Preseason Training

​It’s September as of the time of this writing and it always reminds me of my pre-season training prior to the first day of high school wrestling practice in early November. The season comes up quick with competition starting 3-6 weeks later, so it was always important to be well prepared for grueling practices and my first match.

Start with a PRE-preseason
An ideal pre-season (or PRE-preseason) workout plan with the first competition being around December 1st would have the athlete start on basic strength, conditioning, and flexibility around August 1st. They would begin with:

• 3 days/wk of weight training and/or body weight exercises using 10-15 repetitions per exercise.
• 3 days/wk a week of running/sprinting or HITT workouts.

This will consist of basic work but it’s great for kids who have not been active during the summer. It’s also a good volume of exercise that will not cause long-term fatigue later on. This is a couple months of basic conditioning before they start to increase the intensity to develop strength, power, and to handle harder bouts of training. Athletes can build up to 4-5 days of conditioning, keep 3 days of weights or increase to 4 days for higher level or power focused athletes. They can also spend time for casual practices that include working on various shots, drills, techniques, or playing pickup games with friends.

The basic lifts: presses, rows, squats, and various deadlifts (actually known as core lifts) are important learn and for building strength for the demands of competitive sports. 

We can consider this a PRE-preseason with the goal of building base strength and conditioning before team practices start. Reasons why preseason training is extremely important:

• To get athletes in shape for practice as opposed to using practice to get in shape.
  
• It allows athletes to focus on their skills instead of just trying to survive practice.
• It’s a time to build strength and power leading into the competitive season.
• It’s a time to build general conditioning through running intervals, HITT workouts, and for some sports, steady-state running.

​The real preseason: October, November for winter sports.
Hopefully by now the athlete will have created good base strength as well as a good aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. If they are just starting a routine now, then a PRE-preseason workout plan will still give them a head start over most athletes at the high school or lower level.
 
Now is the time to increase the intensity for some serious sessions to build maximal strength and power:

• 3 days/wk of weight training using 3-10 reps depending on the athlete’s experience and maturity.
• 1-2 days/wk of power and plyometric work which can be mixed into weight training and conditioning sessions.
• 3-4 days/wk of higher intensity running/sprinting or HIIT workouts.  

Learning hang cleans and eventually power cleans are a great way for experienced high school athletes to develop power once a strength base is built.

We push to increase strength while always maintaining good technique in all the lifts. For a younger athlete, say a high school freshman, they may only be able to lift as heavy as 10 reps (at 80-90% max) while keeping control of the weights. Other more mature and experienced athletes may be able to do a 1-3 near max safely and with good form. Strength and power is the focus during this period which you want to develop before going into the competitive season. Although power and strength training is done during the season, it comes secondary to sports specific movements and skills. The athlete’s energy should primarily be used to train these specific movements and for competition. The strength and power built now should last through the season since it is being worked through practice and games in addition to less frequent weight training sessions. Once practice starts, the athlete will need to lower their volume in the weight room and in extra conditioning sessions. Their bodies will likely be working hard to adapt to daily sports practice.

Agility ladder drills are great for improving footwork by building rhythm, reaction, and agility. Great for sports like soccer.

Jump training or plyometrics are needed to build reactive strength for all sports and a must for basketball players

Conditioning can be done in the weight room by using a combination of full-body exercises. This is great for wrestling and martial art conditioning. We can train with more specificity as the preseason progresses to competition. Here I am using the Bulgarian style bag training to include the wrestling movements of shooting, standups, and throws.

One last note on weight training for young athletes
Weight training is safe if done correctly and at the appropriate level. Heavier weight training is also safe if done with the same concepts in mind. However, for many young athletes it will take years to build the technique and base strength before a 3 rep max squat should be performed. These heavy workouts help increase performance, but they won’t help if done incorrectly which leads to poor motor recruitment, muscle imbalances, and eventually injury. The point here is to build up gradually, let the body adapt, and to allow the body to transfer this strength over to the sport.