We have talked this about in other blog posts and how hard this part of the year is on the S&C coach. Your work is proverbial done, at least in the development side, and you are phasing into a support role. However, that does not change the fact that this is the longest unbroken period of training you will have in a calendar year, so taking advantage of this is critical. 

In Season Workouts Part I

Transitioning to In Season

Inversion is the best model to use, in my opinion, for in season training. Biggest question you can ask yourself as a S&C coach is, what will training look like during the postseason (bowl/playoff)? Will it be a session of foam rolling, stretching, breathing? Will it look like the training you do all year with reduced volume or intensity? Will it be a bunch of guys setting PRs, training their asses off, getting ready for not only championships but having an incredible run up to next off season? 

Hope is the latter is not only your goal, but your expectation. Imagine a scenario where you can structure your training so that you’re reaching your peak at the end of season going into the postseason? Instead of just surviving and hoping, you are instilling confidence that their efforts will result in being at their best when the stakes are highest. 

The first step is to believe what you do matters. The next step is to convince your athletes that are bombarded with stress from school, life, and practice/games that training matters. There can be a belief from all parties that the work has been done in the off season. But if we reframe that all of our efforts matter, we can justify training with intensity and focus in season. 

At the center of this is selling the idea that training during the season will have residual effects to more meaningful periods of the season. It is classic aspirational association – think before you achieve. We are training to peak in the postseason translates to we are making the postseason, so we better get ready now. It says subliminally you believe in your team and organization so much, you are planning training to reach its apex during the postseason. But that is contingent on your process.

Big talk is one aspect, taking action is another thing. My planning with training is based on minimal effective dose – do what matters and no more. What will have the biggest systemic impact on the outcome? Aside from the point of philosophy, filtering out what actually matters, matters a great deal. From there how do we leverage what matters to the best extent? 

Maintaining or increasing lean muscle mass, increasing force output, increasing velocity, improving chances of success are not a pipe dream with in season training. My message to the team, was we are only going to do what we agree upon matters. Not only that, we are only going to do what will make an impact with what we think matters. Tell them what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, and why it matters. From there encourage and support. 

Day after a game, win or lose, getting back to work is critical. Not letting whatever outcome impact future games. Getting in front of the team and driving home the importance of having short term memory and focussing on what is in front of us. We are going to do these things today, for instance block power clean 3×2 with 120sec rest means nothing without context. Instead, saying we are doing block power clean to increase power output, we want it fast and with great technique. This will translate to explosiveness on the field, the longer we can continue to perform olympic lifts in season the better we can perform in the postseason. 

Easily we could jump to just exercises, sets and reps, and move on. But that would not elicit a positive connection to the task. I am not talking about a pregame speech, but giving just a little context as to why something matters, makes it matter to the athlete. I would often say “give me one good set”. I would follow that with whatever you think allows for that. This would result in our athletes taking initiative during the movement prep or warm up sets. The idea that we have a set goal that is reasonable and agreed upon matters is empowering. 

Three days versus two days, olympic lifts or plyometrics, cybernetic versus programmed tonnage, pre practice or post practice lifts, etc are all really important considerations. Some of which we have no control over or have little input. What we do have control over is how we approach the situation, and in large that will have a far greater impact on the outcome than anything else. Focus on what matters and working at it relentlessly will have a far greater impact than anything else you could do.