"Fatigue makes cowards of us all." - George Patton
From an exercise physiology standpoint, scientists measure aerobic fitness in terms of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). While this has been used for Olympic athletes and studied in 'normals', Air Force officers, and other populations, it requires high technology, expensive equipment that isn't practical for most programs.
But a simple exercise test (12 minute run) approximates it well.
For example, several years ago (at age 58) I performed this test on a treadmill and achieved 1.35 miles in twelve minutes, about 37.27 ml/kg/minute. That compares favorably with a measured reading of about 44 ml/kg/minute working as a staff pulmonologist in the Navy over twenty-five years ago. Prior to conditioning programs, health assessment and approval are important.
You can then apply your data to normative tables for age.
That's the 'easy' part.
I believe that multiple exercise components condition both sport specific (e.g. basketball drills) and general, such as jumping rope and sprint training. I've previously written about conditioning within practice. We have such limited practice time that I bake conditioning into drills (transition, continuous 3-on-3, Kentucky layups, etc.).
Jumping rope develops speed, agility, and coordination. There are enough rope jumping exercise that players and coaches should find some attractive. Jumping rope burns calories at about the same rate as running an eight-minute mile. For healthy, younger athletes I recommend a five minute workout. As high school basketball players we commonly warmed up with about three minutes of jumping rope.
Sprint training in isolation has value, but basketball players will find it less enjoyable than basketball activitiy. This article suggests a variety of training exercises.
Get players to buy into conditioning. Coordinate conditioning into practice whenever responsible. Use alternatives like jumping rope. Determine whether measuring fitness or setting standards will apply to your program. You can make the conditioning competitive and a team-building exercise.
