Listen to the full conversation here…https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/slappin-glass-podcast/id1528050811?l=en-GB&i=1000778162167
00:00 Conditioning, Movement Capacity, or Strength?
01:59 Building High-Intensity Practice Blocks
11:27 Training Strength Through Basketball Contact
12:58 Why Five-Minute Games?
13:34 Where to Increase Defensive Aggression
17:59 Pressure After Made Free Throws
20:18 Adjusting the Pressure to Personnel
How can a basketball team improve its conditioning during the season without sacrificing practice quality?
Icelandic professional coach and Álftanes Head Coach Baldur Ragnarsson explains how he structures high-intensity basketball practices, manages recovery between demanding sessions, and uses five-minute games to train conditioning inside representative play.
Ragnarsson details why he prioritizes conditioning over movement capacity and strength during the season, how he builds basketball-specific strength through contact situations, and why he stops live play once the quality begins to fall.
The conversation also covers two opportunities to increase defensive aggression: disrupting dribble handoffs before they reach the intended scorer and applying immediate full-court pressure after made free throws.