Page 43 - JUNE SFM 2017

The Off-Season Is Your Friend

By Joe Stewart

I want to introduce the idea of an off-season. An off-season means that you are not actively competing in any sports
for a given period of time. This may seem foreign to some young athletes and parents who play school and travel sports
competitively year-round; but it is an imperative part of the long term success of any athlete that want to resist injury and
optimize performance.
Being from areas that are limited in population, we see a great deal of kids who are multi-sport athletes. We think
this is fantastic. One of the best ways to develop your athleticism is to play a lot of sports starting at a young age. Each sport
has different energy system and skill demands. Therefore, we can see a more complete development of neurological skills
built like coordination, agility, balance, and stamina.
As athletes age into the late middle school/early high school stage of life we have the onset of puberty. With puberty
comes hormonal changes. With hormonal changes come the ability to build strength, speed, and power.
There is not a better time to build strength, speed, and power than the off-season. The tradeoff is that you have to
mentally allow yourself to take a couple of months off from competition. You must commit to yourself that off-season train-
Lakers JV Softball ing goals come above another season of competition.

You cannot achieve your athletic potential competing 365 days per year. You may think you are a superhuman ath-
lete, but sadly, you most-likely are not.
The physical and mental demands of competition are extremely taxing and will degrade performance and mental
acuity more than you think. When you feel like you are going 110% you are likely giving 80% at best. It is unreasonable to
expect full effort and performance from an athlete who is competing 365 days per year. How defeating is it when you know
you can do better, your coach knows you can do better, your parents know you can do better; but you are so exhausted that
80% is your best effort?
As Coaches, we need to be acutely aware of our young athletes endeavors outside of our own sports. Summer open
gyms, skills camp, scrimmages, are a fantastic way to build cohesion with your team. We are excited for these times to get
our teams together to get better and improve our skills. However, if summer is the only time an athlete has to devote to
recovery, strength, speed, and power then we need to foster that crucial component of development. We need to be ok with
skill building and open gym falling to second place.
Young athletes will be better prepared for performance if they stop conditioning for a few months to focus on build-
ing tendon and ligament strength, muscular strength and size, improving core stability and structural balance. If an athlete
is competing for three seasons of the year their conditioning should be just fine. Their skill development should be just
fine as well. If it is not, in-season practice and training methodology needs to be assessed and improved. Off-season focus
should be on core stability, imbalance correction, muscular hypertrophy and endurance, and building as much strength and
power as possible.
If you consider yourself a serious athlete, taking an off-season is necessity. Giving yourself time to recover, assess,
and improve the mental and physical condition of your performance will ensure that you enter the next season hungry for
competition,. You will be physically and mentally prepared to perform at 100% and destroy everything.
As Coaches and Parents it is important for us to encourage an off-season for our athletes to allow a time for their
mental and physical capacity to recover and grow. The improved performance will thank us all.

Visit our website at www.missiononefitness.com and click on the Sport’s Finest tab for a basic 4-week off-season strength
block.

Joe Stewart, MSW, CF-L2, USAW L2
Owner
Mission 1 Fitness LLC
1900A W. Caro Rd.

Caro, MI 48723
(989) 553-1044
www.missiononefitness.com

42 • Sports Finest Magazine June 2017 sportsfinestMagzine.com 989 672 0799 kelly@sportsfinestmagazine.com KELLY@SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM 989 672 0799 SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM June 2017 SPORTS FINEST MAGAZINE • 43

JUNE SFM 2017 .indd 42-43 5/31/17 7:53 PM