12/02/2021
Pre-Season vs In-Season training
An athletes season can be divided into 2 main ‘components’, pre and in season.
Based on this, the training in terms of sessions, exercise selection, loading protocols and desired outcomes are significantly different.
Pre-season is (typically) a 3-4months period of training prior to commencement of a competition. It’s during this time where s&c coaches and head coaches can work collaboratively to both develop the physical attributes and skills of the athletes. It’s during this period that the training can have specific goals and therefore adjustments can be made to training modalities to suit.
In-season, as an s&c coach we have two priorities. Recovery and preparation. We aren’t looking to make crazy strength, endurance or speed progressions but rather, we are looking to prepare our athletes as best we can through modifications of loading; both in terms of volume and exercise selection. Generally speaking, in a weeks worth of training sessions, only one session will be reasonably difficult. This will be after enough time to recover from the previous game and enough time to then be at optimal condition for the following game - usually somewhere at GameDay+3 (three days after game).