By Team Speed - September 12, 2018
You don’t get to eat cake and expect to receive the same health benefits as you would with a nutritional, balanced meal, so why would training be that way? Our players train at 100% during the off season, and our elite athletes don’t stop training once the season starts. Here’s why:
Athletes at Sterling’s Team Speed train hard during the off-season. They gain in strength, flexibility, endurance, mental toughness, agility and speed. It’s important to not lose these gains once the season begins and maintain while in season. Often, athletes won’t maintain their gains by attending their team’s regular practices -- They need to commit even further and train with a private coach during the off-season.
The season starts and athletes are strong. However, as the season continues, athletes only get weaker and fitness levels diminish. Increased risk of injury is one of many implications at this point, and the best way to prevent injury is to continue to train outside of regular team practices.
It’s difficult, and frankly a waste of time and money, to push the pause button on private training during the season. At our sports and fitness facility in Denver, we highly encourage elite athletes to continue training while their team is in season a minimum of one time per week. This means the athlete is maintaining strength, power and mechanics rather than re-gaining them once the season is over.
As the season goes on, players have a more difficult time maintaining strength. By mid-season, they are at their weakest, leaving them at greater risk of injury. Athletes can help to prevent injuries by working with a private coach while their team is in season.
It’s our goal to keep our athletes on the field or court at their strongest throughout their team’s whole season. Oftentimes, the most important games are toward the end of the season when players are not at peak performance, so it’s important to not lose momentum from training during the off-season and put athletes at risk of injury.
As a general guideline, training a minimum of one time per week while in-season is sufficient to maintain gains made during the off-season. Players don’t train to gain at 100% like they do in the off-season. The focus shifts here at Sterling’s Team Speed to bettering the athlete and preventing injury.
In-season training is different for our athletes here at Sterling’s Team Speed. Don’t expect to come out of private training sessions sweating and exhausted. Players are not training at 100% effort while in season -- We design our training program around the athlete’s practice and game schedule. The training focus shifts from gaining to maintaining fitness, and preventing injury.