Are weight training programs individualised for each player or do they all do the same?
Iivonen: We have had several players with injury problems and some of them need more flexibility, some need more body strength and some need more power for the legs. We try to help our players individually as much as we can but we have a basic program that everybody tries to follow, but not all guys can do that. We use quite a lot of free weights because you must control your body, sitting n machines you do not control your body, which in basketball you definitely do have to do. We do work some exercises with machines such as for hamstrings, adductors and abductors but we also use free weights for those body parts too. Would you say that free weights are more valuable for basketball players than machines? Iivonen: I have coaching friends in ice hockey, physical education, track and field, handball and I speak with them a lot. I don’t want to make strong robots out of my players that can lift a lot of weight, but cannot run. They should have upper bodies like sprinters, but the lower bo
