11 things I learned this Off-Season (part 2)

Here are 5 more things I learned this off season....

Athletes like agility

Every good athlete that I've trained likes to do agility. I think it has to do with the solving of puzzles (the agility drills I use are both simple and complex). So not only are the athletes moving fast and changing directions, they get to solve puzzles at speed and get a reward (catching a football) at the end. You can't miss with a well planned and executed agility session. - PS Go to a field and use cleats will make it 3x better. PPS It doesn't matter if you're working with hockey/soccer/basketball/football athletes they ALL like it!

Decision based agility training needs to be in your program

This type of training where the athlete is asked to react to multiple stimuli while performing fast changes of direction will really show which athletes can move fast while making decisions and who needs more work on that skill. We use a mixture of lights, tennis balls, basketballs and other stimuli to really push the athletes in these drills.

Train like a Professional

Our most successful athletes have a professional attitude when training. They have a cool and calm demeaner for the most part and conduct the training session in a 'workmanlike' fashion. Rather than try and have a great workout every time out they look to pile up many good hard productive workouts. It's that pile of 50-80 workouts over the off season months that produces the 'magic'.

Early in the week keep it light and explosive

Don't exhaust your athlete at the beginning of the week. Most athletes rest on Sunday and you need to slowly 'wake' their nervous system up on Monday. Keep it light, explosive and short at the beginning of the week and layer in the more fatiguing work as the week goes on.

Individualization trumps all other programming variables

Many coaches fall in love with their beautiful training programs. They spend huge amounts of time preparing a program that has all the variables in place...except the most important one...individualization. What's the point of having a perfect loading scheme for Trap Bar deadlifting if the athlete ankles are too stiff to get them in the correct position? Work from each athletes' unique abilities and work outwards from that.