high bar or low bar for a basketball player?

[underballer]

hello, basketball player here doing starting strength. I'm on starting strength and trying to improve my athleticism. Just wondering if i should low bar or high bar though. just some info though btw:

-wear oly shoes to squat
-front squat on wednesday

[Mark Rippetoe]

Please explain how one's "athleticism" is influenced by the position of the bar on the back.

[underballer]

it is influenced cause the way the bar is on your back changes the squat mechanics which changes which muscles you recruit in order to squat. if you go high bar, your torso is more up right and you most likely will go straight up and down, utilizing more of the quads, and neglecting, but not completely neglecting the hamstrings/posterior chain. for the low bar, your torso will be more horizontal and will result in more recruitment of the posterior chain.

[Mark Rippetoe]

A masterful job of explaining the musculoskeletal differences in the two positions. But I see no explanation of how they pertain to "athleticism".

[Red Finn]

Uh oh, is it because the high-bar squat moreso mimics the posture and muscular recruitment of jumping in basketball?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I don't know. I'm waiting to learn.

[DirtyRed]

I'd venture a guess to say that he means "help me jump" or "help me box out" when he says "improve my athleticism." If it's the jump, he may be thinking that the high bar squat looks more like a jumping motion (maybe I'm jumping funny, but I don't lean forward like lowbar squats when I jump, but then my jump is lol worthy), and is therefore better for improving jumping than lowbar.

I don't know what the question would be about boxing out. When I box out, it looks almost exactly like the bottom of the low bar squat.

All this raises the issue of training "fast" motions in sports by copying them exactly and weighting them, thereby doing them slowly. Which, as you said in The Book, typically has a negative effect.

Frankly, I don't think lowbar vs highbar makes a huge difference for basketball. Either be tall or be skilled and fast. Every player surely benefits from strength, but if you're under 6'6'', it's more important that you have some combination of speed, shot, passing, or dribbling ability. Rajon Rondo is an All Star PG (and despicable punk), and I'd shit myself if he could squat time and half his body weight. And I'd say the same of most guards.

Off Topic: Can someone tell me why every basketball player ever types like a seven year old?

[underballer]

athleticism = being able to jump high and run fast?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Thanks very good, underballer. Now, the next step would be you telling us why the bar position in the squat has a bearing on this.

[underballer]

bar position affects whether we want to target our quads or our posterior chain to enhance athleticism. not sure which one contributes more to athleticism, but im gonna take a guess and say they're both equally needed to be able to jump high and run fast. so therefore it wouldn't matter which one i did? as long as i'm doing work to cover up for it? (example: if im doing high bar, should do some posterior chain exercises. if im doing low bar, do something like leg press or front squat)