Hey guys,
It’ that time of year where some sport seasons in college are coming to a close and the off season is upon us. Dependent on what sport you play your off season will occur at a different time of the year but the training during the off season is pretty consistent throughout all sports.
For myself as a soccer player, off season ran from January – May giving time to build and strengthen your body and sharpen your skills before the next season starts. I always looked forward to off season because even though you are kept busy, there is time to travel and explore the country more than you can during the season.
Easter and Spring break are great opportunities to branch out and see more of the country since you have a week long holiday for each, but since your weekends are now freed up you are able to take some road trips to surrounding states (since you drive 2 hours in America and you are in a whole different state!) and visit some towns close by. Chicago was often a destination that I found myself at over the weekend and experiencing a Blackhawks ice hockey game is something I recommend to everyone!
Having a passion and interest in sport and the biomechanics of the human body, I always enjoyed off season training because it was putting into practice the material I was learning in the classroom and proved that all those tests and lectures that my teachers made me sit through were actually worthwhile and right! We would often find ourselves talking to the athletic trainers and strength and conditioning coaches about nutrition and how to properly prepare our bodies during the different stages of the year and organising weight lifting programs to strengthen our muscles and assist with injury prevention.
Being a soccer player I had never enjoyed the weight training side of things and much preferred to run and train cardio, but after getting some lifting under my belt I was finding my fitness much better and that injuries were less common and often minor if at all. After seeing these changes and improvements to my game I embraced the lifting aspect of training and still incorporate it into my training to this day.
The lifting and nutritional side of things are interesting but the small sided games and tournaments were always the highlight. Small sided games are played to quicken touches and vision on the field as well as build your fitness by playing in a high intensity environment. Often we would play intersquad games but there was always a tournament around that we could enter and sometimes even travel interstate to play.
Off season is always a good time because it allows you to travel, study, and train in a different manner than what the season brings and only motivates you to work harder and achieve greater results for the coming season.
A big congrats to all the athletes there who are about to finish their first semester in college and prepare for their first Christmas aborad!