“Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail!!!!!”
The last thing athletes should do during the off season is nothing! Great athletes and competitors get back to training almost immediately following their season, because they want to get the edge on their competition. The off season is where your season is built and won. It’s during this time that you train your body to perform at a high level all season long, by maintaining and gaining explosiveness, speed, and power.
Remember, as an athlete you play a sport. You are not a body builder, so going to the weight room everyday to get bigger is not necessarily going to improve your game or your fundamental skills. Someone can be the biggest and strongest person on the team, but if they don’t know how to use their size or strength it doesn’t help them or contribute to their team’s success.
While training, athletes need to have a reason, a purpose, and a goal they are training to reach. Without any of those, they are simply just working out and not training or preparing their body for the upcoming season. When you fail to prepare your body and mind for the season, you are preparing to fail in your season. Here are a couple reasons an athlete should train in the off season:
- Maintain/gain explosive power
- Gain speed
- Tune the total body to be able to perform at a high level year around without injury
- Increase body strength, the right way
- Improve and develop technical skills
- Maintain mental and physical sharpness
- Be knowledgeable of strengths and weakness, and how to improve them
Stay focused!
