Strength and Conditioning

Jonathan Santiago

When it comes to ideas of innovation, the Sacramento Kings are one of the franchise's leading the charge in the NBA. This is a core value that permeates throughout the organization in a variety of areas, including its approach to athletic performance.

Ramsey Nijem is in his first full season as head strength and conditioning coach of the Sacramento Kings. In addition to ensuring that players are in peak physical condition for the season, Nijem has also been responsible for developing the franchise’s brand new training facility.

Located inside Golden 1 Center, Nijem’s new office is about as technologically advanced as they come. Data collection is possible at all times thanks to high-tech equipment the team is employing in the new training facility.

Need up-to-date information on Ty Lawson’s speed and quickness?  Want to know how much progress DeMarcus Cousins has made with his hand-eye coordination over the last month? Nijem and company have all that data accessible in the palm of their hands.

“Technology is obviously huge,” Nijem said. “And it’s something that’s driven from the top down here in Sacramento.”

The real-time tracking of athletic performance allows the strength and conditioning staff to make appropriate adjustments on the fly.  The 82-game schedule can take its toll physically on a team and having the ability to be dynamic certainly presents major benefits.

“We start with the fact that they’re all NBA players and we understand a good amount of what the NBA demand is,” Nijem said of how he and his staff put together workout regimens for players. “And then we build out from there to create more specific programs for the guys.”

The continuous collection of data from each training session also serves as a means of checks and balances for both the Kings and their training staff. Not only does it help ensure players are at the top of their game, but it also holds Nijem and company responsible for delivering results, too.

“It allows us to hold everybody accountable,” Nijem said of the high-tech environment the Kings foster. “So us as coaches can be held accountable, the players can be held accountable and the process as a whole is now held accountable because we have data coming in all the time.”

Teams around the League have taken notice of the Kings new training facility. Nijem has received plenty of inquiries from fellow NBA strength and conditioning coaches to check out his new office.  The feedback thus far has been incredibly positive.

Nijem does remain humble when asked if the team's innovative approaches to strength and conditioning is setting a new standard in the NBA. There’s no doubt, however, that his contemporaries from across the Association are taking notes.

“I think that there’s certainly some wheels in motion as they begin to kind of pick apart our ideas,” Nijem said.  “And I do think that some of these ideas and some of the things that we’ve done will be seen in other weight rooms pretty soon.”

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