After a Gold-Medal and MVP season in the NBA, LeBron James is feverishly back at work looking to improve his game. Read from Terry Pluto's article at Cleveland.com:For LeBron James, the journey to repeat as the NBA's Most Valuable Player begins Monday morning.
That's when the Cavs star will meet assistant coach Chris Jent at the team's practice facility in Independence.
"LeBron is driven to win a championship," said Jent. "Most people have no idea how hard he works. He wanted to start last week, but I told him to rest his body. Let's start after July 4th."
James will begin his day by meeting assistant trainer Mike Mancias. Sometimes, they lift weights. Sometimes, it's yoga. It always involves some stretching.
"Six days a week, LeBron does some sort of workout, that's not counting his shooting drills," said Jent. "They do things to help his flexibility and balance. LeBron also has his own chef. He is extremely serious about being a better player."
They will then begin 90 minutes of shooting drills. Most of the shots will come from 14-to-19 feet. They begin with six different spots on the court, but also at different ranges.
Then they come back at night, for more shooting.
"From now on, he'll shoot at least once a day, probably six days a week," said Jent. "Sometimes, it will be twice a day."
Further in Pluto's article you find out that he took his shooting coach on the road to get better:
But James did agree to several suggestions from Jent, and that did help his free throw shooting and his jumper. Like most great athletes who were bigger, stronger and could leap higher than nearly everyone else when they were younger -- James could drive to the hoop at will.
"The drills we do are not natural to him," said Jent. "A great player practices the things that don't come easy."
Not only do James and Jent practice here -- James has taken Jent on the road to continue their sessions. They'll practice in Los Angeles after he tapes commercials. They'll practice in Portland, when James travels there for Nike business. They have found gyms in Washington, D.C., and New York when James had appearances in those cities.
"The last two summers, LeBron was involved with the Olympic team," said Jent. "He practice with them during the day, and we'd shoot at night."
Read the entire article at:
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2009/07/james_offseason_stretch_lift_s.html
