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June 1st, 2009 - byAll of us have heard the term “off-season” and it is something that can have different routes. One route is one where the athlete takes the term to heart and doesn’t engage in any activities. Some don’t stop running, throwing or jumping after their high schools seasons conclude. The concern here is the body and the wear and tear that it takes from the amount of training and races that are run over the long season which often stats in January with indoor track in some states. The ideal situation is to finish the season out and take some time and rest. Becoming healthy for a few weeks will go a lot further than continuing to push through nagging injuries and potentially have a major set back. It will take some time to get back to the form where you finished your season but by being able to get back to full form physically will have its benefits down the road.
June 1st, 2009 at 10:54 am
I strongly concur with Billy’s recommendation concerning rest & recovery for high school track & CC athletes; his reasoning and suggestions are excellent. To drill down a bit, not only is a period of rest & recovery important to avoid creating a major injury from a minor one, I suggest another, more subtle reason for the rest period. Usually, a high school athlete’s body has not yet attained its full physical maturity & growth. So, as a high school athlete trains his body and thus causes continuous microscopic damage to the muscle groups that are loaded during training episodes, the body uses precious repair proteins and other metabolic resources to not only fix the damage, but to provoke the loaded muscle groups to be stronger in combination with increased endurance – the actual benefits of training. However, training a body still straining to reach maturity creates a colossal demand on many of the same nutritional & metabolic resources expended during training episodes required for physical growth, as well. Give that high school, immature body an opportunity to repare the damage, as well as continue to grow with a meaningful rest and recovery period. As a side, but related factor: notice that most track & CC camps begin in middle to late June or even early July, demonstrating that most coaches appreciate the foregoing recommendations, as well. There have been many exhausted athletes attending summer programs that were not recruited because of that exhaustion. I know; I missed more than a few when I was recruiting sprinters and hurdlers for Lewis University.