SwishFit: For the Love of Basketball

SwishFit is the new fitness program that’s starting to gain traction in the Metro. It combines functional training with enjoying and building connections through the nation’s favorite sport – basketball.

Filipinos are basketball-crazy, and we’re proud of it. From daily pickup games on makeshift courts, to year-round barangay ligas in multi-purpose gyms, basketball has gone past recreation and national past-time. It’s become a cornerstone of our culture, a discipline ingrained into the consciousness of millions of Filipinos.

New fitness company SwishFit aims to channel this passion for hoops and direct it towards wellness. Whether you’re crazy about the sport, a casual fan, or just willing to try anything to get into health and fitness, we encourage you to check them out.

The first basketball-focused fitness program in the Philippines

SwishFit kicked off in September 2019. As the first basketball-focused fitness program in the country, it wants to distinguish itself from other fitness classes and sports clinics. 

Coach Josiah “Josh” Villegas, Head of Operations for SwishFit, explains that they offer one-hour classes which combine basketball skills development, plyometrics (or exercises where you exert maximum force in a short amount of time), strength & conditioning, and functional fitness. This regimen provides a holistic fitness routine for participants in a safe, fun, and guided environment.

Each SwishFit session can be divided into warm-ups, and then two parts. After warm-ups, coaches guide participants through the first part, which consists of basic basketball drills such as dribbling, shooting, and passing. The second part of the session focuses more on enhancing strength and resistance. Coaches guide participants to do several exercises, like medicine ball slams, battle ropes, and agility ladder drills. 

While SwishFit treats every session as a chance to create a community of fitness-loving basketball enthusiasts, you don’t really need to know basketball in order to participate.

Everyone is welcome

Coach Josh, in an interview with Flying Ketchup, explains their thought process when they first started conceptualizing SwishFit:

“How about creating a class, a group class wherein it’s all-inclusive, where beginners are welcome, where intermediate and experienced players are welcome,” he says.

With experience in CrossFit and other fitness programs, Coach Josh merged his training background with his passion for basketball to finalize SwishFit’s routines. Together with his friends Kris and Marv, they hope to share this methodology with as many Filipinos as possible.

The team comes from different backgrounds, but share the same passion for sports and fitness. These three coaches employ a very hands-on approach to their sessions. They adjust depending on the skill and athleticism of participants, ensuring that you can train at your own pace. At SwishFit, coaches Josh, Kris, and Marv guarantee that everyone will be trained, regardless of fitness, skill level, or even gender, as long as they want to get fit through basketball.

Two months into operation, and more people are starting to take notice of their unique approach to fitness. Coach Kris reveals that they even have retired professional basketball players expressing interest in their program. They welcome everyone to their sessions – men and women, young and old, former varsity players, or even those just curious of what all the fuss is about.

Unleashing the team player in everyone

Similar to a basketball team’s training regimen, each one-hour session guides a participant to foster camaraderie with the coaches and each other.

Coach Josh explains that one of their unique selling points is that they provide a kind of training that not a lot of people have access to. Usually, only people who enroll in basketball clinics, or have legitimate collegiate basketball experience, would have access to these kinds of drills. SwishFit offers this training to the public, and it is an undeniably fun way to get fit.

Again, this class welcomes everyone. A post from their official Facebook page shows that SwishFit participants come from a wide variety of unrelated fields. This adds to the diversity and vibrancy of the community that they’re building.

So the next time you hear a Filipino utter “Ball is life!” perhaps you’ll remember SwishFit, and maybe give it a try!

Get fit with SwishFit on Mondays, from 5pm – 6pm at Brgy. San Antonio Multi-Purpose Court in Pasig, and on Wednesdays, from 7pm – 8pm at Decathlon Pasig in Tiendesitas.

Book a class via their Official Facebook Page.