When Basketball and CrossFit Come Together

While high schools and even some middle schools are incorporating CrossFit into their PE classes, high school sports teams like Dallas County volleyball and Mount Pleasant basketball are actually joining affiliates for the summer and working CrossFit into their weekly workouts.

In Wyoming, Randall Homan opened up Chopper CrossFit to volleyball, football, swimming and cross country athletes from Worland High School for a three week Summer strength and conditioning camp. Nearly 20 football and volleyball players already worked out there regularly. Bow owners pay close attention, last week they wrapped up a three week camp to jump start basketball pre-season, focusing on “maximizing your vertical…reaction time and optimize coordination.”It’s not just a small-town thing either. In Texas, 28 volleyball players from Dallas County High School spent the summer training at Selma CrossFit for their upcoming season. Taylor Moore, a senior on the volleyball team shares, “We’re always ready after we do CrossFit because we feel like we’re close together as a team…we’re mentally ready, physically ready.”

Short answer — yes.

At the start of pre-season, the Mount Pleasant High School boys basketball team performed this baseline WOD — 500m row, 40 air squats, 30 sit-ups, 20 push-ups and 10 air squats for time. After six weeks of CrossFit and training, 8 out of the 9 athletes that retested improved by at least 7%, ranging to even 35%. “Applying constantly varied, functional movements at a high intensity, leads to dramatic gains in fitness,” explains Coach Joey Schism.

“Our specialty is not specializing and the universal scalability makes the CrossFit program perfect for any dedicated member who wants to improve their health/fitness…It’s such a difference from the traditional training. We will try as much as possible during our season to incorporate some type of CrossFit within our practices,” Coach Schism said.