There is a certain amount of anxiety or relief going into the final parts of a competitive season. Anxiety is centered around having a chance to move on to future success. Relief of a season filled with disappointment is almost over. Post season with college sports is a tumultuous time – it can be making up for not being good enough or higher stress than can you imagine trying not to slip up at the end. 

Postseason can easily be a period where S&C simply just stays out of the way. This in some ways can be relieving to someone that is struggling through a long period of managing so many aspects all at once. On the other hand, there could be an argument made that we can still make a tremendous difference to the continued success of the team. 

A huge part of this can revert back to what was the plan from the onset? We have talked about in season training quite a bit within the blog posts and modules – but what is our goal in season? Certainly not to just get out and stay out of the way? We should aspire to perform at our best when it matters most. The development of biomotor, biomechanical, or bioenergetics in the off season was exclusively to transfer to performing not just during a regular season, but to materialize when it matters most. 

In theory we should see the Key Performance Indicators we develop in the off season as the primary point of reference for transfer to performance. KPIs are entirely based when the stakes are highest what variables actually matter. It therefore would behoove us to support those qualities to the highest level at the point that could have the greatest dividends from the work. We should in theory find out what actually has the largest impact on those KPIs and focus on that with training. 

We can easily approach training with white gloves in the last period before postseason. An ultra conservative in the last part of the regular season when prepping for the playoffs is not the worst idea. When in doubt, demonstrating caution is not the worst idea. Stakes are high and risk-reward is a major point we should consider with all training. But what does that say about training up to that point? 

The set up for post season training is contingent on what training looked like prior to. There will be a natural taper of exercise threshold, volume, intensity, or frequency is somewhat inevitable. Elbows, wrists, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles take a beating so certain exercises become harder to perform. Motivation becomes to wane and the ability to lift extremely challenging intensities or volumes is harder. Finals, meetings, treatment, practice focus, all make frequency harder to uphold at the end of the season. 

There will be a natural regression at the end of the season, so what you did prior to training needs to be at a high enough level that training at the end of the season actually has an impact. It does speak volumes about the level of commitment the athletes have to training by how training at the end looks like. If there is still a high level of focus and commitment to training prior to in season, that is solely the product of training hard prior to. It certainly is not all of the sudden having a revelation about training hard and desire to make a renewed commitment to hard work. 

What you will be at the end is the product of what you were prior to. “You do not rise to the occasion, you fall to your level of preparation.” The idea of there is no such thing as playoff mode, there is only one mode. The key is that you have to realization that there will be amendments to training to accommodate the risk as well as the residual impact from playing a contact sport. Your job is to create an environment that athletes can train as hard as possible and not have fear of risk, just the reward. 

I term it governor based training. We would all agree that a 1RM Snatch would be perceived as more risk than foam rolling your quad. This may be an extreme example, but we can create a spectrum of training that allows our athletes to understand the relative goal without training compromising intent. When we prepare for post season, we want our KPIs to materialize and that is contingent upon the ability to leverage our primary means to deliver, which is through training. 

Choosing high governor training concepts such as high constraint, low volume, moderate intensity, low frequency all create an environment that enables athletes to give their best effort. This is all we got today, so let’s make it count. Thirty minute workouts done with great intent are significantly more effective than an sixty minute workout with limited effort or even enthusiasm. That is what post season preparation is, it is agreeing this matters and setting the conditions for great effort and therefore high success. 

In season training is a challenge in itself. Adding the component of the postseason makes it more challenging. The truth is that if training in season is below average, training for post season will be less than that. Set standards high, hold those standards, so when it comes to the pay off the transfer is there.