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TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES:  IN-SEASON STRENGTH TRAINING
by:  Justin Abnee, MA, CSCS 

Over the years I have read many different articles concerning the training of athletes.  Very few, however, have dealt specifically with training high school athletes.  Therefore, my goal in writing this series of articles is to provide you with practical information that you can implement into your training program.  Whether you are a high school strength coach, a high school athlete, or a parent of a high school athlete, it really makes no difference because there will be something that everyone can take home.  Keep in mind that I train athletes in many different sports (football, basketball, baseball, softball, wrestling, track and field, powerlifting, and Olympic weightlifting) and settings (team or individual); therefore, what is said here is applicable to any sport.  With that being said, let’s get started.  

With the first article in this series I would like to discuss something that has frustrated me for a long time:  in-season strength training.  Currently, most sports programs follow some form of off-season training program, but they neglect the in-season training for various reasons.  This can be a very in-depth topic and can be handled many different ways, but only a few of these handle it correctly.  I am sure that there are many sport coaches out there right now who are wrestling with the idea of an in-season program.  They may be asking the following questions:  “Do I implement an in-season strength training regimen?”, “If I do, what types of lifting schedules do I use and which exercises are necessary?”  I will provide you with some guidelines to follow in developing your in-season strength training program.

Listed below are the items that must be considered when designing and implementing an in-season strength training program: 

1. HAVE ONE:  There is nothing worse than working hard all off-season only to lose those tremendous gains slowly, week-by-week, throughout the season because no in-season strength program is in place.  Coaches, your players will resent you for this.  In-season is the time when off-season physical performance gains must at least be maintained, if not improved (1).  This is impossible without an in-season strength training program.  Take responsibility and make the decision.

2. Focus on Strength and Power Development:         During the pre-season there is less time for lifting and the sport practices are extremely intense.  This results in some minimal muscular strength and power losses.  Therefore, the program must first regain those losses.  Once the losses have been regained, the program must then work to increase the strength and power levels of all players.  The mentality of just maintaining strength and power levels throughout the season must be thrown out in order to get the most out of the athletes in the weight room.  Otherwise they make the assumption that they can relax while lifting.  In other words, this maintains mental focus.

3. Reduce Training Days from Off-Season:   Due to sport practices and games there is less time available for strength training.  Also, the athletes need extra recovery time due to the intensity of their combined activities (practices, games, and strength training).  Therefore, I have had the best results with using two lifting days per week during the season.  On these days I focus on mainly core lifts with minimal auxiliary lifts.

4. Don’t Train on Game Day:  This is the age-old question concerning in-season strength training:  “How close to game day do I lift?”  First of all, as common sense would tell you, don’t lift on the day of a game.  Since only two lifting days are being used it should be easy to work them around game days.  The next question is:  “Do we lift the day before the game?”  The answer to this question is dependent upon the sport involved.  For football I would say no.  This is mainly because the two lifting days can be easily worked around the one game day per week.  For basketball, baseball, wrestling, or track, it is different because these sports have two to three events per week.  This makes it very difficult to go without lifting on both game day and the day before.  So, with these athletes, I go ahead and train them the day before a game.  I also make sure that this training session is done before practice so as to ensure proper stretching and sport-specific application of their increased strength.

5. Mimic Off-Season Program:            A good in-season program will mimic an off-season program in that is uses a similar progression or periodization scheme.  It should start with high volume (sets and reps) and low intensity (percentage of 1-rep max).  It should then progress to low volume and high intensity (this satisfies #2).  The major difference is the in-season program has fewer training days and fewer sets per exercise (this satisfies #3).

Don’t have time for an in-season strength training program?  You may think you don’t, but the team (or individual) you play for the district, region, city, or state championship does have time.  Because they made time for an in-season program, they will be the team holding the championship trophy overhead.

So, why use an in-season program:  improve power throughout the season, reduce injuries, and win the championship.  Pretty simple, don’t you think?

What do you do if you play two, three, or more sports?  What routine do I use in-season and off-season?  When do I workout?  If these questions interest you check out the second article in this series:  Training High School Athletes:  Single Sport vs. Multi-Sport Athletes.

References:

1. Allerheiligen, B.  In-season Strength Training for Power Athletes.  Strength and

        Conditioning Journal.  25(3):  23-28.  2003.

2. Football Photo:           www.ncaafootball.net/0,5717,1_145_0_26959,00.html

3. Basketball Photo:        www.ewsonline.com/sports/jordan/dunk1.jpg

Coach Abnee is a 4-time National Powerlifting Champion and holds 9 state powerlifting records.      He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS).  The certification is through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), for which he is currently the Kentucky State Director.  He has authored several strength and conditioning articles and presentations, and he has served as a Strength Coach at both the Collegiate and High School levels.  Coach Abnee is available anytime for seminars, clinics, individual or team training consultation, or program design.  He can be contacted at j.abnee@insightbb.com.