UCLA Basketball: Rigorous Training Program Pays Dividends for Star Ex-Bruin

The Blue and Gold have one heck of an alum.

Feb 11, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday (4) splits the defense of Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) and Miami Heat forward Caleb Martin (16) during the first half at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports / Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

UCLA Bruins one-and-done guard-turned-two-time NBA All-Star Jrue Holiday is still going strong at age 34. According to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, Holiday owes a lot of his continued success to an intensive workout regimen.

Long known as one of the league's best perimeter defenders, even 15 seasons into his career, the recently-extended two-time champ has honed a successful program with longtime performance coach Mike Guevera. Per Medina, Holiday is run through a variety of workouts designed to help him defend multiple positions.

“He’s approached the off-court stuff probably more intensely than the on-court stuff better than anybody I’ve worked with across the board in the NFL and the NBA,” Guevara informed Medina.

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The 6-foot-4 UCLA product earned his sixth All-Defensive Team honor and second title as a starter this past season, his first with the Celtics. Across his 69 healthy regular season contests, Holiday averaged 12.5 points on a .480/.429/.833 slash line.

With his prior team, the Milwaukee Bucks, Holiday was perhaps a tad over-extended offensively, as the team cast him as its lead playmaker. Now, alongside Derrick White, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Holiday is able to play more off the catch, while also providing some supplemental ballhandling. Per Guevera, Holiday trained up to maximize his acuity as a catch-and-shoot player.

"With being ready to take a shot, shooting is all about rhythm," Guevera noted. "I'm not a basketball trainer specific to skill, but I know it's a rhythm game. Rhythm takes reps. But sometimes the role that he played, he didn't have a whole lot of reps. But he was still ready to take a big shot and to make it. I think that speaks mainly to his mental capacity of not being too high or low."

Holiday's remarkable strength impresses even his trainer, and is a big foundational component of why he's managed to be so good for so long.

"[He's] squatting 285 pounds, 20 times," Guevera said. "There's not a single person on this planet that can do that besides him. His legs are tree trunks, and he needs that to guard one through five. You've seen him guard the post successfully against bigs that are 50-60 pounds bigger than him. But he's still able to do that so successfully because he's so strong. A lot of the leg strength that we do in practice is not just up and down. It's laterally, rotationally and side to side.

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