy. Read the article.

1) I did read the article but I wanted to keep the subject line short. This is why the link to the full article is posted as well as the relevant quote from the coach.

2) I figured the title would get more attention than "Hard practices paying dividends for CSU basketball team" or something.

3) I know he is basically saying the team is super fit this year. Still, if someone told me that they could go to their basketball practice after finishing a hard XC practice I would assume that they felt XC practices were easy in comparison. However, I concede that I know next to nothing about basketball practices. Maybe "open gym" is like runners doing form drills after a hard run and doesn't take much physical exertion.

sgh wrote:

I generally tell my kiddos, that cross country is probably the easiest sport to do, but is one of the hardest to do extremely well.

and let me be the first to point out that the #1 sport in this category is soccer

He was probably drunk when he said that.

Somebody get Art Siemers on the line!!!!!

I'd love to watch his team do mile repeats with 3 to 4 minutes rest.

Word

I would agree that soccer players would generally have it easiest to do the workouts that XC runners run (other than say most goalies). But comparing basketball to XC is apples and oranges.

XC runners would have a difficult time at a basketball practice but so too would basketball players have a difficult time at a XC practice. Of course given time, both groups would adapt and be able to run each other's practices a bit easier.

But still, what an idiotic statement the basketball coach to make.

I for one would rather do 100mpw with a 20 mile long run, 8 mile tempo run, and 6xmile work than spend a week in basketball practice. I hate anaerobic sh*t.

what a f****** joke…No offense to basketball players, because I am sure they work as hard as xc runners, albeit, different ways, but whoever said that quote is a misinformed gray haired doctor with no PHD. Yeah, you may be able to "run" with the xc team, but you wouldn't be able to hit the times. How about 5:20 pace for 10 miles for a LIGHT tempo, or a 4:10 mile on the track? And in the article, I believe I read that they were bent over huffing and puffing over the running? Bitch please, running 2 laps around a basketball court does not warrant a "huff and puff."

"the relevant quote from the coach"? The quote you posted is from point guard Jon Octeus:

"'We probably run as much as a cross country team. I think if we went through a track and cross country practice, we would be able to come back in here and have open gym. I don’t think the cross country team would be able to go through one of our practices and survive,' said Octeus, who is expected to start at point guard."

hahaha you guys have a terrible outlook. I honestly don't think the coach believe that his team is faster than xc. Basketball players are better athletes. You guys are proposing stuff like:

"D'oh, they probably couldn't tempo..."

-Tempos are not races, it's a percentage of perceived effort. They could do that.

"Well, they couldn't go 5:20 for 10 miles"

-True, but you couldn't walk up and hit 70% from three. There are plenty of runners who couldn't do that, so why do you expect basketball players to do so?

"We know really how to work"

-Typical running attitude: we work harder than anyone. Not true at all. We have one of the easiest sports because we are limited to a certain mileage. My arse gets kicked up and down the hardwood whenever i play pickup.

I'm not saying the bball team is better, but at least give the respect you demand to other sports. We sound like a bunch of wussies who p*ssyfooting around our own abilities and degrade others'.

I played basketball through 11th grade and ran cross through 12th at a multiple time state champion school (in cross). Our cross team was known for doing high mileage (100 mpw) and intensity and our basketball team was a .500 team at best so take the comparison for what it's worth. In summers I would go to summer basketball from 7:30 to 10 and then run a modified cross workout from 10 to 11. Afternoons I would either play summer ball or run afternoon practice (30 min) depending on the day. During cross season I was full in on cross, but would do my best to shoot during the week or play pickup on weekends (not the best strategy for cross recovery).

My observations are as follows:

-Once you have adapted to the anaerobbic demands of short sprints, cutting and jumping, basketball practice is easier from a mental/physical perspective. While there is a lot of anaerobic activity and contact, playing basketball is generally a lot more fun and mentally stimulating than slogging out a long run or doing intervals on the track. Basketball also does not put the repetitive strain on your joints that serious running does.

-Judged purely based on the measures that bball coaches use for conditioning (lines, wind sprints, etc.), I was far and away more fit than my bball teammates. I tended to be more of a half miler and thrived on anaerobic workouts which helped. No one could touch me when running lines.

-Judged based on overall fitness, bball made me a fitter athlete. Practices were longer, incorporated dynamic activity and weight lifting and made me more agile and "athletic"

1.)Wrestling

There is no other sport that is more demanding aerobically, mentally, and physically as wrestling.

This is one of the more ridiculous posts I have read. In Football and Basketball one relies on an opponent, teammate or coach to push you. Most of the physical pain associated with these games is organized around avoiding this type of pain (a tackle, box out, etc). Even the physiological demands never push a basketball player to delirium. How long does one have to hang around an XC meet before they see an athlete who punishes himself from within to the point of complete shut down?

An athlete adapts to the specific stress put on the body so of course a runner cant do the type of lateral movements a basketball player does with the same efficiency, but a basketball player DOES do a percentage of XC type training and cannot reach the same levels of performance.

read Vern Gambetta Athletic Development and his misconceptions about basketball when he was hired by the Bulls...it was not the type of sprinting and volume one might assume.

I did 4 years of cc/track and basketball in high school and started as a guard my senior year so was not a scrub. I would always get sore that first week of basketball practice because I was not used to the short sprints and all the cutting and jumping. Despite being in great aerobic shape, I would still get winded during games because of all the intense bursts of activity. No amount of distance training can avoid that if you are truly playing hard. Nonetheless, I could stay in the whole game because I recovered quickly. I would be exhausted at the end of games. The wind sprints at the end of practice were nothing compared to 10 x 400. The first one might be close with the football guys but I would destroy everyone after that. Transitioning in the spring from basketball to track, I felt like basketball helped my 400 speed but I was out of shape for the distance stuff and the long runs would kill me for awhile. Two different sports, both tough in their own way.

This is a matter of relativity. Individuals are accustomed to what they've adapted to. Developed, collegiate XC runners can run 7 miles without even feeling it whereas the anaerobic weight training found in basketball regimens comes naturally to those that have been doing it for years.

We once had a football player come out for the high school track team and we were doing some longer intervals. I, alongside the developed runners found the workout difficult but nothing out of the ordinary. The football player on the other hand would not shut up for the next 20 minutes on how difficult a few 600 meter repeats was. It's not like he was an mediocre athlete either. Our football team that year won the state title in the most competitive division and the football player himself could rip a 51 400.

It's all relative. That's why training styles vary greatly from sport to sport.

the comparison here is a varsity team comparing themselves to a varsity team of another sport. THIS is why we are bringing up the pace argument. As for being limited to a certain mileage: don't kid yourself on that one. that same mileage limit could very well be 110 mpw, which is definitely a truckload of work. If the mens XC team is limited to 70mpw, they are definitely going nowhere in the sport.