Speed Development, Culture, and Basketball-Specific Conditioning with David Ventress

 

In this weeks episode of The Podcast, host Jay DeMayo sits down with David Ventress, strength coach for the University of Louisiana men’s basketball program, to break down how speed work, movement training, and weight room design fit into a basketball culture. The conversation focuses on how to build acceleration and speed reserves, then carry those qualities into competition, conditioning, and team identity.David also explains how he adapts his programming to the realities of a team setting, from group-based sprint work to position-specific lifting for guards and bigs. The big theme throughout is simple: the program has to serve the culture, not the other way around.

Key topics

• In this episode, David Ventress shares his background across Nicholls State, Tulane, South Alabama, and now Louisiana, where he is entering year two with the Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball staff.
• Jay and David discuss why top-end speed still matters in basketball, even on a court where max velocity is less frequent than in field sports.
• David explains his view that exposure to higher speeds helps build speed reserves, improve hamstring resiliency, and support rate of force development.
• The speed program is built around two weekly days:
  • one linear day focused on max velocity
  • one change of direction and multi-acceleration day
• David says the biggest coaching challenge is not exercise selection but getting maximum intent from players, especially in a team environment.
• Group-based sprinting is used to drive competition, with three to four players going at a time, winners and losers called out, and built-in consequences or rewards.
• Rather than relying on timing gates, David uses competition as the main driver and believes the rise in performance within the same groups shows progress over time.
• In the weight room, the program shifts by position:
  • guards get more eccentric, reactive, single-leg, and high-speed plyometric work
  • bigs get more concentric, two-foot, and strength-focused work
• David uses jump mats and VBT-style feedback to gamify lifting, but he emphasizes intent and competition more than prescription by exact load or speed targets.
• As the team moves from eight-hour to 20-hour NCAA rules, the focus shifts from building speed reserves to repeat sprint ability and post-practice conditioning.
• David says practice itself provides much of the high-velocity exposure during the season through accountability, transition work, and down-and-back efforts.

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction to David Ventress and Louisiana basketball
01:20 – David’s path through Nicholls State, Tulane, South Alabama, and Louisiana
03:04 – Why speed training still matters in basketball
03:52 – Exposure to top-end speed and speed reserves
04:46 – Two-day speed structure: linear max velocity and change of direction
05:54 – Why acceleration cannot be separated from speed development
07:48 – Short-to-long sprint progression and building tolerance
08:44 – The main coaching goal: intent and max effort
09:13 – Group sprinting, competition, and keeping everyone active
10:38 – Fitting speed development to the program’s culture
11:49 – Why David does not use timing gates in this system
12:35 – Using competition instead of rank, publish, and record
13:31 – Why young coaches overvalue shiny tech and metrics
16:01 – Being an extension of the head coach and team identity
17:36 – Keeping the same drills while adapting the competitive layer
18:28 – Position-specific lifting for guards and bigs
19:08 – Different lower-body qualities for guards versus bigs
20:33 – Gamifying the weight room with jump mats and output targets
21:53 – Visual feedback and athlete buy-in
23:09 – Moving from eight-hour to 20-hour rules
24:08 – Post-practice conditioning and building capacity for longer practices
25:41 – Why speed reserves make repeat sprint work easier
26:53 – Repeat sprint ability as the core preseason goal
28:00 – How practice itself provides high-velocity exposure in season
29:59 – David’s guest recommendation: Marcus Brock