A quick thought on problem solving
I am constantly astounded by the lack of problem solving skills in kids and adults alike.
If someone isn’t told exactly what to do and how to do it, they give up. If they run into an obstacle, they shrug their shoulders and walk away. If the solution requires knowledge they don’t currently have, they complain about how impossible the issue is.
It’s frightening how rare it is to find people who take time to examine a problem, seek out additional knowledge to help solve it, then persist and iterate when their initial attempts fail.
That’s good news for us and our kids, though. If we can cultivate the ability for our kids to be problem-solvers, their “market-value” skyrockets.
Their ability to make an impact on the world (and make a lot of money if desired) increases exponentially.
So, please, just let your kids figure it out on their own.
A deep dive on in-season training
Your kid is busy. Unbelievably busy.
They’re getting pulled in a million directions.
Fortunately, you know the benefits of long-term athlete development and in-season training.
But, what in the world should an in-season training plan look like? They’re already tired as heck and pretty active.
I know it’s confusing. I want to make that a little less confusing for you today.
Here are 4 tips to help you build your in-season training plan.
- Hit your 4 major movement patterns in the weight room.
Strength training provides a huge return on investment at this stage in your athlete development.
You don’t want to miss out on 4 months of progress by avoiding the weight room through the season.
You also don’t want to spend 2 hours in the gym or go in there 5x per week. Your body will be gassed and you won’t be able to perform on game day.
Don’t over complicate the weight room.
- Go there 2 days per week.
- Choose 1 squat pattern, 1 hinge pattern, 1 press pattern, and 1 row pattern each day.
- Do 3-5 sets of 3-6 reps of each exercise (first 1-2 sets should be warm-ups).
2. Fill the buckets that aren’t being filled in practice.
The physical coactive of athlete development can be viewed as a process of filling different buckets of physical qualities, while not overflowing them.
Playing your sport is going to fill a number of those buckets to the brim, while leaving some of them bone dry.
The role of in-season training is to fill the buckets that aren’t being filled and avoid the buckets that are at capacity.
Strength training is the big, obvious bucket that isn’t being filled. While, in most sports, agility and change of direction work is at max capacity.
Other buckets that are commonly not being filled are max effort sprinting (you usually are stopping and starting a ton in practice/games), vestibular development, tissue isolation (see prehab section below), and certain power movements.
All of this is highly dependent on your sport, position, team, and situation. For instance, volleyball players have a gazillion jump reps in practice and games, so we’re going to be careful not to add more to that bucket in training. However, softball players rarely max effort jump in practice, so can use that as a power development tool in season.
3. Program in specific prehab exercises.
Look at your history, anatomy, biomechanics, sport, and position to figure out what structures might be vulnerable to injury. Then prehab the heck out of them.
Jumping athletes and patellar tendinopathy go together like peanut butter and jelly, so tossing in quad isolation is a good idea here.
Throwing athletes need a robust rotator cuff to handle the wear and tear of the season.
Soccer athletes are notorious for hamstring and groin strains, so some Nordics and Copenhagens at the right time can help out.
Remember, the biggest predictor of future injury is previous injury, so program accordingly.
4. Write it in pencil, not pen.
In-season training is almost as much of an art as it is a science. We’re constantly adapting our athletes’ programs in real time.
Don’t feel obliged to stick to the exact plan you wrote down 2 months ago. Stick to your principles, but use the tactics that make the most sense with your current contextual factors.
I can’t stress this enough: modify, don’t eliminate.
Various aches and pains are going to pop up throughout the season, that’s inevitable. Just because something hurts, that doesn’t mean you can’t train with it.
There are a million exercise variations that we can use to train without aggravating the issues. I promise you we do it every single day in our facility.
Strength training is the closest thing we have to an antidote for most injuries. Avoiding strength training only starts a vicious cycle: minor injury from sport → avoid training → worse injury.
It breaks my heart how often I see athletes have catastrophic injuries after abandoning their strength work. There’s no guarantee it could have been avoided, but the odds of it happening certainly would’ve been lower.
If your knee hurts, try exercises that have less knee bend.
- Less range of motion on your squat variations.
- RDLs or other hinges with small knee bend are usually more tolerable.
- Spanish squats can be great here.
- Split squat isos are a cheat code for staying strong through the season.
If your back hurts, try exercises that don’t place that area under a ton of stress.
- Hip thrusts are a good hinge variation to try here, as are reverse planks.
- Split squats and reverse lunge variations are usually tolerable. Split squat isos are almost always tolerable.
If your shoulder hurts, try exercises that reduce the range of motion it goes through.
- Try a DB floor press instead of a bench press.
- Try a neutral grip press instead of pronated.
An extra note on game day lifts
If you’ve committed to a consistent off-season training plan, don’t be afraid of lifting around game day.
MLB players play 162 games in 185 days, not including the postseason. They lift weights either right before games or right after games. They’re just fine.
NBA players play a game every 1.6 days. They’re well known for lifting pregame or post game. Guess what, it doesn’t mess up their shot at all.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to convince a high school kid that he doesn’t need to “lift light” on Wednesday for his September travel ball tournament that weekend, my daughter’s college would be paid for already.
If you’ve been lifting regularly, your body is going to handle the stress of the weight room just fine. You won’t be extra sore or perform poorly, as long as you’re not adding in new movements.
Don’t sacrifice your long-term potential for short-term satisfaction.
More from me…
- Check out the most recent podcast episode where I go over my 5 best speed training tips for youth and HS athletes. Just click here!
- If you think this newsletter doesn’t suck (or maybe you even enjoy reading it), I would really appreciate you sharing it with some other parents that might benefit from reading it. You can just send them to gtperformance.co/free and they can subscribe there!
Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word about long-term athlete development!
Be >,
Zach
Dr. Zach Guiser, PT, DPT, CSCS