"You got to be able to squat. You gotta be able to push (push-ups). You gotta be able to pull (pull-ups) and have a really good, strong core."
Those are the four fundamental movements to Coach Todd Gates' program at the NBA Academy India.
Gates is the strength-and-conditioning coach and an assistant basketball coach at the NBA Academy India.
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"The kids who are coming into the program have never seen a weight before, never lifted before. And so what I tell all players is that "Look at the sport that you play, look at the highest level of that sport, look at the body types of the players who play that sport and that's the body type you should have.""
Prior to joining the Academy, Gates spent four years as the strength and conditioning coach at the Velocity Sports Performance in New York City.
"Takes about 4-5 months for them to adjust. And then you see them slowly getting stronger."
Gates has been a part of the coaching faculty at the Academy since it began at Jaypee Greens Integrated Sports Complex in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) in 2017.
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"Facilities are an intricate part of strengthening our athletes If you don't have the right equipment and the right tools, you are not going to be able to develop the player. Here [NBA Academy India], there's this methodology, there's plans implemented to get them stronger, to get them stronger, to get them more explosive."
Gates has had experience training multiple sports, including roles at Boston College, the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and Rutgers University.
