by John Cortese | Jan 31, 2013 | Agility Training, Baseball Training, Basketball Training, Conditioning, Featured Posts, Football Training, In Season Training, Olympic Weightlifting, Recent Posts, Speed Training, Track and Field | 0 comments
One of our CTS athletes, Kane E., training in-season at CTS!
I can just hear it now…
“I’m too tired”…
“I’m too busy”
“Practice is too long”
We hear these same excuses from athletes who are either leading up to their competitive season OR currently in the competitive season and make every excuse in the book as to why they CAN’T find 1 to 2 hours per week to get in the gym and maintain or even improve the qualities they have worked so hard to build up in the off-season.
If it’s important to you, you WILL find the time to continue to train. I firmly believe that the greatest gains in an athlete’s sporting career will occur when they are committed to the long-haul. When one understands that training is a LONG-TERM process and not a 12-week program, then we are on the right track!!
It’s no coincidence that the athletes who have made the BEST progress in their strength, speed, and power are the ones who have not stopped training – yes they may have dropped back to 1-2 days per week during the season, but the fact is they are still working hard to get better and at the absolute minimum maintain the qualities they worked so hard to build up!
This is one of the many reasons why we stress to all of our athletes that train with us at CTS to train all year (if possible). Most athletes CAN do this, but their mindsets are not right… At least not yet!
Look, we as coaches understand that long practices and games take a lot out of you. We also understand that the energy and time demands of your sport mean that we may need to back off during the season and work with weights in the 75-85% range – totally fine! As a former collegiate athlete, our coaches expected us to lift during the season – no excuses, no matter how much homework we had or what else we had going on – we still were expected to lift at least 2x/week! The ones who didn’t kept getting injured, looked noticeably smaller and slower, and were always the ones to tire out first before the rest of the players!
If I could give you ONE tip today, it is this: Remember that training to become the best athlete you can be requires time, dedication, and commitment to the process throughout your athletic career. There is no such thing as a quick fix or short-term solution and if that were the case we would all be running 4.3 40 yard dashes!
Keep training hard and remember to enjoy the journey!!
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John Cortese, CSCS, USAW
