In-Season Training is for Learning & Improving
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If you have read some of our other posts on In-season training, you will know we are pretty passionate about it. The importance of training during the sports season is vital for teams and athletes to continue to improve and finish the season stronger than they started it. In-season training also gives you the opportunity to learn new progressions and exercises that you may not have the chance to do during the off-season.
We have 3 main goals for in-season training:
Recover - from games/practices and be at your best come game time.
Improve- continue gaining strength/power and work on weak points.
Learn- new and more complex movements and exercises.
Our In-Season training workouts typically can be accomplished in about 20-30 minutes, depending on the level of the athlete and how comfortable and experienced they are in the weight room. Most days we can use up to about 45-60 minutes with the team or athlete, so we have the remaining time to ask questions to see how they are feeling and to learn/improve new movements.
Learn: New Progressions
During the season, our loads in the gym are typically lower than that of the off-season (excluding the heavy day primary lifts.) This allows us to start adding in some new exercises or to progress an athlete to the next level slowly. For example, if we have an athlete that has been at the beginning stages of the Hip Hinge Progression Chart for whatever reason (lack of one-on-one time, movement inefficiencies, or etc) taking this time to allow them to progress can be extremely valuable.
In this same example, if our athlete is still using dumbbells or the pvc pipe to perform a hip hinge movement (which is one of the first few phases in this progression), we will possibly add in the next phase (the Training Bar RDL) at the beginning of the workout and even sometimes at the end. We will use no weight or extremely low weight at the beginning and focus primarily on the technique of the movement. The great thing about adding these in during this time is that there is no rush at all to progress them beyond. We can allow them to take as much time as it is needed. Also by being able to add it in at the beginning and end of the workout, they are getting more reps than they probably would be able to have during the off-season. This usually allows them to progress much faster. Most of our level 1 and 2 athletes have progressed into the next level and/or jumped a handful of phases during the in-season training.
Learn: How is your body responding?
On top of progressing phases in our progression charts, we use the in-season to teach our athletes about their bodies. There is nothing more valuable to an athlete or a coach than them understanding how their body moves and feels. With our professional and high-end college athletes, this insight is paramount for us to be able to create and adjust their programming and nutrition throughout the year to ensure they are always at the top of their game.
In our blog post “The Most Important 10 Minutes for A Coach” we hit on the importance of talking to your athletes prior to a training session. During the in-season, you will want to really utilize this as it will allow you to start learning how they have responded to the training program and the practice schedule. The more questions you ask your athletes, the more they start becoming aware of their bodies and how they respond to certain things.
For example, you have a heavy day of lifting scheduled today but during the first few minutes of warmups you find out that they had a lot of extra sprints last night after practice (or possibly you are the coach and know you had them run a bit more than normal) ask how they are feeling. If they are sore, where are they sore? What are they feeling? This allows you to adjust the program and add in more movement or lax ball work or possibly utilizing the “light day” instead. Then follow up again the next day with them. See how they feel. Are they still sore? Do they feel better? Have them talk about how they are feeling and responding to the training program and practice/games each day you see them. This will allow you to adjust your programming to ensure they are not overloading and ready for game time.
Each discussion you have with your athletes also gives them more knowledge about how they are responding. This will help them become more aware of how certain exercises and or practice drills (or hard/long games) will affect their body and over time they learn how to correct these and help their body recovery. Fast forward to off-season training and now your athletes are self-aware and will start taking more ownership on how they recover. This will become valuable when you progress into high levels of training.
Action Item:
Add in the next progression for each athlete at the beginning and end of the workout. Also, ask questions. Get your athletes to start talking about their response to practice, games and training. This insight will help both you the coach and your athletes make necessary adjustments during the season to ensure they are always ready for game time.