I was just disagreeing with the statement that it's harder for Amare, etc to add moves to their game than for Yao to become stronger/more muscular. A couple of years from now, Amare may have honed his turnaround J, but will Yao be holding his ground and snaring rebounds? Too hard to tell, IMO.
OK, to be technical when you say the "back muscle" I am assuming you mean the low back muscle or erector spinae. This is the muscle that would help prevent an ahtlete from being pushed over when posting up. This is considered the "core" of the body, not upper body musculature. Again upper body muscle will have little effect in improving rebounding. For Yao to improve in this area he needs to improve his quickness off the floor. If someone was grabbing his arm then his strength level would be a determinant factor for grabbing the board, but this is a foul. Establishing position in the low block has more to do with lower body and "core" strength than upper body strength. Basketball players need to have an extremely strong core as this is very important for jumping, sprinting, executing spin moves ect... Yao could probably do some work in this area. Yao needs more suddeness or explosiveness in game, if he improves in this area he will undoubtedly become the dominant player every body wants him to be. If Yao had the quickness of Hakeem with his height he would be an absolute force. I remember Hakeem just abusing Shaq in '95, and I know people will say that Shaq was still young then, but I haven't seen THAT mcuh improvement in his game since then. I think alot of his dominance comes from the lack of equal talent, as the center position is pretty poor right now in the NBA. This is not meant to be a knock on Shaq, more of a praise of Hakeem's abilities in his prime. Yao could be a similar player with a little more SAQ training.
No problem with the first paragraph. Your second paragraph makes me wonder if you have watched any games this year. Yao is hacked and fouled continually when he grabs the ball. I think the refs are treating him like Shaq in this area. They figure they are so big, they don't deserve a call like that. The problem is that Shaq is strong enough in the upper body that he can hang onto the ball when hacked across the arms. Yao is not strong enough to do that. It looks like the league will not call those fouls for Yao, so his only alternative is to get stronger in the upper body, specifically, forearms and hands. FWIW, people who don't think upper body strength affects explosiveness in running and jumping are just flat out wrong. Look at all the world class sprinters. They all have great upper body strength. I don't think Yao will ever be quicker or more explosive, but he could increase his rebounds with stronger hands and forearms.
While sprinters have tremendous upper body strength (they have to aid in their arm drive which is essential for linear speed), high jumpers and long jumpers have realatively small upper bodies. These are some of the most explosive athletes in the world. I know that arm drive aids in height on a VJ, but B-ballers can't effectively use arm drive because they have to take the ball up with them. Explosiveness comes from properly training the neuro-muscular system to fire at higher frequencies and in a more synchronized manner. Muscular size is not also the determining factor. Ever notice that some of the highest jumpers have twiggy little bird legs? I understand that Yao does get hacked, and I understand that upper body strength would help that. I said that in an earlier post. This is why I said KAJ should be his role model. You can't stop a good jump hook without OBVIOUSLY fouling. You have to be careful adding size to an athlete where speed and qucikness are important motor abilities. Size will not always equal better on-the-court productivity, which should be the ultimate goal of any training program. I realize I said strength and perhaps I should have said size. The title of this thread was how to muscle up Yao. I do not think "muscling him up" will help him. Strength could potentially help him in the situations you desribed above but I had already talked about that earlier. Yao can absolutely improve his speed and quickness, which would definitely improve his rebounding. He who gets to the ball first gets the board. Improving speed and quickness simply requires a different type of training. It could be done with Pliometrics, jump training, explosive lifting with lighter weights and high acceleration etc... These would be more conducive to the force profiles of B-ball.
