Strength, Speed, and Agility Training In-Season

Strength, Speed, Agility In Season

How many of you train during your off-season in preparation for your sports season only to completely ignore your strength, speed, and agility training in-season?

Let me give you an example.  Let’s say that you have a female soccer player or male football player and they’ve each progressed positively in the box squat with a weight of 150 pounds for her and 300 pounds for him prior to taking the field before there competitive season.  If neither one of them lift a single weight during there season, she’ll be squatting 100 lbs and he’ll be squatting 240 pounds by early November.  This is when these athletes need to be there strongest and most explosive.  In retrospect, with the proper in-season program each athlete could not only maintain what they’ve worked so hard for but actually increase the pound ages of the lifts during the season getting strong(er).  This is not my opinion but rather feedback I’ve had with the athletes who stayed the course with me and followed my strength, speed, and agility in-season program.

Not convinced yet, a weight training study published in the highly prestigious “Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise” reported that subjects (athletes) could not only retain there strength levels for up to 15 weeks but actually increase it with a reduced volume of work (total work performed) by two-thirds (2/3).  That’s amazing and a fact worth taking too.  Here’s the catch and any good strength coach should always enforce this.  The intensity or the heaviest total weight (max effort method) had to be high and intense in order to achieve those results.  Let’s say that you’re not an “anaerobic” athlete but an “aerobic” athlete such as cross country runner.  The same holds true for you guys that you can retain and/or improve your conditioning levels with short but hard and intense bouts of work keeping it to under 40 minutes.

In-Season Strength, Speed, Agility Training

In today’s sports, strength coaches are faced with a much more difficult task than say 40 years ago.  There are more sports to play in schools, rec teams, travel teams, tournament teams, etc.  It almost seems as if the youth athlete is constantly “In-Season” to begin with.  That’s why its so important to be consistent and abide by the program your strength coach or trainer is planning for you.  In addition, the athlete(s) or teams that train year round will be not only physically tough but more mentally tough and come playoff, tournament, or team tryouts what’s better? strong at the beginning or strong to the finish?  I shouldn’t need to help you answer that!!  Here are some guidelines I recommend when developing and using an “In-Season” program.

• Train at least 1x no more than 2x’s per week-During the sports season training 1x/wk is the minimum with 2x’s being the preferred route.  Three training sessions per week is too taxing on the body.  Exercise selection, game duration, season duration, as well as other factors need to be thought of when selecting your training exercises.  For an example, my football players lift on Saturday mornings and we’ll do some type of squat movement followed by some accessory lifts for the upper body, and regeneration techniques.
• Train in the morning-I know that schedules, game times, and transportation can be tough but if possible try to train in early mornings to enhance your recovery and nutrients.  I also find that athletes who make the sacrifice to wake one hour earlier are more committed to the actual training program as it’s harder to train after or right before a practice and maintain your school responsibilities.
• Keep it short and Intense-This is the one area where more is definitely not better.  The objective of your training is to get stronger as the season goes.  You cannot afford to spend 1 1/2 hours in the weight room, practice, and maintain a social life.  Keep your workouts between 30 NO MORE than 40 minutes!!
• Focus on the big lifts-In order for your workouts to be intense and beneficial you need to do exercises that offer the most bang for your buck.  Joe Defranco refers to this as “Gym Economy.” Now is not the time to do concentration curls and lateral raises.  You’ll need to focus on some type of squat variation (I prefer the box squat), Horizontal Press, Dead lift, and maybe-MAYBE the power clean but that’s for another article.
• Perform only 3 working sets-This can have a few exception to the rules.  This will depend on how strong you are but for most if not all 3 “working sets” is enough. A great program that not only works but is simple enough for anyone to follow is Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 strength program.  Week 1: 3×5 / Week 2: 3×3 / Week 3: 5-3-1 (set new PR) / Week 4: De-Load

Exceptions To The Rule(s)

Like any other rule(s) there’s always an exception.  The most obvious is in-season lifting exception is the high school football player who is under great physical and mental stress performing two-a-day practices in the heat.  Hydration and Regeneration would be my focus here during those intense weeks.  Another consideration would be the freshman player who only plays on special teams or the girl who only takes penalty kicks.  They can attack the weight room and should with a fierceness so that when there time comes they are ready to Train, Play, Dominate.  There’s also the red-shirt freshman collegiate athlete who has little opportunity to play so they can attack the weight room as well.

With a well defined “Strength, Speed, and Agility In-Season program athletes will perform better, reduce injury, and coaches and parents can rest assured that they’re performing at the highest level possible.  With FITT Warehouse’s Strength, Speed, and Agility In-Season Program and our commitment to year round success we will help you TRAIN. PLAY. DOMINATE your opponents!!

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