As athletes who participates in several sports year round, you’re faced with the challenge of how to perform off-season training, when you’re always in-season. Also, if you are a coach that would like to see your athletes improve their speed and strength during the off season, but the players are now under the supervision of the other sport’s coach, how do you support the other coaches objective while making sure that the athlete is getting stronger in preparation for your season.
If you think THIS is a challenge, just imagine the stress that a Strength and Conditioning Coach goes through in designing a program that makes all the sports coaches happy and keeps the athletes focused, without getting over trained! Below are several outlined critical elements that will not only ensure that you or your athletes are not only in top shape for one sport, but for all sports, all year round!
The very first assumption is that all high school athletes, with very small exception, need to build a solid foundation of core and multi-joint strength. This simply means that there should only be a focus on getting stronger within a limited selection of movements… mainly Squats, Lunges, Presses and Pulls. The focus of your year round program should be on getting stronger (not maintaining) strength.
By limiting the volume of training to just 3-4 majors lifts with set of 3-8 reps, you can maintain a high level of intensity (which is the most important factor). Of course you will need to adjust your parameters based on time of season, and injuries. But by keeping it flexible, and following this basic approach you can continue to make gains year-round.
Finally, nutrition and recovery are key to injury prevention as well as faster gains. Make sure you maintain the following elements 24/7 365! First, always drink ½ your bodyweight in oz. of water daily. Eat like an animal; your meals should only contain foods that ‘were here 10,000 years ago’. This means that your plate should be over flowing with meat and veggies, run like hell from anyone who tells you to eat a low-fat diet! Finally sleep, sleep and sleep, as a high school student you are going to need 8-10 hours of sleep a night in order to get bigger, faster and smarter. A rule of thumb is go to bed by 10 and wake by 6 everyday, even weekends!
By following the steps in this article you are putting yourself in the top 5% of all high school athletes in the country, the ones who become great!
Article By: Elliott
